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Director of Applied AI & Machine LearningThrive Market • United States
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Director of Applied AI & Machine Learning

Thrive Market
  • US
    United States
  • US
    United States
Apply Now

About

About Thrive Market Thrive Market was founded in 2014 with a mission to make healthy and sustainable living easy and affordable for everyone. As an online, membership-based market, we deliver the highest quality healthy and sustainable products at member‑only prices, while matching every paid membership with a free one for someone in need. We leverage innovative technology and member‑first thinking to help our 1,700,000+ members find better products, support better brands, and build a better world. We are a Certified B Corporation, a Public Benefit Corporation, and a Climate Neutral Certified company.
The Role We are looking for a Director of Applied AI & Machine Learning to lead our ML organization. This position sits at the intersection of applied science, engineering, and product strategy and will drive the transition to a dynamic, personalized storefront. You will lead a team of Senior Data Scientists and a cross‑functional engineering group, oversee hiring of additional team members, and partner deeply with Product, Engineering, and business stakeholders to embed ML across the platform.
Requirements ML Strategy & Organizational Leadership
Define and execute the ML roadmap, aligning investments with business priorities across search, discovery, personalization, growth, and operations.
Build, scale, and mentor a high‑performing ML team spanning data science, ML engineering, and analytics.
Serve as the primary ML voice in product and engineering leadership forums, translating business objectives into ML‑solvable problems and communicating technical trade‑offs to non‑technical stakeholders.
Personalization & Ranking Systems
Own the strategy and execution of server‑driven personalization, driving dynamically assembled, per‑member experiences across all major site surfaces.
Define and evolve the overall recommendations strategy—both global and localized—to ensure relevance and business impact over time.
Own the ML search strategy end‑to‑end, continuously improving member experience and engagement through iterative modeling and experimentation.
ML Decision Systems & Business Impact
Develop and evolve production ML decision systems across member lifecycle, demand forecasting, and segmentation to guide domain strategy and capital allocation.
Partner with cross‑functional teams (Product, Marketing, Merchandising, Finance) to identify high‑impact ML applications and integrate models into business workflows.
ML Platform & Infrastructure
Strengthen ML platform foundations: model deployment, feature pipelines, validation frameworks, monitoring, and experiment velocity.
Drive adoption of best practices for ML reliability—automated testing, model health monitoring, graceful degradation, and observability.
Enable faster iteration cycles through tooling, infrastructure investment, and process improvements.
Applied GenAI & Innovation
Lead applied GenAI exploration, including prototyping LLM‑powered assistants for shopping, product discovery, and personalization workflows.
Evaluate emerging ML techniques and tooling, prioritizing what delivers member and business value.
Qualifications Must‑Have
8+ years of experience in data science, machine learning, or applied ML engineering, with at least 3 years leading ML teams in a production environment.
Deep technical expertise in search, retrieval, ranking, and/or recommendation systems, with demonstrated experience building multi‑stage ML pipelines at scale.
Proven track record of building and scaling an ML organization—hiring, mentoring, setting technical standards, and establishing team culture.
Experience designing and deploying ML systems that directly drive business outcomes in an e‑commerce or consumer‑facing platform.
Strong cross‑functional partnership skills—able to work effectively with Product, Engineering, Marketing, Finance, and executive leadership.
Experience with ML platform and infrastructure patterns: feature stores, model serving, experimentation frameworks, and monitoring.
Comfort operating as both a strategic leader and a hands‑on technical contributor.
Strong Signals
Experience with server‑driven or backend‑driven UI/personalization architectures.
Background in e‑commerce, marketplace, or subscription‑based platforms.
Experience with NLP/semantic search (e.g., BERT‑based encoders, dense retrieval).
Familiarity with pLTV modeling, demand forecasting, or similar decision‑science applications.
Hands‑on experience with LLMs and applied GenAI in production or near‑production contexts.
Mission‑driven orientation—experience at or affinity for companies focused on health, wellness, sustainability, or social impact.
Job Information
Compensation Description – The base salary range for this position is $250,000 – $300,000 per year.
Compensation may vary outside of this range based on qualifications, skills, competencies, and location.
Total Compensation includes Base Salary, Annual Bonus, Stock Options, Health & Wellness Benefits, Flexible PTO, and more.
This position requires traveling twice a year to our HQ office in Los Angeles, California, for all‑company summits.
Benefits
Comprehensive health benefits (medical, dental, vision, life and disability)
Competitive salary (DOE) + equity
401(k) plan
9 observed holidays
Flexible paid time off
Subsidized ClassPass membership and access to fitness, wellness, and beauty experiences
Ability to work in our office in Playa Vista
Free Thrive Market membership with exclusive employee discount
Coverage for life coaching & therapy sessions on our holistic mental health and well‑being platform
EEO and Diversity Statement Thrive Market is an EEO/Veterans/Disabled/LGBTQ employer. At Thrive Market, our goal is to be a diverse and inclusive workplace that is representative of the members we serve and the communities we operate in. We are proud to be an inclusive company and an Equal Opportunity Employer and we prohibit discrimination and harassment of any kind. Diversity and inclusion among our teammates is critical to our success. Employment with Thrive Market requires that employees be based in the United States. If you need assistance or accommodation due to a disability, please email us at eeo@thrivemarket.com and we’ll be happy to assist you.
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  • United States

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  • English
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