Note: The job is a remote job and is open to candidates in USA. Etsy is the global marketplace for unique and creative goods, connecting millions of entrepreneurs with buyers through technology. The Engineering Manager will lead the Recommendations Retrieval team, guiding the development and operation of scalable candidate-generation and retrieval systems that power personalized discovery. The role oversees technical strategy, infrastructure evolution, cross-functional collaboration, and team growth while advancing machine learning-powered recommendations.
Responsibilities
- Lead and grow a team of engineers and applied scientists responsible for designing, building, and maintaining candidate generation and retrieval systems at scale
- Define and execute the technical strategy for recommendations retrieval, ensuring we balance innovation, reliability, and performance
- Oversee the evolution of our retrieval infrastructure, ensuring healthy data pipelines, index quality, and system performance across recommendation surfaces
- Collaborate with cross-functional partners including Ranking, Recs Systems, ML Platform, Data Engineering, Analytics, and Product to shape the direction of the recommendations stack
- Foster a culture of technical excellence, mentorship, and continuous learning through regular design reviews, code reviews, and structured performance feedback
- Establish clear technical goals, monitor system health, and proactively identify and resolve performance and reliability bottlenecks
- 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
Skills
- Bachelor's, Master's, or PhD in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field
- Proven experience in large-scale retrieval, recommendation, or search systems, with a strong background in candidate generation, ANN/vector search, or ML-powered personalization
- 2+ years of experience leading engineering teams, ideally in real-time recommendation, search, or ads systems
- Familiarity with modern retrieval and ranking techniques, including neural retrieval, two-tower models, and transformer-based embeddings and architectures
- Experience with system performance optimization, caching strategies, and scaling high-throughput, low-latency services
- Strong communication and collaboration skills; capable of bridging technical and non-technical stakeholders
- Track record of driving complex technical projects from conception to launch while maintaining a high bar for quality and reliability
- Proven people leadership in high-stakes, fast-moving environments, remaining steady and solutions-oriented through shifting priorities and ambiguous direction
Benefits
- Eligible for an equity package
- Eligible for an annual performance bonus
- Competitive benefits that support you and your family as part of your total rewards package at Etsy
- Etsy offers different work modes to meet the variety of needs and preferences of our team
- Visa sponsorship may be available, although sponsorship opportunities may be limited to certain roles and skills
Company Overview
Company H1B Sponsorship