Senior Applied Scientist, Shutterstock
Automated Content Review
Royalty-free media library
Be an early applicant
Royalty-free media library
1001+ employees
Be an early applicant
1001+ employees
Company mission
To help creative professionals from all backgrounds and businesses of all sizes produce their best work with incredible content and innovative tools, all on one platform.
Role
Who you are
- Advanced degree or equivalent experience. PhD or MS in relevant fields (machine learning, IR, computer vision, NLP), with 3+ years of experience building real-world AI moderation or information retrieval systems
- Deep ML expertise. Proficient in transformer-based deep learning, computer vision, or LLMs. Skilled with Python and frameworks like PyTorch or TensorFlow; familiarity with full-text search engines (Elasticsearch/OpenSearch/Lucene) is a plus
- Production-scale know-how. Demonstrated ability to design, deploy, and maintain ML pipelines (Airflow, Kubernetes, AWS, Snowflake, etc.) that serve large volumes of content with stringent latency requirements
- Strong experimentation and research background. A proven track record of iterating models against real-world data, running AB tests, and adapting to evolving requirements in a dynamic environment
- Collaboration and communication skills. Able to partner seamlessly with product, engineering, and data teams to define requirements, deliver improvements, and influence key stakeholders
- Passion for ethical AI and moderation. Familiarity with the challenges of content safety, compliance, and brand suitability, plus a drive to ensure that generative AI development aligns with responsible guidelines
What the job involves
- As part of this team, you will develop and refine high-precision, high-recall automated moderation systems, optimizing for minimal human annotation while maintaining impeccable standards
- This work is crucial as generative AI grows and challenges our historical approaches to content moderation
- Develop next-generation automated review systems. Utilize advanced IR (information retrieval), neural networks, LLMs, and related ML techniques to automatically detect content—spanning images, video, 3D, and templates—that violates Shutterstock’s policies or requires deeper human review
- Optimize human-in-the-loop moderation. Design tools and methodologies that smartly route uncertain cases for human annotation, using your team’s annotation budget to continually increase both precision and recall
- Collaborate with product and engineering. Partner with platform and product teams that own the Universal Review Tool to surface relevant signals, integrate model outputs into user interfaces, and streamline moderator workflows
- Drive real-world impact at scale. Translate cutting-edge research into low-latency, production-ready APIs capable of handling massive volumes of assets—both static and generative—in near real-time
- Mentor and lead cross-functional teams. Guide junior scientists and engineers, fostering a culture of collaboration, innovation, and rapid iteration as you advance moderation capabilities
- Champion ethics and integrity. Collaborate with stakeholders to design and implement responsible AI solutions that uphold Shutterstock’s reputation while protecting artists, customers, and brand partners
- Measure and refine success. Work backward from our primary KPI—maximise the throughput of annotation cost by driving down the time per annotation task. You will work iterating models and workflows to consistently improve performance
- Publish and share insights. Present findings internally and externally (e.g., at conferences o
Our take
Shutterstock is a global leader in licensed images, videos, and music, serving creative professionals like designers, filmmakers, and marketers. Content creators upload their work, which is then used by businesses and media organizations in various projects. It's a two-sided marketplace that fuels creativity worldwide.
Shutterstock offers a variety of plans for individuals, teams, and enterprise customers as well as creative editing and collaboration capabilities. Their aim is to build sophisticated tools to help the world experience images and videos in a more beautiful way - they believe that the harmonious union of design and technology can influence global communication.
Shutterstock's brand portfolio includes Bigstock, Offset, PremiumBeat, Rex Features, and Shutterstock Custom, adding hundreds of thousands of images weekly. More recently it introduced generative AI and fairly licenses artists' work for their AI-generated content, unlike competitors. This ethical approach bodes well for the company, positioning it well for future growth and innovation.
Kirsty
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
5% employee growth in 12 months
Company
Company benefits
- Flexibility: Shutterstock operates in a Hybrid model that is centered around flexibility and enabling collaboration, innovation, and accountability no matter where we are
- Connection: Whether virtual or in person, we make sure there are plenty of opportunities and events to connect and have fun
- Recognition: We never miss an opportunity to celebrate our achievements and recognize great work through our global recognition program
- Empowerment: We offer generous and competitive compensation packages, PTO, wellness initiatives, on-and-off working hours, tuition reimbursement, and an employee referral bonus
- Growth: Your development is top of mind. Our SkillUP Program enables you to take ownership of your personal development through virtual learning offerings, and we are constantly adding to the platform to meet your changing needs
- Belonging: Our goal is to build a workforce that is, at all levels, representative of the diverse global community we serve and where all employees can come to work as their authentic selves
Company HQ
Midtown South, New York, NY
Leadership
Jon Oringer
(Executive Chairman)Previously Board Member at Partnership for New York City for 6 years and Founder, CEO at SurfSecret Software for 5 years.
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