Senior Engineering Manager, Machine Learning

📋 Description

• • As Babylist’s Senior Engineering Manager, Machine Learning & Discovery+Site Monetization, you will be at the forefront of shaping the future of our platform by leading the team responsible for our machine learning and personalization initiatives. This is a pivotal leadership role that demands a technically adept manager capable of scaling both people and systems to drive significant impact across the organization.
• • You will be responsible for managing and nurturing a high-performing, ML-focused pod. This team will concentrate on critical areas such as product recommendations, search functionality, product listing pages (PLPs), and site monetization strategies. Your clear mandate will be to maximize both revenue and user value across these key surface areas through sophisticated personalization techniques.
• • A core part of your role will involve guiding the team's technical direction for essential features like our homepage feed, the "add next" experience, and other core personalization surfaces. Simultaneously, you will be instrumental in building the foundational infrastructure and best practices for long-term ML excellence at Babylist.
• • You will foster a culture of innovation and ownership, encouraging your team to tackle complex problems end-to-end. This includes working closely with product, design, and business partners, leveraging short feedback loops and direct stakeholder access to rapidly iterate and deliver value.
• • Embrace and champion Babylist's AI-forward approach to software development. You will lead by example, integrating AI tools into the team's daily workflow, much like an IDE or version control. This means using AI to explore technical trade-offs, rigorously pressure-test designs, and accelerate the journey from problem identification to solution implementation, transforming hours into days.
• • Empower your team to leverage AI for code generation, allowing them to focus their human judgment on the most critical decisions and complex challenges, rather than routine tasks. This focus on AI-driven velocity will enable more time for craft, leading to higher quality code, stronger architectural decisions, and a deeper understanding of our customers.
• • You will be responsible for setting a high bar for quality, ensuring that our ML systems are not only innovative but also robust, scalable, and maintainable. This involves overseeing the entire ML lifecycle, from data ingestion and model development to deployment, monitoring, and continuous iteration in a production environment.
• • Collaborate closely with senior technical leaders to define the overall ML tech stack strategy, from data pipelines and workflow orchestration (e.g., Airflow) to model deployment and monitoring systems. You will own and evolve this stack end-to-end, ensuring it meets the demands of a rapidly growing e-commerce platform.
• • Drive alignment across various departments, including Product, Design, Analytics Engineering, and Data Science. Your ability to translate ambiguous business needs into clear, actionable technical requirements and roadmaps will be crucial for success.
• • Develop a comprehensive understanding of Babylist’s user journeys, from initial discovery through purchase and beyond. This includes understanding user feedback loops, financial models, and how ML systems influence these critical aspects of the customer experience.
• • Mentor and develop your team members, providing guidance on technical growth, career progression, and performance management. You will foster an environment that combines strong technical standards with individual empowerment and support.
• • Contribute to Babylist's mission of helping growing families feel confident, connected, and cared for by building products that positively impact millions of lives. Your work will directly influence how users discover and engage with products, ultimately driving business growth and enhancing the customer experience.
• • Actively participate in the company's remote-first culture, contributing to the strong relationships that power our work through consistent engagement and a shared purpose.
• • You will be a key player in rebuilding our engineering culture around the belief that AI changes everything, actively contributing to the evolving playbook for how software is built and delivered at Babylist.
• • This role offers a unique opportunity to blend hands-on technical leadership with people management, making a tangible impact on a rapidly growing and innovative company in the baby product industry.