Outbrain

TL;DR: This is an applied Data Science and ML position with a strong emphasis on software engineering and end-to-end ownership using cutting-edge ML approaches in a world-class Data Science department.

We are Outbrain.

We’re one of the world’s largest content recommendation platforms, delighting audiences with engaging, personalized content recommendations while serving as the primary engagement partner and platform for the world’s top digital media companies.

We're looking for a versatile machine learning engineer / data scientist to help us grow our real-time bidding (RTB) ad management services across Outbrain and Zemanta infrastructure. We are working with huge scale: our real time bidding infrastructure handles several million bid requests every second, and it needs to decide which ad to show for every one of them in real time using machine learning. This generates terabytes of data daily that needs to be processed quickly and efficiently. Our ML Algorithms make over a billion predictions per second and are trained on hundreds TBs of data - a truly unimaginable scale!

A day in the life

• As a machine learning engineer / data scientist you will be taking our data science and ML projects all the way from ideas to solutions - from identifying and formulating the problem with your colleagues, through exploring terabytes of data, building predictive models and running thousands of offline experiments (btw, we developed our own state-of-the-art distributed AutoML framework to help you with that). Then choosing best models and deploying them to production in A/B tests, analysing the results and looking after your models in the wild by monitoring and tracking their behaviour.
• We understand some people have better engineering skills while others are more versed in data science and machine learning. We like to do both and are excellent at coaching - our experienced Data Scientists and Engineers will help you level-up your skills on both fronts!

What it's like to be a ML Engineer / Data Scientist at Outbrain? 

• We solve hard problems: like processing millions of bid requests per second efficiently. Each of those bid requests relies heavily on our machine learning algorithms, which select which piece of content (ad, video, article, etc) to display to the user in the specific moment.
• We use the right tools for the job: our stack includes: Go, Python, TensorFlow, BigQuery, Kafka, Aerospike, PostgreSQL, Hadoop, Docker, Prometheus, Grafana, ...
• We use Github for managing code, Jira for keeping track of projects and Slack to tie it all together. Our machine learning algorithms are in-house developed in either pure Go or TensorFlow. BigQuery allows us to whizz through TBs of data for analysis using SQL.
• We build things that matter to our users: engineers work closely with our product team to understand how customers use our product. This helps us make better decisions when building new features.
• We care about quality: we don't just want things done, we want them done right. We cannot imagine life without continuous integration, one-click automated deployments, code reviews, technical specs, architecture design reviews and unit tests. We find beauty in simple and elegant solutions and flexible architectures.
• We push people out of their comfort zone: if you want to grow, you'll get all the responsibility you can handle. Our engineers take full ownership over projects, which includes everything from defining a solution with colleagues, planning, architectural design, implementation, testing, deployment and maintenance. If this sounds overwhelming, don't worry - you'll get plenty of support from more experienced members of the team.
• We are a small team with global impact: we're a part of a global engineering team, which opens up lots of new opportunities for us. We collaborate with engineers and product managers based in Tel Aviv on a daily basis.
• We constantly try to improve: we share knowledge through internal weekly tech talks, postmortems, code reviews, blog posts and meetup talks; and we do tons of knowledge sharing externally, including organizing DS Summer School (we hosted 5 so far!), work closely with FRI DataScience Masters Programme, and publish research papers and present at top world conferences like ACM RecSys and ACM Web Conference.
• Some words that have meaning to us: TensorFlow, Deep Learning, Deep&Cross Networks, AutoML, Incremental ML, Model Quantization, Real-time Auctions, Pricing Strategies, Two-sided Marketplace, PID Controllers, Multi-Arm Bandits, Factorization Machines, … Do they have meaning to you? If not, they soon will ;)

What you’ll bring

• 2+ years of professional software engineering experience.
• Machine Learning and Data Science knowledge and experience are a big plus, desire to build on it is a must.
• Good knowledge of modern backend development, databases, basic data structures and most common design patterns.
• Ability to write clean, maintainable, well-tested production code.
• A strong desire to learn and grow as a member of a talented engineering and data science team.
• You lean towards simple and effective solutions and are allergic to over-engineering.
• You set very high standards for yourself and you are constantly improving your skills.
• We expect you to like working with people - you'll be doing that a lot.
• You are a reliable, trustworthy person that keeps their promises and takes responsibility for their actions.
• Having experience with our stack is a plus, but not mandatory - we value talent, strong fundamentals and dedication to excellence more than the tools you've used.

Technical Skills/Experience will be tested in the early stages of the recruitment process.

More than snacks! 

• Office and home hybrid working (3 days in the office)
• Parking reimbursement
• Be part of our success with our equity program 
• Expand your toolbox with our mentorship program and internal learning tools
• Pet friendly office
• Happy hours & Free lunch once a week that is cooked by renowned chef
• …and of course a fully stocked kitchen!

Please submit your CV in english because we are an international team.

We Recommend #LifeAtOutbrain

Outbrain is an equal employment opportunity employer and committed to diversity and inclusion at all stages of recruitment and employment.

Our company culture is welcoming, dynamic, diverse, global, and built on top performance.

Did you know "trust" is one of our core values? We apply this value to our day-to-day by working collaboratively on a global scale. With managers and teammates often sitting in other countries and time zones, we value communication, patience, and open-mindedness to all cultural backgrounds. We encourage all ideas, and everyone gets a seat at the table!

Our team is made up of individuals who are approachable, resourceful, passionate, and proactive. We foster a sense of belonging through our Employee Resource Groups –employee-led groups in which we debate topics and drive change. From OB Green (environmental), OB WE (women empowerment), OB Good (charitable initiatives) to OB4E (diversity, equity, and inclusion), you’ll be able to share your passions with likeminded people.

Dive into the Outbrain experience via our Instagram account!