Staff Machine Learning Engineer

We exist to wow our customers. We know we’re doing the right thing when we hear our customers say, “How did we ever live without Coupang?” Born out of an obsession to make shopping, eating, and living easier than ever, we’re collectively disrupting the multi-billion dollar e-commerce industry from the ground up. We are one of the fastest-growing e-commerce companies that established an unparalleled reputation for being a dominant and reliable force in South Korean commerce.

We are proud to have the best of both worlds — a startup culture with the resources of a large global public company. This fuels us to continue our growth and launch new services at the speed we have been since our inception. We are all entrepreneurs surrounded by opportunities to drive new initiatives and innovations. At our core, we are bold and ambitious people that like to get our hands dirty and make a hands-on impact. At Coupang, you will see yourself, your colleagues, your team, and the company grow every day.

Our mission to build the future of commerce is real. We push the boundaries of what’s possible to solve problems and break traditional tradeoffs. Join Coupang now to create an epic experience in this always-on, high-tech, and hyper-connected world.

Role Overview

As our Staff Machine Learning Engineer for Coupang Media Group, Ads Quality, you will be responsible for developing, designing machine learning models, optimization algorithms and new product features for our advertising platform. 

The Coupang Media Group (CMG) is responsible for providing vendors that sell their products on Coupang a host of marketing products and services.  We launched Product Ads performance advertising marketplace late in 2018.  We have grown rapidly to over 10,000 active advertisers and 150M daily ad impressions in only 5 months’ time. Our group is responsible for advertising brands and products inside our e-commerce website. To get an idea of how valuable that is, both Alibaba and Amazon make more money on advertising than on selling products.  

This is an opportunity to be part of building up a new development organization with strong revenue potential inside a successful company. We’re building full-stack engineering teams to handle large scale advertising problems, including real-time behavioral targeting, auctioning and bidding systems and search based advertising. 

We are in the growth phase of the organization, so you’ll be a part of managing the transition from growth phase to enterprise processes. 

In this role you will be responsible for innovating and building our new ad quality stack for our ads platform  and eventually extend it into a full ad exchange, DSP, and SSP. We currently handle about 1bn impressions per day from internal traffic alone. 

What You Will do

• Design features and build large-scale machine learning models and systems to improve ad targeting, relevance, ranking, and engagement 
• Design and implement large-scale ML systems for search ranking, semantic retrieval, query understanding, and personalized product discovery using state-of-the-art techniques such as transformer-based models, contrastive learning, and vector search
• Drive innovation in search relevance and user intent modeling using large language models (LLMs), embedding-based retrieval, and multi-modal learning
• Build and optimize ML pipelines using tools such as Apache Spark, Airflow, Kubeflow, and MLflow, ensuring reproducibility, scalability, and operational excellence
• Define and track key performance metrics to evaluate model impact and identify high[1]leverage opportunities for improvement
• Collaborate cross-functionally with product, engineering, and data science teams to align technical solutions with business goals and customer experience
• Mentor and grow engineering talent, fostering a culture of technical excellence, experimentation and continuous learning

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, electrical engineering, mathematics, statistics or closely related fields
• 4 years of professional experience in applied machine learning
• Experience in machine learning, deep learning, and statistical modeling
• Proficiency in Python and/or Java, with experience in building production grade ML systems

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s or PhD in relevant technical fields
• Experience with search systems, information retrieval or recommendation engines
• Experience with LLMs, embeddings, and vector search technologies
• Experience with cloud platforms such as AWS, Google Cloud Platform including services like Vertex AI, BigQuery or SageMaker
• Experience working in startup or high-growth environments
• Proven ability to lead-cross-functional teams and deliver results in a multicultural, global organization
• Hands-on experience with modern ML frameworks such as TensorFlow, PyTorch, Scikit[1]learn, Keras, XGBoost, LightGMB, and H2o.ai
• Experience with ML lifecycle tools such as MLflow, Kubeflow, Weights & Biases, or Amazon SageMaker
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to explain complex technical concepts to both technical and non-technical stakeholders
• Demonstrated ability to work independently and manage ambiguity in fast-paced environments

Pay & Benefits

Our compensation reflects the cost of living across several US geographic markets. At Coupang, your base pay is one part of your total compensation.

The base pay for Staff position ranges from $152K/year to $261K/year. Pay is based on several factors including market location and may vary depending on job-related knowledge, skills, and experience.

General Description of All Benefits

• Annual bonus is 0-20% of the base salary
• Medical/Dental/Vision/Life, AD&D insurance
• Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA) & Health Savings Account (HSA)
• Long-term/Short-term Disability
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP) program
• 401K Plan with Company Match
• 18-21 days of the Paid Time Off (PTO) a year based on the tenure
• 12 Public Holidays
• 6 weeks Paid Parental leave
• Pre-tax commuter benefits
• MTV - [Free] Electric Car Charging Station

General Description of Other Compensation

“Other Compensation” includes, but is not limited to, bonuses, equity, or other forms of compensation that would be offered to the hired applicant in addition to their established salary range or wage scale.

Coupang is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to actual or perceived race (including traits historically associated with race, including but not limited to hair texture and protective hair styles), color, religion, religious creed (including religious dress and grooming practices), sex or gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding, and medical conditions related to pregnancy, childbirth or breastfeeding), gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, ,ancestry, national origin (including language use restrictions), age (40 and over), physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, HIV/AIDS or Hepatitis C status, family status (including but not limited to marital or domestic partnership status), military or veteran status, use of a trained dog guide or service animal, political activities or affiliations, ancestry, citizenship, family and medical leave status, status as a victim of any violent crime, or any other characteristic or class protected by the laws or regulations in the locations where we operate.

Recruitment Process and Others

Recruitment Process

• Application Review - Phone Interview - Onsite (or Virtual Onsite) Interview – Offer

• The exact nature of the recruitment process may vary according to the specific job and may be changed due to scheduling or other circumstances.

• Interview schedules and the results will be informed to the applicant via the e-mail address submitted at the application stage.

Details to Consider

• This job posting may be closed prior to the stated end date for application if all openings are filled.

• Coupang has the right to rescind an offer of employment if a candidate is found to have submitted false information as part of the application process.

• Those eligible for employment protection (recipients of veteran’s benefits, the disabled, etc.) may receive preferential treatment for employment in accordance with applicable laws.

Privacy Notice Your personal information will be collected and managed by Coupang as stated in the Application Privacy Notice located below: https://www.coupang.jobs/privacy-policy/

If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation in the application of recruiting process due to a disability, please contact us at [email protected].

Requisition ID: R0072711