Senior Software Engineer, Etsy
Machine Learning, ML Enablement
$164-246k
Salary dependent on location. + Equity package and an annual performance bonus
More information about location
eCommerce platform for handcrafted goods
Be an early applicant
eCommerce platform for handcrafted goods
1001+ employees
Be an early applicant
$164-246k
Salary dependent on location. + Equity package and an annual performance bonus
More information about location
1001+ employees
Company mission
To keep human connection at the heart of commerce.
Role
Who you are
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Applied Statistics, Mathematics, Electrical Engineering, or a related quantitative field, or equivalent professional experience
- 5+ years of professional experience building, iterating on, and troubleshooting complex backend and infrastructure systems
- Strong software engineering fundamentals, including solid command of algorithms and data structures, with the ability to write production-ready code in Python
- Hands-on experience with cloud infrastructure (Google Cloud preferred) and Kubernetes, including deploying and operating production workloads
- Familiarity with observability tooling (metrics, logging, tracing) for monitoring and debugging distributed systems
- Working knowledge of machine learning fundamentals and concepts, with awareness of LLM serving infrastructure and hosting open-source models
- Basic understanding of transformer architectures, predictors, and how model design choices affect serving infrastructure
- Comfort with system design for large-scale, high-availability infrastructure
What the job involves
- We are looking for a Senior Software Engineer, Machine Learning to help build and operate the infrastructure that trains, hosts, and serves Etsy's machine learning models — including our internal serving platform, and a growing portfolio of predictive and generative (open source LLM) models
- You won't just be deploying models; you'll be architecting the systems that make model serving fast, reliable, and scalable for millions of inferences per second
- Your work directly enables Applied Scientists and Engineers across Etsy to train, host, and iterate on models with confidence, from classic ML predictors to large open-source language models
- This is a full-time position in ML Enablement team, reporting to its Engineering Manager
- What’s this team like at Etsy?
- The Machine Learning Enablement initiative builds the core infrastructure that turns complex ML workflows into seamless, self-service platforms for Etsy’s Applied Scientists and Engineers
- The Models Training and Serving Platform team builds and operates the core infrastructure that powers model training and serving across Etsy, including Barista, our internal model-serving platform, along with a range of hosted modelsets and open-source LLMs
- We own the path from a trained model to a production-ready, observable, and scalable serving endpoint — spanning infrastructure, deployment tooling, and reliability
- We work on significant, complex challenges that intersect multiple critical teams and systems, where you can make a rewarding impact
- We are light on process and heavy on collaboration, working with many partner teams within our org and beyond in order to improve our leverage
- We are a platform team with a product driven mentality, driving innovation using our Machine Learning systems in effective and creative ways
- What does the day-to-day look like?
- Write high-quality, production-grade Python code (additional languages a plus); participate in code reviews and pair programming; contribute to and help drive architectural decisions
- Build, operate, and improve infrastructure for training and serving ML models on GCP and Kubernetes, with a focus on scalability, reliability, and observability
- Design and maintain serving infrastructure for open-source and internally hosted LLMs, including model deployment, resource management, and performance tuning
- Apply working knowledge of ML fundamentals — including neural network deep learning as well as latest transformer architectures along with prediction and inference systems — to make sound infrastructure and design decisions
- Partner cross-functionally with Applied Scientists to understand model training and serving needs, and translate that understanding into infrastructure that removes friction from their workflows
- Contribute to system design discussions, weighing tradeoffs across performance, cost, and reliability for infrastructure serving 100M+ users
- Thoughtfully use generative AI and other productivity tools to work efficiently, with a focus on learning and intentional contribution
- Of course, this is just a sample of the kinds of work this role will require! You should assume that your role will encompass other tasks, too, and that your job duties and responsibilities may change from time to time at Etsy's discretion, or otherwise applicable with local law
Application process
- If you're interested in joining the team at Etsy, please share your resume with us and feel free to include a cover letter if you'd like. As we hope you've seen already, Etsy is a place that values individuality and variety. We don't want you to be like everyone else -- we want you to be like you! So tell us what you're all about
Our take
Created as an alternative to more corporate eCommerce sites, Etsy is a peer-to-peer (P2P) website where users buy and sell handmade crafts, vintage items, art and photography. The online marketplace works similarly to Amazon and eBay, only with an emphasis on unique items rather than mass-produced merchandise.
Since its IPO in 2015, it has managed to hold its own in an increasingly competitive eCommerce industry, including from Amazon's handmade section that launched in 2015. Further, by providing sellers with ownership over pricing and branding, the site is attractive for those wanting to set up a business on an established platform.
However, the seller-side of Etsy is not without problems. A hike in transaction fees and the introduction of mandatory marketing fees for artists with high turnovers created significant discontent amongst sellers. Despite this, Etsy continues to connect artists and consumers, attracting shoppers with its message of extraordinary, handmade and affordable products.
Freddie
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
8% employee growth in 12 months
Company
Funding (last 2 of 6 rounds)
May 2012
$40m
LATE VC
Aug 2010
$20m
SERIES E
Total funding: $91.7m
Company benefits
- Equity (offers vary by country)
- Performance bonuses
- Paid gender neutral parental leave
- Adoption and family planning
- Back-up care
- Volunteer time off
- Donation matching
- Employee resource groups
- Global virtual events
- Employer paid health benefits
- Fitness benefits
- Wellness programming
- Mental health benefits
- 401K matching/Pension contributions
Company HQ
Downtown Brooklyn, NY
Leadership
Josh Silverman
(CEO)Previously senior executive at eBay, CEO of Shopping.com, CEO of Skype and President of Consumer Products & Services at American Express.
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