Machine Learning Engineer II - Machine Learning Platform

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. Leadership/Team Quote: Booking relies heavily on machine learning to personalize the experience of travelers and partners. Machine Learning Platform (MLP) track is about making it easy for product teams to build and use AI/ML at Booking. At Feedback Loops team, part of MLP track, you are at the epicenter of this by building state of the art machine learning algorithms to bootstrap ranking, recommendation and personalisation models. You are also responsible for building and maintaining the platform that models run on. The team is focused on changing the way ML is done at Booking by leading and advocating for online learning, as well as helping teams build customized models for their specific use cases. The team works quite closely with other product and ML teams powering personalisation at Booking, as well as teams building any sort of ranking and recommendation models to achieve this in close collaboration with them. Role Description: As a Machine Learning Engineer you are a driver of your field, who generates significant business impact directly and indirectly, and crafts the direction of product initiatives by being driven and having full ownership of your projects - from ideation to collecting data, annotating, feature engineering, productizing and training model pipelines, deploying experiments, measuring and iterating on them - as well as coaching other Machine Learning Engineers, Scientists, Data Engineers, Product Managers, etc to do the same. Key Job Responsibilities and Duties: Develop production-grade ML systems, from models to features and pipelines, accounting for reliability, scalability, real-time requirements, monitoring and retraining. Build readable and reusable code, applying code quality best practices and using standard libraries. Choose the right technology or coding methodology as well as refactor and simplify code when necessary. Take full ownership of your services end to end by actively monitoring the systems health, performance and business impact. Be responsible for business related data governance processes, the technical implementation and maintenance of data processing services and storage systems, and the implementation and maintenance of ML governance processes. Evaluate possible architecture solutions taking into account the business and technology requirements. Set the relevant service level objectives SLOs and act accordingly when they are not met. Build readable and reusable code, using the right technologies and coding methodologies applying knowledge of business area tools and product needs. Continuously evolve your craft by keeping up to date with the latest developments in ML/AI and related technologies and upskilling on these, as needed. Contribute to the internal ML/AI community by sharing your knowledge and participating in our internal ML programs. Coach others through evidence and clear communication, explaining advanced technical concepts in simpler terms. Maintain a highly cross-disciplinary perspective, solving issues by applying approaches and methods from across a variety of disciplines and related fields. Achieve mutually agreeable solutions by staying adaptable, communicating ideas in clear coherent language and practicing active listening Qualifications & Skills: 3+ years of relevant work experience (or equivalent), involved with the application of Machine Learning to business problems in a commercial environment. Experience in areas like e.g. Recommender Systems, Deep Learning, Information Retrieval, Computer Vision, Speech Recognition, Causal Inference, MLOps, etc. Work experience (or equivalent), involved with the application of Machine Learning to business problems, preferably in a commercial environment. Knowledge of multiple machine learning facets, such as working with large data sets, experimentation, scalability and optimization. Experience with data-driven product development: analytics, A/B testing, etc. Strong working experience in one or more general purpose programming languages Experience of version control systems. Excellent English communication skills, both written and verbal Benefits & Perks - Global Impact, Personal Relevance: Booking.com’s Total Rewards Philosophy is not only about compensation but also about benefits. We offer a competitive compensation and benefits package, as well unique-to-Booking.com benefits which include: Annual paid time off and generous paid leave scheme including: parent, grandparent, bereavement, and care leave Hybrid working including flexible working arrangements, and up to 20 days per year working from abroad (home country) Industry leading product discounts - up to 1400 per year - for yourself, including automatic Genius Level 3 status and Booking.com wallet credit Living and working in Amsterdam, one of the most cosmopolitan cities in Europe Contributing to a high scale, complex, world renowned product and seeing real-time impact of your work on millions of travelers worldwide Working in a fast-paced and performance driven culture Opportunity to utilize technical expertise, leadership capabilities and entrepreneurial spirit Promote and drive impactful and innovative engineering solutions Technical, behavioral and interpersonal competence advancement via on-the-job opportunities, experimental projects, hackathons, conferences and active community participation Competitive compensation and benefits package and some great added perks of working in the home city of Booking.com Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) at Booking.com: Diversity, Equity & Inclusion have been a core part of our company culture since day one. This ongoing journey starts with our very own employees, who represent over 140 nationalities and a wide range of ethnic and social backgrounds, genders and sexual orientations. Take it from our Chief People Officer, Paulo Pisano: “At Booking.com, the diversity of our people doesn’t just build an outstanding workplace, it also creates a better and more inclusive travel experience for everyone. Inclusion is at the heart of everything we do. It’s a place where you can make your mark and have a real impact in travel and tech.” We ensure that colleagues with disabilities are provided the adjustments and tools they need to participate in the job application and interview process, to perform crucial job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Application Process: This section should provide: Let’s go places together: How we Hire This role does not come with relocation assistance. Booking.com is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, or veteran status. We strive to move well beyond traditional equal opportunity and work to create an environment that allows everyone to thrive. Pre-Employment Screening If your application is successful, your personal data may be used for a pre-employment screening check by a third party as permitted by applicable law. Depending on the vacancy and applicable law, a pre-employment screening may include employment history, education and other information (such as media information) that may be necessary for determining your qualifications and suitability for the position.