Applied Researcher - Depop

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Depop is a peer-to-peer circular fashion marketplace where anyone can buy, sell and discover secondhand fashion. Our mission is simple: to make fashion circular by making secondhand as exciting and rewarding as buying new.

Founded in 2011, Depop’s diverse community has helped move resale into the mainstream, where buying secondhand is no longer an alternative, but how people of different ages now engage with fashion. Today, more than 56 million registered users come to Depop to find great value, express their own personal style and give clothes a longer life. We believe that everything you want already exists, and our role is to help people discover it. From everyday essentials to vintage and designer finds, Depop brings together a wide range of affordable styles in one place. It’s a marketplace where anyone can clear out their wardrobe or build a business, explore their style, and take part in a more circular way to shop.

Powered by a team of over 500 people, our company is headquartered in London, with offices in New York. For more information, visit our News Room here.

The Depop team is investing in advanced Machine Learning, NLP, LLM/GenAI, RAG, and AI technologies to develop more intelligent and engaging marketplace experiences for our global community. We are looking for a top-tier Applied Researcher to help define and lead our AI/ML research strategy. This role involves developing innovative models that improve how customers and vendors discover, engage with, and transact across the Depop marketplace.

What You Will Accomplish

• Define research directions that influence how AI and Machine Learning are applied across Depop's global marketplace.

• Work with unique, large-scale structured and unstructured multimodal datasets representing millions of users and items.

• Research, develop, and deploy innovative AI/ML models into production with direct, measurable impact on Depop buyers and sellers.

• Partner with a global team of applied researchers, ML engineers, software engineers, product leaders, and other cross-functional partners to translate research into scalable customer experiences.

• Explore emerging areas including LLMs, GenAI, multimodal AI, visual content analysis, and other technologies that can improve the Depop marketplace.

• Publish research at leading conferences and contribute to patents, technical publications, and thought leadership.

What You Will Bring

• PhD in Computer Science or a related field with 2+ years of relevant experience in Machine Learning, AI, NLP, LLMs, or related areas.

• Deep expertise in developing and applying advanced Machine Learning techniques to complex, large-scale problems.

• Strong track record of applied research demonstrated through publications, patents, technical articles, or other contributions to the field.

• Experience with multimodal learning, user or marketplace modeling, NLP, LLMs, GenAI, or related AI technologies.

• Experience with video understanding or video technologies is a plus.

• Strong hands-on engineering skills with experience building and deploying ML models into production, either on-premises or using cloud platforms.

• Experience serving as a research or technical lead, including defining research strategy, influencing technical direction, and collaborating with engineering and product teams.

Additional Details

The base pay range for this position is expected in the range below:

Base pay offered may vary depending on multiple individualized factors, including location, skills, and experience. The total compensation package for this position may also include other elements, including a target bonus and restricted stock units (as applicable) in addition to a full range of medical, financial, and/or other benefits (including RRSP eligibility, various paid time off benefits, such as PTO and parental leave). Details of participation in these benefit plans will be provided if an employee receives an offer of employment.

This job posting relates to an existing vacancy within eBay.

eBay is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, and disability, or other legally protected status. If you have a need that requires accommodation, please contact us at talent@ebay.com. We will make every effort to respond to your request for accommodation as soon as possible. View our accessibility statement to learn more about eBay's commitment to ensuring digital accessibility.

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