At a Glance
- Tasks: Develop and implement advanced machine learning techniques for performance marketing bidding algorithms.
- Company: Join Booking.com, a leader in travel tech with an inclusive culture.
- Benefits: Competitive salary, flexible work options, and opportunities for professional growth.
- Other info: Collaborative environment with a focus on continuous improvement and innovation.
- Why this job: Make a real impact on how millions experience the world through innovative technology.
- Qualifications: Master's or PhD in relevant fields and experience in machine learning applications.
This job is with Booking.com, an inclusive employer and a member of myGwork – the largest global platform for the LGBTQ+ business community.
About Us: At Booking.com, data drives our decisions. Technology is at our core. And innovation is everywhere. But our company is more than datasets, lines of code or A/B tests. We're the thrill of the first night in a new place. The excitement of the next morning. The friends you encounter. The journeys you take. The sights you see. And the memories you make. Through our products, partners and people, we make it easier for everyone to experience the world.
About the team: The PPC team builds and optimizes large‑scale ML models for online bidding across all major search providers, owning one of the industry's largest performance and auction strategies to keep Booking.com competitive. We run end‑to‑end research‑to‑production cycles—from POCs and modeling to large‑scale A/B testing—driving measurable impact by optimizing auction levers at scale.
Role description: As a Machine Learning Scientist in PPC, your work will focus on devising and implementing advanced machine learning and optimization approaches for the next generation of Booking.com performance marketing bidding algorithms. Specifically, you will work on optimizing our bidding strategy across search platforms, ensuring our competitive edge in the complex dynamics of the bidding marketplace and online auction mechanisms. This role requires a unique combination of deep theoretical knowledge around large-scale optimization techniques, auction theory and applying state of the art machine learning methodologies to scalable industrial setups.
Key Job Responsibilities and Duties
- Develop innovative techniques for the next phase of our online bidding algorithms, including modeling user intent, modeling the online marketplaces, and optimizing our bidding strategy to maximize the efficiency of how we spend our advertising budgets.
- Design and implement scalable evaluation pipelines, including synthetic data generation and benchmarking for model quality, relevance, and consistency.
- Ensure the reliability, efficiency, and scalability of evaluation tools and frameworks in both offline and online environments.
- Conduct in-depth data analysis to define and track evaluation metrics, validate label quality, and explore performance across different traffic siloes.
- Collaborate closely with ML engineers to integrate evaluation components into production pipelines, supporting continuous improvement of bidding applications.
- Work cross-functionally with commercial and analytics teams to align evaluation strategies with business goals and user impact.
Role qualifications and requirements
- Master's degree or PhD required (Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, Artificial Intelligence, Physics).
- Industry or academia knowledge of large scale optimisation techniques or mechanism design or auction theory.
- Experience contributing to innovative machine learning and optimization solutions for large-scale business problems, preferably evidenced by peer-reviewed publication, patents, open sourced code or the like.
- Relevant work or academic experience (MSc + 1 year of working experience), involved in the application of Machine Learning to business problems.
- Knowledge of some machine learning facets: working with large data sets, model development, statistics, experimentation, data visualization, optimization, software development.
- Understanding of cross-functional development of machine learning products (e.g. Developers, Commercial, Data Analytics, etc.).
- Working knowledge of Python, SQL/BigQuery, Spark.
- Excellent English communication skills, both written and verbal.
Benefits
Machine Learning Scientist I - Performance Marketing employer: Booking.com
At Booking.com, we pride ourselves on being an inclusive employer that values diversity and innovation. Our vibrant work culture fosters collaboration and creativity, providing employees with ample opportunities for professional growth and development in the fast-paced world of performance marketing. Located in a dynamic environment, our team is dedicated to pushing the boundaries of machine learning, ensuring that every employee can make a meaningful impact while enjoying a supportive and engaging workplace.
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We think this is how you could land Machine Learning Scientist I - Performance Marketing
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We think you need these skills to ace Machine Learning Scientist I - Performance Marketing
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Show Off Your Projects:In the world of data science, your projects can speak volumes about your skills. Make sure to showcase a few key projects in your CV or portfolio, especially those that highlight your ability to work with data sets, build models, or use relevant tools like Python, R, or SQL. Don’t forget to include links to any GitHub repositories if applicable!
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Expect to encounter real-world case studies during the interview. We might be asked how we’d approach a data problem or analyse a dataset to extract insights. It's essential to think out loud and demonstrate our problem-solving process so that the interviewer can see our logical thinking in action.
