Machine Learning Scientist III - Advertising Footprint & Ranking

Who We Are

Wayfair is an online retail platform with the mission to enable everyone to live in a home they love. To do this, Wayfair builds and leverages cutting‑edge Machine Learning and AI products and we are looking for talented individuals to join us. You will join the Customer Technology - Search & Recommendations org within its Advertising Footprint and Ranking team working on Candidate Generation and Retrieval Systems.

You will be part of a cross‑functional, collaborative team driving development of world‑class ML systems that drive real‑world impact.

• Candidate Generation:
  Selecting the right subset of products for our final scoring layers from our entire catalog efficiently through deep understanding of our product catalog and customers at extreme scale using low latency situations across multiple types of Candidate Generators and Retrieval stages.
• Scoring:
  Producing personalized scores like pCTR and pCVR for downstream ranking and footprint systems through state‑of‑the‑art ML methods including deep learning, sequence transformers and LLMs.
• Ranking Optimization:
  Ordering Advertising products on the page given personalization, relevance and other factors (Ad KDD ’25).
• Footprint:
  Determining where Advertising goes on our website by optimizing the tradeoff between ad revenue and customer relevance (Ad KDD ’25).

• Drive significant business impact by designing, building, and deploying large‑scale machine learning models balancing short‑ and long‑term value.
• Work cross‑functionally with commercial stakeholders to understand business problems or opportunities, and iteratively develop ML solutions maximizing business ROI.
• Collaborate closely with cross‑functional engineering partners.
• Mentor junior ML Scientists.

• A PhD with 3–5 years of experience, or an MSc/BSc in a STEM field (e.g., engineering, computer science, economics) with 6–8 years of industry experience.
• Proficiency in Python and the Python ML ecosystem (XGBoost or equivalent, PyTorch).
• Hands‑on experience deploying machine learning solutions into production.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills with an ability to influence cross‑functional teams and leadership.

• Familiarity with GCP (or AWS, Azure), MLOps (feature store, MLflow, etc.) and orchestration tools (Kubeflow, Airflow).
• Experience with containerization tools (Docker, Vertex AI, etc.).
• Experience in Candidate Generation/Retrieval, Advertising, Search & Recommendations, and/or eCommerce ML applications.

• Fun team outings like kayaking the Charles River and Boda Borg
• Early adopters of new technology within Wayfair
• Hackathons to explore new ideas
• Time Off:
  • Paid Holidays
  • Paid Time Off (PTO)
• Health & Wellness:
  • Full Health Benefits (Medical, Dental, Vision, HSA/FSA)
  • Life Insurance
  • Disability Protection (Short Term & Long Term Disability)
  • Global Wellbeing:
    Gym/Fitness discounts (including US Peloton, Global Class Pass, and various regional gym memberships)
  • Mental Health Support (Global Mental Health, Global Way healthy Recordings)
  • Caregiver Services
• Financial Growth & Security:
  • 401K Matching (Employee Matching Program)
  • Tuition Reimbursement
  • Financial Health Education (Knowledge of Financial Education - KOFE)
  • Tax Advantaged Accounts
• Family Support:
  • Family Planning Support
  • Parental Leave
  • Global Surrogacy & Adoption Policy
• Professional Development & Recognition:
  • Rewards & Recognition
  • Global Employee Anniversary Awards
  • Paid Volunteer Work
• Unique Perks:
  • Employee Discount
  • Global Pod Outings

This role is open to Boston or Seattle. We are also hybrid with employees in office Tuesday through Thursday and remote on Monday and Friday.

Wayfair is fully committed to providing equal opportunities for all individuals, including individuals with disabilities. As part of this commitment, Wayfair will make reasonable accommodations to the known physical or mental limitations of qualified individuals with disabilities, unless doing so would impose an undue hardship on business operations. If you require a reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, please let us know by completing our Accommodations for Applicants form.

We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, ethnicity, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship status, marital status, disability, gender identity, gender expression, veteran status, genetic information, or any other legally protected characteristic.

Your personal data is processed in accordance with our Candidate Privacy Notice (). If you have any questions or wish to exercise your rights under applicable privacy and data protection laws, please contact us at data