Senior Machine Learning Engineer II, Economist

We're transforming the grocery industry

At Instacart, we invite the world to share love through food because we believe everyone should have access to the food they love and more time to enjoy it together. Where others see a simple need for grocery delivery, we see exciting complexity and endless opportunity to serve the varied needs of our community. We work to deliver an essential service that customers rely on to get their groceries and household goods, while also offering safe and flexible earnings opportunities to Instacart Personal Shoppers.

Instacart has become a lifeline for millions of people, and we’re building the team to help push our shopping cart forward. If you’re ready to do the best work of your life, come join our table.

Instacart is a Flex First team

There’s no one-size fits all approach to how we do our best work. Our employees have the flexibility to choose where they do their best work—whether it’s from home, an office, or your favorite coffee shop—while staying connected and building community through regular in-person events. Learn more about our flexible approach to where we work.

Overview

As a senior machine learning engineer in the Economics team, you will build state-of-the-art systems that blend rigorous economic thought with sophisticated machine learning algorithms to tackle some of the company’s most challenging problems.

Working in a horizontal team, you will have the opportunity to collaborate closely with partners across multiple functions to operate on a highly diverse set of problems, contributing both economic and engineering expertise in a fast-paced environment filled with exciting opportunities for technically-minded economists.

The Economics team at Instacart works on a range of interesting and challenging problems across our platform, from aligning the incentives in our multi-sided marketplace to analyzing the role of prices and product placement in our customers' decision-making. Some of the core areas of focus for our team include matching and logistics, online advertising, uplift and long-term value modeling, and general causal inference. Check out this blog post to learn more.

About the Job

• Design, develop, and deploy machine learning solutions to tackle the many economic challenges in our complex marketplace

• Collaborate closely with product managers, data scientists, and other engineers to deeply understand business needs and create impactful solutions

• Push the envelope on our operational efficiency by continually refining and advancing our algorithms and models

• Mentor junior economists, set technical direction, and conduct thorough code reviews to ensure high code quality and maintainability. Lead by example in fostering a culture of continuous improvement and technical excellence

About You

We are looking for senior economists with several years of industry experience.

Minimum Qualifications

• A PhD in economics

• 3+ years of industry experience using machine learning to solve economic problems in large technology companies

• A blend of economic theory, applied econometrics, and business skills that let you jump into a fast-paced environment and contribute from day one

• A deep understanding of machine learning algorithms and techniques, with fluency in modern research and literature

• Strong programming skills in software engineering (e.g., Python), along with expertise in data manipulation using tools (e.g., SQL and Pandas) and modern machine learning packages

• Excellent communication skills (both verbal and written) and proven expertise in collaborating with a diverse group of stakeholders across all levels, including leadership

• Experience designing and implementing production-grade ML systems and services

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in matching or logistics, ads, and paid marketing

• Experience with large language models / generative AI, both on the algorithm side as well as a day-to-day tool

Instacart provides highly market-competitive compensation and benefits in each location where our employees work. This role is remote and the base pay range for a successful candidate is dependent on their permanent work location. Please review our Flex First remote work policy here.

Offers may vary based on many factors, such as candidate experience and skills required for the role. Additionally, this role is eligible for a new hire equity grant as well as annual refresh grants. Please read more about our benefits offerings here.

For US based candidates, the base pay ranges for a successful candidate are listed below.

CA, NY, CT, NJ
$240,000—$253,500 USD

WA
$230,000—$243,000 USD

OR, DE, ME, MA, MD, NH, RI, VT, DC, PA, VA, CO, TX, IL, HI
$221,000—$233,000 USD

All other states
$201,000—$212,000 USD