Distinguished Scientist, Agentic Applications - Traveler Experience

Expedia Group brands power global travel for everyone, everywhere. We design cutting-edge tech to make travel smoother and more memorable, and we create groundbreaking solutions for our partners. Our diverse, vibrant, and welcoming community is essential in driving our success.

Why Join Us?

To shape the future of travel, people must come first. Guided by our Values and Leadership Agreements, we foster an open culture where everyone belongs, differences are celebrated and know that when one of us wins, we all win.

We provide a full benefits package, including exciting travel perks, generous time-off, parental leave, a flexible work model (with some pretty cool offices), and career development resources, all to fuel our employees' passion for travel and ensure a rewarding career journey. We’re building a more open world. Join us.

Introduction to Team

Expedia Product & Technology builds innovative products, services, and tools to deliver high-quality experiences for travelers, partners, and our employees. A singular technology platform powered by data and machine learning provides secure, differentiated, and personalized experiences for the traveler and our partners that drive loyalty and customer satisfaction

The AI & Data Science is breaking new ground to tackle some of the most complex customer experience problems in the travel domain to lead the science, architecture, and experimentation behind traveler-facing agentic experiences across Expedia Group, spanning Vrbo hosts, hotels, and other supply partners. This team will shape how autonomous AI agents help millions of travelers’ plan, book, and manage their trips, safely and at scale such as complex requests like “Plan a 10-day family trip to Japan with safe hotels and direct flights,” or “Find me a villa with a pool under $300/night,” or “What are my options now that my flight is cancelled” into delightful and memorable real world travel experience.

In the role you Will

• Shape the long-term vision and scientific agenda for agentic applications serving travelers, identifying “big hairy” opportunities where autonomous agents can transform the end-to-end trip lifecycle, from inspiration and discovery to booking, in-trip assistance, and post-trip support. 

• Serve as a strategic thought partner to senior product, engineering, and platform leaders, defining the role of agentic interfaces vs. traditional search/GUI tooling. Ensure we deliver real business value (conversion, lifetime value, retention, and service efficiency) while preserving trust and providing delightful user experience. 
• Design and evolve agentic experiences and architectures like natural language from travelers are mapped to structured intents (e.g., search parameters, filtering, modification requests) and tool calls that safely interact with our shopping and booking platforms. 
• Lead applied research in areas such as complex itinerary planning, ambiguity resolution and evaluation methodologies.
• Be hands-on: prototype agents and components, design and run experiments, build and evaluate models, and work with engineering teams on end-to-end systems. 
• Lead end-to-end experimentation, from ideation and offline evaluation to A/B tests in production.

Minimum Qualifications

• PhD in Computer Science, Machine Learning, or related field, or equivalent professional experience, with 12+ years of experience for PhD candidates in applied ML/AI roles at scale. 
• Deep expertise in LLM training/tuning/distillation, multi‑agent frameworks and orchestration of tool‑using agents, along with architecting ML platforms and systems to support large‑scale experimentation and deployment of agents. 
• Familiarity with agentic evaluation frameworks (e.g., LangSmith, DeepEval, Galileo), agentic protocols (e.g., MCP, A2A, AG‑UI, ACP), and agentic frameworks (e.g., LangGraph, LlamaIndex, AutoGen), or comparable internal/industry tools. 
• Demonstrated ability to deliver large, complex GenAI projects from concept to production.
• Broad and deep understanding of machine learning theory and practice, including Recommender Systems, Personalization, and Context Engineering patterns (retrieval, memory, session/state management) and how they interface with agentic applications. 
• Proficiency in one major ML programming language (e.g., Python) and familiarity with data pipelines and model deployment tooling and practices.

Preferred Qualifications

• An entrepreneurial mindset, with a history of converting proofs‑of‑concept into revenue‑generating solutions and tangible business outcomes. 
• Broad and deep understanding of machine learning theory and practice, including advanced statistical methods and complex model design across multiple ML sub‑domains; comfortable operating as a “jack of all trades” across modeling, data, and systems, with a strong appreciation for Context Engineering patterns (retrieval, memory, session/state management, grounding) and how they interface with agentic applications. 
• Proven track record as a recognized industry leader in GenAI (e.g., impactful publications, patents, open‑source contributions, major conference talks), especially in areas relevant to LLMs, multi‑agent systems, and tool‑using agents. 
• Exceptional communication and storytelling skills, including experience: Presenting to large audiences and executive stakeholders (up to CEO/Board level) and communicating complex technical concepts to non‑technical audiences with clear visual aids and narratives

The total cash range for this position in San Jose is $323,000.00 to $452,500.00. Employees in this role have the potential to increase their pay up to $517,000.00, which is the top of the range, based on ongoing, demonstrated, and sustained performance in the role.

The total cash range for this position in Seattle is $296,000.00 to $414,500.00. Employees in this role have the potential to increase their pay up to $473,500.00, which is the top of the range, based on ongoing, demonstrated, and sustained performance in the role.

Starting pay for this role will vary based on multiple factors, including location, available budget, and an individual’s knowledge, skills, and experience. Pay ranges may be modified in the future.

Expedia Group is proud to offer a wide range of benefits to support employees and their families, including medical/dental/vision, paid time off, and an Employee Assistance Program. To fuel each employee’s passion for travel, we offer a wellness & travel reimbursement, travel discounts, and an International Airlines Travel Agent (IATAN) membership. View our full list of benefits.

Accommodation requests

If you need assistance with any part of the application or recruiting process due to a disability, or other physical or mental health conditions, please reach out to our Recruiting Accommodations Team through the Accommodation Request.

We are proud to be named as a Best Place to Work on Glassdoor in 2024 and be recognized for award-winning culture by organizations like Forbes, TIME, Disability:IN, and others.

Expedia Group's family of brands includes: Brand Expedia®, Hotels.com®, Expedia® Partner Solutions, Vrbo®, trivago®, Orbitz®, Travelocity®, Hotwire®, Wotif®, ebookers®, CheapTickets®, Expedia Group™ Media Solutions, Expedia Local Expert®, CarRentals.com™, and Expedia Cruises™. © 2024 Expedia, Inc. All rights reserved. Trademarks and logos are the property of their respective owners. CST: 2029030-50

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Expedia is committed to creating an inclusive work environment with a diverse workforce. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, or veteran status. This employer participates in E-Verify. The employer will provide the Social Security Administration (SSA) and, if necessary, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) with information from each new employee's I-9 to confirm work authorization.