Staff Data Scientist, Search & Personalization

Join Our Journey at Engine

At Engine, we're revolutionizing work travel. Our modern travel platform isn't just about booking trips; it's about transforming how businesses and their teams experience travel. From seamless booking options with top airlines, hotels, and car rental providers to single-invoice billing and flexible trip modifications, we make travel not only easier to manage but also enjoyable. Backed by powerhouse investors like Telescope Partners, Blackstone, Elefund, and Permira, we're growing fast—and we want you to be part of it.

Be a Founding Member of Our Search Intelligence Team We're building a world-class data science team focused on transforming how millions of business travelers discover and book their perfect trips. As a founding member of this team, you'll architect the search and personalization systems that power Engine's core user experience. This is a unique opportunity to build sophisticated ML systems from the ground up, directly impacting conversion rates and customer satisfaction at scale.

Your Mission:

As a Staff Data Scientist specializing in Search and Personalization at Engine, you'll lead the charge in creating intelligent, adaptive systems that understand and anticipate traveler needs. Here's what you'll take charge of:

• Architect and build Engine's personalization engine from the ground up, implementing state-of-the-art recommendation systems, collaborative filtering, and deep learning models to deliver hyper-relevant search results and travel recommendations.
• Drive search conversion optimization through advanced ranking algorithms, query understanding, and real-time personalization, directly impacting Engine's core business metrics.
• Lead the development of user embedding and preference modeling systems that capture complex traveler behaviors, corporate policies, and contextual signals to power personalized experiences across the platform.
• Build and mentor a world-class data science team as a founding member, establishing best practices, technical standards, and a culture of experimentation and innovation.
• Partner with product, engineering, and business leaders to define the search and personalization roadmap, translating business objectives into sophisticated ML solutions.
• Design and implement A/B testing frameworks and experimentation infrastructure to rapidly iterate on personalization strategies and measure impact.
• Develop real-time inference systems that can deliver personalized results at scale with sub-second latency requirements.
  
  

What You'll Bring to Engine: We're looking for a proven leader in personalization and search who's ready to build something extraordinary:

• Experience: 7 years of industry experience in data science/ML engineering, with at least 4 years specifically focused on search, ranking, and personalization systems at scale.
• Personalization Expertise: Deep hands-on experience with recommendation systems, including collaborative filtering, content-based filtering, hybrid approaches, and modern deep learning techniques (neural collaborative filtering, transformer-based models, two-tower architectures).
• Search & Ranking Knowledge: Proven track record building learning-to-rank models, query understanding systems, and search relevance optimization in production environments.
• Technical Excellence: Expert-level proficiency in Python (PyTorch/TensorFlow), distributed computing (Spark), and modern ML infrastructure. Experience with real-time serving systems and vector databases.
• Leadership & Vision: Experience as a technical lead or founding member of a data science team, with the ability to balance hands-on contribution with strategic thinking and team building.
• Business Impact: Demonstrated success improving key business metrics (conversion, engagement, retention) through personalization, with the ability to communicate complex technical concepts to executive stakeholders.
• Education: MS/PhD in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Statistics, or related quantitative field, or equivalent industry experience building production ML systems.
  
  

Bonus Points:

• Experience in travel, e-commerce, or marketplace platforms
• Publications or patents in personalization, recommendation systems, or information retrieval
• Experience with multi-objective optimization and contextual bandits
• Knowledge of privacy-preserving personalization techniques
  
  

Applications for this role will be accepted through 01/07/2026 or until the role is filled. We encourage you to apply early, as we may begin reviewing applications before the deadline.

Compensation

Our compensation packages are based on several factors, including your experience, expertise, and location. In addition to a competitive base salary, total compensation may include equity and/or variable pay (OTE). Your recruiter will share your complete compensation package as you move through the process.

Base Pay Range

$210,000—$245,000 USD

The Engine Edge: Perks & Compensation

We believe in rewarding great work with great benefits:

• Compensation: Competitive base pay tied to role and experience, with opportunities for bonuses, commissions, and equity.
• Benefits: Check out our full list at engine.com/culture.
• Environments for Success: Different roles have different needs in terms of the environments that drive success which is why we have a hybrid-hub model. Whether you are in one of our amazing offices or fully remote, we'll make sure you have what you need to succeed.
  
  

Perks and benefits may vary based on employment type, location, and more.

Ready to Build the Future of Work Travel?

Join us on our mission to transform how work travel works—for businesses, for travelers, and for the industry. Apply now and let's make travel simpler, smarter, and more enjoyable—together.