At a Glance
- Tasks: Lead machine learning strategy to enhance travel discovery for millions of users.
- Company: Join Tripadvisor, a global leader in travel experiences and technology.
- Benefits: Competitive pay, flexible remote work, tuition assistance, and travel perks.
- Other info: Collaborative culture with opportunities for mentorship and career growth.
- Why this job: Make a real impact on travel experiences using cutting-edge AI technology.
- Qualifications: Ph.D. or Master's in a quantitative field with 8+ years of ML experience.
The predicted salary is between 80000 - 100000 £ per year.
About Tripadvisor: The Tripadvisor Group connects people to experiences worth sharing, and aims to be the world’s most trusted source for travel and experiences. We leverage our brands, technology, and capabilities to connect our global audience with partners through rich content, travel guidance, and two-sided marketplaces for experiences, accommodations, restaurants, and other travel categories.
About The Role: As a Principal Machine Learning Scientist, you will be the technical anchor for our core discovery engine. You will lead the machine learning strategy and execution that powers how millions of users search for, discover, and organize their complex travel itineraries. This is a high-impact role bridging the gap between cutting‑edge AI research and production‑grade engineering, directly influencing multi‑objective business outcomes like user engagement and booking conversion. You will tackle complex, ambiguous problems at the intersection of deep multi‑task ranking, sequential user modeling, and graph‑based travel recommendations. If you are passionate about building state‑of‑the‑art AI systems and mentoring a high‑performing team of scientists, this role is for you.
What You’ll Do:
- Technical Leadership & Execution: Drive the technical roadmap for Search, Retrieval, Ranking, and Recommendation systems within the Trips vertical. Translate high-level business goals into concrete ML architectures and scalable production systems.
- Advanced Algorithm Innovation: Design, prototype, and scale next‑generation recommendation and ranking models. Solve complex, non‑linear travel journeys by utilizing sequential recommenders, representation learning, and deep multi‑objective frameworks.
- System Architecture & Scalability: Oversee the deployment of low‑latency, high‑throughput retrieval and ranking pipelines capable of processing billions of travel data points in real‑time.
- Cross‑Functional Collaboration: Partner closely with Product Managers, Engineering Leads, and Data Science peers to optimize multi‑task business objectives simultaneously.
- Talent Multiplier: Mentor and coach senior and mid‑level ML scientists. Foster a culture of technical excellence, driving best practices for MLOps, rigorous A/B testing, data privacy, and code quality.
Skills & Experience:
- Education: Ph.D. or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Statistics, or a highly quantitative field.
- Experience: 8+ years industry experience developing and deploying large‑scale ML models in a production environment, with a proven track record of shipping systems at the scale of millions of active users.
- Core Technical Expertise:
- SOTA Retrieval & Ranking: Practical experience with Multi‑Task Learning (MTL), Multi‑gate Mixture-of-Experts (MMoE), or similar architectures optimized for multi‑objective optimization.
- Sequential & Temporal Modeling: Hands‑on experience building sequential recommendation systems that capture real‑time user session dynamics and long‑term historical preferences.
- Advanced Representation Learning: Deep understanding of embedding generation, deep semantic retrieval, and multi‑modal representation learning.
- Technical Stack: Mastery of Python and deep learning frameworks (TensorFlow, PyTorch) alongside hands‑on experience with distributed computing (Spark, Ray) and cloud infrastructure (AWS/GCP).
- Desired:
- Graph Neural Networks (GNNs): Strong experience applying GNNs, knowledge graphs, or graph embeddings to map complex relations between travel entities.
- Agentic AI & Generative AI: Familiarity with Agentic AI frameworks, LLM‑driven reasoning, or autonomous planning agents to enhance conversational search and automated itinerary generation.
- Experience working in E-commerce, Travel Tech, or Two‑Sided Marketplaces, specifically handling non‑linear user journeys and highly constrained inventory.
