This position is closed and is no longer accepting applications.

Machine Learning Engineer, Recommendation Algorithm

SmartNews Shibuya-ku, Tokyo
  • 💴 No salary range given
  • 🏡 Partially remote
  • 🧪 No professional experience required
  • 💬 Fluent Japanese
  • 🌏 Apply from abroad
  • 🧳 Relocate to Japan

About SmartNews

SmartNews Shibuya-ku, Tokyo

Created to deliver high-quality news from a wide variety of trusted publishers in one place, the SmartNews team works tirelessly to help readers feel good about being informed.

Key benefits

  • Your ideas matter
  • International team

About the position

In this role, you will utilize the power of advanced machine learning techniques, these teams not only optimize content distribution and user engagement but also provide the essential foundation for continuous product innovation and overall business success.

The Team

The Recommendation Algorithm Team serves as the architect behind the cutting-edge algorithms and systems that power the SmartNews Product. Our scope encompasses a range of surfaces, most notably For You, Follow Recommendations, Search and so on..

At the core of the Recommendation Algorithm Team’s mission is the commitment to provide SmartNews users with an unparalleled experience in discovering quality information. Through our intricate algorithms, we curate and present content in a manner that resonates with personalization, fostering engagement and, in turn, bolstering critical business metrics including DAU, revenue, and user engagement.

We thrive on the challenge of transforming vast data into actionable insights. We continuously refine and innovate upon our algorithms to ensure that the information presented is not only relevant but also delivered with precision, enriching the user journey and driving SmartNews’ competitive edge.

In collaboration with cross-functional teams, we contribute to the seamless integration of our algorithms into various product facets, each designed to enhance user interactions and overall satisfaction. By blending data science, engineering prowess, and a passion for innovation, our team is committed to shaping SmartNews into a trusted and indispensable source of personalized content for millions of users worldwide.

Responsibilities

  • Research and develop cutting-edge algorithms.
  • Work end-to-end, from data and model to service.
  • Manage expectations between product side and ML limitation.
  • Develop ML pipeline to make engineers more productive.
  • Innovate and implement machine learning algorithms, seamlessly integrating rule-based optimization strategies, resulting in tangible enhancements across product metrics for our diverse array of offerings such as ads, feed, and follow recommendations.
  • Design, develop, and iterate recommendation and ranking algorithms on predictive models for candidate generation and ranking, including but not limited to building real-time data pipelines, feature engineering, model optimization and innovation.

Requirements

  • 1+ years (0 for new grad) of experience in designing and implementing machine learning algorithms, and applying them to real world problems
  • Solid Machine Learning background and deep understanding of certain domain of machine learning techniques, especially in recommendation systems, natural language processing, computer visions
  • Strong software development skills with proven record of shipping changes to production that improved product metrics with machine learning technologies
  • Able to have deep end-to-end understanding of sophisticated ranking systems and can proactively detect problems and make improvement suggestions
  • Good written and spoken communication skills, can work across functional teams
  • Expert coding abilities in multiple programming languages (e.g. Java, C++, Python, Scala)
  • MS or BS in computer science, mathematics, physics or other quantitative fields
  • Fluent in Japanese

Nice to haves

While not specifically required, tell us if you have any of the following.

  • Native in Japanese
  • Experience relevant to search, recommendation, and Ads technologies.
  • Experience with cloud-based architecture, such as Amazon Web Services (AWS).
  • Strong interest in news and ads content understanding, aligned with our mission.
  • In-depth knowledge of Generative AI (GAI) and expertise in leveraging it effectively.

Meet SmartNews's Developers

When Robert joined SmartNews as a software engineer, most of his colleagues were Japanese. Since then, it’s grown into an international organization where English is predominantly used.

Read his story...

YuCheng is a senior software engineer at SmartNews. He explains the freedom he enjoys at SmartNews: not only from a technical perspective, but also the influence he can have over the direction of the product.

Read his story...

Cortland recently joined SmartNews as an engineering manager, where he leads a six person team. He talks about what drew him to the company, his role as a manager, and how they use matrix management to maximize their engineers’ success.

Read his story...

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