At eBay, we're more than a global ecommerce leader — we’re changing the way the world shops and sells. Our platform empowers millions of buyers and sellers in more than 190 markets around the world. We’re committed to pushing boundaries and leaving our mark as we reinvent the future of ecommerce for enthusiasts.
Our customers are our compass, authenticity thrives, bold ideas are welcome, and everyone can bring their unique selves to work — every day. We're in this together, sustaining the future of our customers, our company, and our planet.
Join a team of passionate thinkers, innovators, and dreamers — and help us connect people and build communities to create economic opportunity for all.
At eBay, we’re more than a global ecommerce leader. We’re changing the way the world shops and sells. Our platform empowers millions of buyers and sellers in more than 190 markets around the world. We’re committed to pushing boundaries and reinventing the future of ecommerce for enthusiasts.
About the team and the roleThe Foundation Models team builds next-generation Generative AI capabilities and products that power intelligent experiences across eBay at global scale. We work across the full AI lifecycle, from applied research and model development to evaluation, optimization, productionization, and integration into customer-facing products and platform capabilities.
We are looking for an Applied Researcher, Generative AI to join the team as an individual contributor. You will work on challenging applied research problems involving foundation models and Generative AI, developing new approaches and translating them into capabilities that can deliver measurable impact for eBay customers. You will work closely with other researchers, machine learning engineers, product teams, and AI platform teams, with opportunities to contribute across the lifecycle from research and experimentation to production.
This role is well suited to someone with strong research foundations who also enjoys building and experimenting with real systems and wants to see their research translated into products at scale.
What you will accomplishResearch, develop, and evaluate new approaches for Generative AI and foundation models, addressing challenging problems with direct relevance to eBay's customers and marketplace.
Design and run rigorous experiments across areas such as LLMs, multimodal models, agents, model adaptation and post-training, retrieval and context, and learning from feedback.
Develop models and prototypes and work with machine learning engineers to translate promising research into scalable capabilities and production systems.
Build and improve methods for model training, fine-tuning, evaluation, and continuous improvement using human, user, and production feedback.
Work with large-scale text, image, behavioral, and marketplace data to formulate research problems, develop solutions, and measure their impact through offline and online evaluation.
Collaborate across research, engineering, product, and platform teams while contributing to eBay's scientific and technical community through knowledge sharing, publications, patents, open-source work, or other technical contributions.
PhD in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Computational Linguistics, or a related quantitative field, or equivalent research experience, with demonstrated ability to conduct high-quality machine learning research.
Hands-on research experience in one or more areas such as Large Language Models, multimodal models, NLP, agents, post-training, reinforcement learning, retrieval, or learning from feedback.
Strong understanding of modern machine learning methods and the ability to formulate research questions, design rigorous experiments, analyze results, and translate findings into practical solutions.
Strong programming skills, particularly in Python and modern ML frameworks such as PyTorch, with experience implementing, training, fine-tuning, and evaluating modern machine learning models.
Experience applying research to real-world problems through industry experience, internships, research collaborations, open-source projects, or other applied work; experience with production ML systems is a plus.
Strong collaboration and communication skills, with the ability to work across research and engineering disciplines and communicate technical ideas and experimental results clearly.
Additional Details
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 [email protected]. 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.
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Skills Required
- 5–6 years of relevant experience in machine learning and Generative AI
- Track record of developing and delivering ML-powered capabilities or products from experimentation through production
- 2 years of experience leading and developing technical teams
- Expertise in one or more areas such as Large Language Models, multimodal models, NLP, agents, post-training, reinforcement learning, or learning from feedback
- Broad understanding of modern Generative AI systems
- Experience with model training or fine-tuning, evaluation, scalable data pipelines, deployment, inference, and production model serving
- Proficiency with Python and modern machine learning frameworks such as PyTorch
- Strong software engineering foundation and ability to reason about scalable and reliable production systems
- Ability to operate across research, engineering, and product and lead teams toward measurable customer and business impact
eBay Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about eBay and has not been reviewed or approved by eBay.
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Healthcare Strength — Medical, dental, and vision coverage begin on the date of hire, complemented by mental health resources, an EAP, disability coverage, FSAs, and wellness initiatives.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — A robust mix of PTO, paid holidays, flexible work styles, parental leave, and a four‑week paid sabbatical after five years supports work‑life balance.
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Equity Value & Accessibility — Total compensation commonly includes stock components, with access to an employee stock purchase plan at a discount and stock awards enhancing overall packages.
eBay Insights
What We Do
eBay Inc. is a global commerce leader that connects millions of buyers and sellers around the world. We exist to enable economic opportunity for individuals, entrepreneurs, businesses and organizations of all sizes. Our portfolio of brands includes eBay Marketplace and eBay Classifieds Group, operating in 190 markets around the world. We offer sellers the ability to grow a business with little barrier to entry regardless of size, background or geographic location. We never compete with our sellers. We win when our sellers succeed. Buyers who shop on our Marketplace and Classifieds platforms enjoy a highly personalized experience with an unparalleled selection at great value.