- A strong track record of academic or industry contributions, including publications in top‑tier AI/IR conferences or open‑source ML contributions.
What We Offer:
- Competitive compensation packages, including base salary and annual bonuses.
- “Work your way” with flexibility to suit your lifestyle.
- Flexible schedule. Work‑life balance is ingrained in our culture by design.
- Donation matching. Give back? Give more!
- Tuition assistance. Want to level up your career? We love to hear it!
- Lifestyle benefit. An annual benefit to spend on yourself.
- Travel perks. We believe that travel is employee development.
- Employee assistance program: We’re here for you with resources and programs to help you through life’s challenges.
- Health benefits. We offer great coverage and competitive premiums.
- Generous referral scheme. Help us grow and be rewarded with generous awards for referring successful candidates.
We strive to create an accessible and inclusive experience for all candidates. If you need a reasonable accommodation during the application or the recruiting process, please make sure to reach out to your individual recruiter or our team.
Principal Machine Learning Scientist in London employer: Viator
Tripadvisor is an exceptional employer that champions innovation and collaboration, offering a flexible, remote-friendly work environment that prioritises work-life balance. With competitive compensation packages, generous benefits like tuition assistance and lifestyle perks, and a strong commitment to employee growth through mentorship and professional development, Tripadvisor fosters a culture where talented individuals can thrive while making a meaningful impact in the travel industry.
StudySmarter Expert Advice🤫
We think this is how you could land Principal Machine Learning Scientist in London
✨Tip Number 1
Network like a pro! Reach out to folks in the industry, attend meetups, and connect with people on LinkedIn. You never know who might have the inside scoop on job openings or can put in a good word for you.
✨Tip Number 2
Show off your skills! Create a portfolio showcasing your projects, especially those related to machine learning and AI. This is your chance to demonstrate your expertise and make a lasting impression.
✨Tip Number 3
Prepare for interviews by brushing up on your technical knowledge and problem-solving skills. Practice common ML scenarios and be ready to discuss your past experiences in detail. Confidence is key!
✨Tip Number 4
Don’t forget to apply through our website! It’s the best way to ensure your application gets noticed. Plus, it shows you’re genuinely interested in joining our team at Tripadvisor.
We think you need these skills to ace Principal Machine Learning Scientist in London
Some tips for your application 🫡
Tailor Your CV:Make sure your CV reflects the skills and experiences that align with the Principal Machine Learning Scientist role. Highlight your technical expertise in ML models, especially those relevant to retrieval and ranking systems.
Craft a Compelling Cover Letter:Use your cover letter to tell us why you're passionate about AI and how your experience can drive our machine learning strategy. Be specific about your past projects and how they relate to the challenges we face at Tripadvisor.
Showcase Your Achievements:Don’t just list your responsibilities; showcase your achievements! Use metrics to demonstrate the impact of your work, especially in areas like user engagement and system scalability.
Apply Through Our Website:We encourage you to apply through our website for a smoother application process. It’s the best way for us to receive your application and ensure it gets the attention it deserves!
How to prepare for a job interview at Viator
✨Know Your Stuff
Make sure you brush up on the latest trends in machine learning, especially around retrieval and ranking systems. Be ready to discuss your experience with multi-task learning and how you've applied it in real-world scenarios.
✨Showcase Your Projects
Prepare to talk about specific projects where you've designed and deployed large-scale ML models. Highlight any challenges you faced and how you overcame them, especially in terms of scalability and real-time processing.
✨Collaborate Like a Pro
Since this role involves cross-functional collaboration, think of examples where you've worked closely with product managers or engineering teams. Be ready to explain how you translated business goals into technical solutions.
✨Mentorship Matters
As a Principal Machine Learning Scientist, you'll be expected to mentor others. Share your experiences in coaching junior scientists and fostering a culture of excellence. Discuss any best practices you've implemented in MLOps or A/B testing.
