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Machine Learning Engineer, Applied Research

Whatnot· Engineering
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Hybrid (New York, NY)$210k - $300kFull-timePosted 4w ago

About the role

Role focused on leading applied ML research for marketplace dynamics, building predictive models and simulators, and advancing evaluation and experimentation designs for Whatnot's multi-sided live marketplace.

Responsibilities

  • Lead research projects across the marketplace dynamics problem area: simulation, auction and allocation mechanics, long-term objective modeling, exploration and information value, or marketplace experimentation methods
  • Take ideas from hypothesis to production: literature review, prototyping, offline validation, shadow testing, and online experiments shipped through partner teams in Discovery and the Seller org
  • Build models of how the marketplace behaves as a system: learned simulators that predict segment-level effects of ranking and policy changes, and surrogate models of long-term marketplace outcomes
  • Model Whatnot's actual market mechanics: auction and bidding dynamics, and discovery exposure allocation as a portfolio problem, including allocation to rising sellers
  • Advance how a multi-sided live marketplace evaluates changes: off-policy evaluation, switchback and interference-robust experiment designs, and variance reduction
  • Contribute to Whatnot's external technical presence through publications, open-source work, and public benchmarks

Qualifications

  • 5+ years of industry experience building and deploying ML models to solve user problems at scale
  • Depth in at least one: recommendation systems, causal inference, off-policy evaluation, reinforcement learning and bandits, auction or mechanism design, or marketplace experimentation
  • A track record of applying scientific methods to real-world problems on consumer-scale data
  • Advanced proficiency in Python, SQL, and ML frameworks like PyTorch, XGBoost
  • Strong grounding in applied statistics, experiment design and theoretical machine learning
  • Strong communication and leadership skills; ability to influence roadmaps and align cross-functional teams in a remote environment

Skills

Required:PythonSQLML Frameworks (PyTorch)Statistics and Experiment Design

Benefits

  • Flexible Time off Policy and Company-wide Holidays (including a spring and winter break)
  • Health Insurance options including Medical, Dental, Vision
  • Work From Home Support
  • Care benefits
  • Retirement; 401k offering for Traditional and Roth accounts in the US (employer match up to 4% of base salary) and Pension plans internationally
  • Monthly allowance to dogfood the app
  • Parental Leave
Last updated Oct 21, 2026. Interested? Apply on the company site.
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About Whatnot

Whatnot is the largest livestream shopping platform in the U.S.

Whatnot is the largest livestream shopping platform in the U.S., connecting buyers and sellers in real-time across any category – from collectibles like trading cards to comics, fashion, sneakers, and more.

marketplacee-commerce
Company profileWebsite

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