Senior Engineering Manager, Search
WFA Digital Insight
As the demand for expert search and machine learning engineers continues to soar, with a 27% increase in job postings over the past year, Instacart stands out by offering a flexible, remote work environment. With over 1,800 retail partners, Instacart's search system is critical to its success. Candidates looking to leverage their technical expertise in a dynamic, growth-oriented company should be prepared to showcase their experience with large-scale distributed systems and applied ML. Before applying, consider how your skills align with Instacart's commitment to innovation and customer satisfaction.
Job Description
About the Role
Instacart, the leading grocery technology company in North America, is seeking a seasoned Senior Engineering Manager to lead its dedicated Search engineering team. This critical role involves overseeing the strategy and execution for Single-Retailer Search, Cross-Retailer Search, search suggestions, and typeahead, as well as the whitelabel search provided to Storefront Pro retailers. The successful candidate will champion the use of Large Language Models (LLMs) in search and drive top-line growth while maintaining a high quality bar.As a key member of Instacart's engineering leadership, you will partner closely with various teams, including ML, Product, Data Science, and the Ads organization, to translate ranking changes into business and retailer outcomes. Your technical expertise and leadership skills will be crucial in driving the team's technical strategy, roadmap, and goals across search and ranking.
The role is part of Instacart's Flex First team, which emphasizes flexibility in where work is done, allowing employees to choose their most productive environment while staying connected through regular in-person events.
What You Will Do
- Lead and grow a senior team of engineers responsible for the relevance, ranking, and infrastructure behind Instacart Search.
- Own the team's technical strategy, roadmap, and goals across Single and Cross-retailer search, query understanding, suggestions, and Ads on Search.
- Drive top-line growth while holding a strict quality bar and ensuring the reliability and latency of a tier-1 surface.
- Champion the use of LLMs in search to improve search outcomes.
- Partner with the platform team to design and ship the next-generation search retrieval architecture.
- Double the team's experimentation velocity by investing in evaluation, AI-native debugging tooling, and ML foundations.
- Hire, develop, and coach engineers to build an inclusive, high-trust team culture.
- Roll up your sleeves on technical and architectural decisions as needed, while focusing on setting direction, removing blockers, and growing the people on your team.
- Collaborate with ML, Product, Data Science, the Home and Discovery Platform teams, the Ads organization, and whitelabel retailer teams to enhance search capabilities and business outcomes.
What We Are Looking For
- 4+ years of engineering management experience leading high-performing teams, with a minimum of 10+ years of total engineering experience.
- Direct experience building or leading search, recommendations, ranking, or other applied ML systems, as a manager or as a senior individual contributor.
- Familiarity with modern retrieval techniques, including neural/semantic retrieval, ANN, and LLM-based query understanding or re-ranking.
- Strong technical depth across machine learning and large-scale distributed/backend systems.
- Ability to set direction with and earn the trust of staff-level engineers.
- Experience with designing and managing the architecture of large-scale search systems.
- Strong leadership and communication skills, with the ability to partner effectively with cross-functional teams.
- Passion for innovation and customer satisfaction, with a mindset focused on continuous improvement.
Nice to Have
- Experience with cloud-based technologies and agile development methodologies.
- Knowledge of grocery retail or e-commerce platforms and their technical challenges.
- Familiarity with Instacart's technology stack and architecture.
- Participation in open-source projects or contributions to the machine learning and search communities.
- Certification in machine learning, data science, or a related field.
Benefits and Perks
- Competitive salary and equity package.
- Flexible, remote work environment with the option to work from home, an office, or a preferred location.
- Opportunities for professional growth and development in a rapidly expanding company.
- Access to cutting-edge technologies and tools.
- Comprehensive health insurance and benefits package.
- Generous PTO policy to ensure work-life balance.
- Remote work stipend to support your home office setup.
- Participation in regular in-person events to foster team connection and community.
How to Stand Out
- Ensure your resume and portfolio highlight specific experiences with large-scale search systems, machine learning, and team leadership.
- Prepare examples of how you've improved search relevance and ranking in previous roles.
- Familiarize yourself with Instacart's technology stack and be ready to discuss how your skills align with their architecture.
- Practice explaining complex technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders, as this will be part of your role.
- Be prepared to discuss your approach to championing the use of LLMs in search and how you stay updated with the latest developments in the field.
- Consider reaching out to current or former Instacart employees for insights into the company culture and the role.
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