Machine Learning Manager

About this role:

Wayfair’s catalog spans hundreds of millions of products, each with its own critical details – color, material, dimensions, weight – that power search, filters, recommendations, and the entire onsite shopping experience. Generating this data without creating a tremendous burden on suppliers and merchants, and keeping that data clean and structured, at this scale is a massive challenge, and we’re tackling it with generative models, agentic workflows, and multi-modal deep learning.

We’re looking for a strong ML leader to drive the future of AI-powered catalog enrichment. Your team will develop large-scale machine learning systems that automate metadata extraction, clean up inconsistencies, and evaluate their own performance. You’ll work at the intersection of LLMs, language-vision models, and scalable deep learning architectures to make product data more accurate, reliable, and completely automated.

If you’re excited about leading high-impact ML teams, building AI systems at a massive scale, and working on real-world generative AI applications beyond chatbots, this is the role for you.

What you’ll do:

• Lead a team of ML scientists driving AI-powered automation for product data structuring, attribute extraction, and metadata validation—ensuring our catalog remains accurate, complete, and scalable.
• Hire, develop, and coach top ML talent, fostering expertise in generative AI, multi-modal deep learning, and high-scale ML deployments to push the boundaries of catalog intelligence.
• Collaborate with top AI research and industry leaders (e.g., Google, Anthropic, Snorkel AI) to explore cutting-edge techniques in LLMs, data labeling automation, and scalable ML workflows.
• Define and execute the AI/ML roadmap for catalog enrichment, balancing cutting-edge research with cost-effective, production-grade solutions.
• Leverage and fine-tune LLMs (e.g., OpenAI GPT, Google Gemini, Anthropic Claude) to build AI-driven classifiers, product taggers, and quality control mechanisms.
• Develop agentic AI workflows for automated schema definition, dataset generation, and LLM-based judgment systems to validate catalog data.
• Partner with cross-functional teams across engineering, data science, and product to ensure AI solutions integrate seamlessly into catalog systems.
• Build scalable ML pipelines and real-time inference systems to tag and structure incoming product data efficiently.
• Optimize cost, efficiency, and scalability of AI models, leveraging parameter-efficient fine-tuning (LoRA, QLoRA), knowledge distillation, and hybrid ML approaches.
• Stay ahead of industry trends in catalog intelligence, generative AI, and autonomous ML agents, integrating SOTA research into practical, high-impact solutions.

Who you are:

• 6+ years of experience (including 2+ years as a lead/manager) developing and deploying ML models in large-scale, real-world settings.
• Strong deep learning expertise, particularly in classification, structured prediction, and multi-modal AI (text + vision).
• Hands-on technical leader who can engage deeply in algorithm development, model architecture, and system design while empowering the team.
• Experience scaling ML solutions to handle 100M+ products, focusing on cost efficiency, accuracy, and real-time performance.
• Proven ability to balance research-driven innovation with practical, production-grade ML deployments.
• Track record of mentoring and coaching ML scientists across various experience levels.
• Strong business acumen, capable of translating commercial objectives into AI/ML strategies with measurable impact.
• Deep understanding of LLMs, generative AI, and fine-tuning techniques, with hands-on experience using models like GPT, Gemini, Claude, or Llama.
• Familiarity with ML Ops, cloud infrastructure, and engineering best practices (Airflow, Kubeflow, MLFlow, Kubernetes, Spark, Python, SQL).

Nice to have:

• Experience working in e-commerce catalog AI systems, retail data structuring, or large-scale product classification.
• Background in autonomous AI agents, reinforcement learning, or online learning systems.
• Research publications in deep learning, structured prediction, or generative AI.

This position offers a unique opportunity to define the future of AI-driven catalog intelligence at scale. If you are passionate about leading cutting-edge AI teams and solving large-scale ML challenges, we’d love to hear from you!

If you don’t meet every qualification listed, we still encourage you to apply. We’re looking for strong leaders who can learn, grow, and make an impact.

Why You'll Love Wayfair: 

• Time Off:
• Paid Holidays
• Paid Time Off (PTO)
• Health & Wellness:
• Full Health Benefits (Medical, Dental, Vision, HSA/FSA)
• Life Insurance
• Disability Protection (Short Term & Long Term Disability) 
• Global Wellbeing: Gym/Fitness discounts (including US Peloton, Global ClassPass, and various regional gym memberships)
• Mental Health Support (Global Mental Health, Global Wayhealthy Recordings)
• Caregiver Services
• Financial Growth & Security:
• 401K Matching (Employee Matching Program)
• Tuition Reimbursement 
• Financial Health Education (Knowledge of Financial Education - KOFE)
• Tax Advantaged Accounts
• Family Support:
• Family Planning Support
• Parental Leave
• Global Surrogacy & Adoption Policy
• Professional Development & Recognition:
• Rewards & Recognition 
• Global Employee Anniversary Awards 
• Paid Volunteer Work 
• Unique Perks:
• Employee Discount 
• U.S. Bluebikes Membership
• Global Pod Outings
• Work/Life Balance:
• Emphasizing a supportive & flexible work environment that encourages a balance between personal and professional commitments

Massachusetts Applicants: I understand that it is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability.