Partner with product and engineering leaders to turn emerging AI capabilities into customer-facing experiences with clear business value
Build systems that improve how buyers explore inventory, compare options, refine intent, and complete high-confidence shopping decisions
Establish robust experimentation and measurement frameworks for conversational quality, relevance, customer happiness, and downstream marketplace outcomes
Guide architecture and technical tradeoffs across model choice, latency, reliability, cost, and trustworthiness in production systems
Help define the operating model for scaling new conversational and agentic experiences from pilot programs into durable platform capabilities
Develop a high-performing team culture grounded in technical excellence, inclusive leadership, and strong execution
Leadership Proficiencies and Operating Principles
Customer-centric approach. You treat relevance and discovery as customer problems first, building systems that better understand intent and improve quality continuously.
Platform thinking and leverage. You build reusable capabilities, infrastructure, and APIs that enable multiple teams to build on shared foundations rather than reinventing solutions independently.
Data-informed execution at scale. You operate with rigor across the full lifecycle from hypothesis and offline validation through experimentation, rollout, monitoring, and iteration.
Multi-year strategy with pragmatic sequencing. You can place thoughtful long-term bets while delivering near-term outcomes and maintaining operational excellence.
Leader-of-leaders capability. You build organizations intentionally, develop senior talent, compose clarity in ambiguity, and scale culture across teams and geographies.
What you will bring
Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field, or comparable hands-on experience.
12+ years of experience in applied research, machine learning, search, NLP, or related technical leadership roles. You have led senior individual contributors and/or managers in complex organizations.
Demonstrated success delivering AI- or ML-powered customer experiences at scale.
Deep expertise in at least two of the following areas
Conversational search, information retrieval, or relevance systems
NLP, intent understanding, query reformulation, or LLM-based interaction development
Recommendation systems, personalization, or shopping intelligence
ML platform engineering, experimentation, model serving, or embedding infrastructure
Strong technical credibility with the ability to direct architecture, assess tradeoffs, and affect implementation in high-scale production environments.
Excellent executive communication and cross-functional leadership skills.
Preferred Qualifications
Holding an advanced academic degree (MS or PhD) in Computer Science, Machine Learning, NLP, Information Retrieval, Human-Computer Interaction, or a related specialty; or demonstrated equivalent experience recognized within the field.
Experience shipping conversational AI, assistant, or agentic product experiences in consumer technology, ecommerce, or adjacent domains.
Demonstrated success improving business outcomes through measurable gains in relevance, engagement, conversion, or customer happiness.
Experience building internal capabilities or platforms as products, including self-service workflows, operational rigor, and reliability standards.
Strong narrative and executive presence, with the ability to explain technical and scientific tradeoffs to diverse collaborator groups.
Location and Ways of Working
This role is based in San Jose, California. It will partner across globally distributed teams and collaborators, and requires strong cross-site operating rhythms to work effectively across North America, Europe, and Asia.
Periodic travel to key sites may be required for planning, leadership alignment, team development, and execution reviews.
Why This Role Matters
This is an opportunity to help define how the future of shopping works at eBay. You will build intelligent experiences that make discovery more natural, shopping more efficient, and decision-making more confident for millions of customers worldwide!
Additional Details
The base pay range for this position is expected in the range below
$240,800 - $321,500
Base pay offered may vary depending on multiple individualized factors, including location, skills, and experience. The total compensation package for this position may also include other elements, including a target bonus and restricted stock units (as applicable) in addition to a full range of medical, financial, and/or other benefits (including 401(k) eligibility and various paid time off benefits, such as PTO and parental leave). Details of participation in these benefit plans will be provided if an employee receives an offer of employment.
If hired, employees will be in an “at-will position” and the Company reserves the right to modify base salary (as well as any other discretionary payment or compensation program) at any time, including for reasons related to individual performance, Company or individual department/team performance, and market factors.
Remote roles are not eligible for U.S. visa sponsorship.
eBay is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran status, and disability, or other legally protected status. If you have a need that requires accommodation, please contact us at talent@ebay.com. We will make every effort to respond to your request for accommodation as soon as possible. View our accessibility statement to learn more about eBay's commitment to ensuring digital accessibility for people with disabilities. It is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability.
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