Staff Product Manager, Ad Ranking

Etsy is the global marketplace for unique and creative goods. We build, power, and evolve the tools and technologies that connect entrepreneurs with buyers around the world. Etsy, Inc.'s 'house of brands' portfolio has expanded to now include four individually distinct ecommerce brands – Etsy, fashion resale marketplace Depop, musical instrument marketplace Reverb, and Brazil-based handmade goods marketplace Elo7. As an Etsy employee, you’ll tackle unique problems alongside talented coworkers committed to Keeping Commerce Human. We're large enough that you'll focus on meaningful, complex challenges, but small enough that you can make a rewarding impact.

Etsy is seeking a Staff Product Manager to lead one of the machine learning product teams for Etsy Ads, our onsite ad platform! This role will help set the strategy for the next phase of Etsy Ads.

Etsy Ads is used by our smallest and largest sellers to grow their businesses, and it is one of Etsy’s major revenue streams. The team is essentially running a marketplace within the Etsy marketplace, solving customer and business problems unique to the space such as ad ranking, dynamic buyer experiences, and growing revenue in a customer-aligned way. With Etsy's base of 4.7 million sellers, over 100 million items, and 90.7 million buyers, the product is intellectually stimulating and provides the opportunity to work on end-to-end machine learning systems, from the customer experience down to infrastructure.

The ideal candidate will bring both product management leadership and machine learning expertise to the team. We are looking for an experienced product manager who has built and led products with machine learning at their core. Potential projects for this role include using language and image models to improve ad relevance, model calibration, and approximate nearest neighbors search.

You can learn more about our philosophies, tools, and some of the challenges we’ve been solving in a Code as Craft article that describes how we built our bidding system.

This is a full-time position located (eventually) in our Brooklyn, NY office. We are considering remote candidates based in the United States for this position. Etsy offers three different work modes to meet the variety of needs and preferences of our team: Flex mode for candidates who are comfortable traveling to an office location 2+ times per week, Remote mode, and Office-based mode. Learn more about our flexible work modes and vaccination policy here.

About the Role

In this role you will:

• Lead product management for one of Etsy’s most impactful teams and identify which advertising problems we should be solving next for sellers and buyers with machine learning.
• Set the vision and strategy with your cross-functional partners for how machine learning will meet our customer and business goals and then execute on that strategy.
• Collaborate with Etsy Ads leadership on scaling the platform and ensuring that advertising on Etsy continues to be an excellent investment for our sellers.
• Lead work on significant problems such as:
• How can we better understand our sellers' individual goals and then meet them?
• How can we ensure that buyers are seeing the appropriate amount of ads while shopping?
• How do we personalize ad ranking while protecting user privacy?
• 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.

About You

Ideally you'll bring:

• Experience leading teams to build products based on machine learning. Previous work on ad tech products, search, recommendations, or online marketplaces is a plus. Ideally, you are familiar with modern machine learning frameworks such as TensorFlow or PyTorch.
• A track record of successful zero-to-one products, optimizing mature products for growth, and material business impact.
• Confident when participating in very technical conversations; the ability to drive consensus and dedication, even when all parties don’t agree.
• Comfortable forming relationships with groups across the company, from machine learning infrastructure teams to the teams working on buyer experiences where we place ads.
• Outstanding communicator with both engineers and company leaders.
• Excellent coach, mentor, and developer of product managers.
• Values people who are curious, hardworking, generous, and responsible.
• A trust in and commitment to Etsy’s vision, mission and values.