Machine Learning Engineer II

About us: At Booking.com, data drives our decisions. Technology is at our core. And innovation is everywhere. But our company is more than datasets, lines of code or A/B tests. We’re the thrill of the first night in a new place. The excitement of the next morning. The friends you encounter. The journeys you take. The sights you see. And the memories you make. Through our products, partners and people, we make it easier for everyone to experience the world. Role Description: As a Machine Learning Engineer, you will be responsible for building and maintaining the infrastructure, systems, and pipelines that enable the training, optimization, and deployment of cutting-edge Generative AI models at scale. This includes designing scalable infrastructure for training and fine-tuning large language models on Booking.com's extensive data, optimizing model serving and inference pipelines for latency, throughput, and cost efficiency, and ensuring production reliability for systems that serve millions of travelers daily. Your engineering expertise will be critical in bridging the gap between research breakthroughs and production-ready AI systems, while implementing model optimization techniques such as quantization, distillation, pruning, and efficient attention mechanisms. We are hiring for this role across a number of key areas. For more insights about the different business units and the scope of their projects and goals, please visit this page. About the Team: The team is at the forefront of Generative AI innovation, spearheading a research effort to develop leading LLMs specifically designed for the travel domain with advanced agentic capabilities. They drive solutions for travel-related chatbots, text generation and summarization applications, Q&A systems, and free-text search. The team you are applying to is spearheading a research effort to develop leading LLMs, specifically designed for the travel domain and advanced agentic capabilities. This pioneering initiative combines cutting-edge AI research with practical applications, focusing on creating tailored solutions that redefine how travelers plan, book, and experience their journeys, with a particular emphasis on translating research prototypes into production-grade systems. Key Job Responsibilities and Duties: Work in a multi-disciplined, highly skilled team where you will be developing scalable production-grade data and ML pipelines across the entire ML cycle while working closely with the teams’ applied machine learning scientistsWork primarily with the Google Cloud Platform, designing and maintaining scalable infrastructure for training and fine-tuning large language models, utilizing technologies like BigQuery, DataProc, Cloud Composer, and Airflow, while optimizing model serving and inference pipelines for latency, throughput, and cost efficiency at production scaleBuild monitoring, alerting, and observability systems for deployed ML models, and be responsible for SLIs/SLOs for ML systems to ensure system and model health, monitor data quality, performance and business impact, and devise mitigation plans Drive a culture of quality for all ML practitioners, maintain data security, integrity and quality, and make choices over the right technologies and coding methodologies.Identify underlying issues and opportunities across the ML development cycle and contribute to the development of reusable ML frameworks, tools, and libraries that accelerate the team's velocity and can be used within and outside the team for efficient development and testing.Continuously evolve your craft, keeping up to date with the latest technologies.Collaborate with relevant ML teams across the company, as well as with ML scientists within your team, to improve, scale and extend machine learning tooling and infrastructure, ensuring best practices and knowledge sharing across the organization. Qualifications and Skills: 3+ years of relevant work experience, involved with the application of Machine Learning Engineering to business problems in a commercial environment.Strong skills in coding and problem solving. Proficiency in at least one programming language; preferably Python. Knowledge of Java is a plus.Strong working knowledge of big data retrieval and processing toolsDemonstrable experience of multiple machine learning facets, such as working with large data sets, experimentation, scalability and optimization.Experience running Machine Learning systems in production is a must, with knowledge on how to generate predictions for ML frameworks with high throughput.Experience with data-driven product development: analytics, A/B testing, etc.Experience working in a cloud environment is a plus.Willingness to learn and understand complex and multidisciplinary business problems and concepts related to booking.com business operations especially in marketing and finance fieldsYou have a ‘can do’ attitude and you act proactively and not reactively.BSc or higher in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Software Engineering, or related fields.Excellent English communication skills, both written and verbal. Benefits & Perks - Global Impact, Personal Relevance: Booking.com’s Total Rewards Philosophy is not only about compensation but also about benefits. We offer a competitive compensation and benefits package, as well unique-to-Booking.com benefits which include: Annual paid time off and generous paid leave scheme including: parent, grandparent, bereavement, and care leaveHybrid working including flexible working arrangements, and up to 20 days per year working from abroad (home country)Industry leading product discounts - up to 1400 per year - for yourself, including automatic Genius Level 3 status and Booking.com wallet credit Living and working in Amsterdam, one of the most cosmopolitan cities in EuropeContributing to a high scale, complex, world renowned product and seeing real-time impact of your work on millions of travelers worldwideWorking in a fast-paced and performance driven cultureOpportunity to utilize technical expertise, leadership capabilities and entrepreneurial spiritPromote and drive impactful and innovative engineering solutionsTechnical, behavioral and interpersonal competence advancement via on-the-job opportunities, experimental projects, hackathons, conferences and active community participationCompetitive compensation and benefits package and some great added perks of working in the home city of Booking.com Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) at Booking.com: Diversity, Equity & Inclusion have been a core part of our company culture since day one. This ongoing journey starts with our very own employees, who represent over 140 nationalities and a wide range of ethnic and social backgrounds, genders and sexual orientations. Take it from our Chief People Officer, Paulo Pisano: “At Booking.com, the diversity of our people doesn’t just build an outstanding workplace, it also creates a better and more inclusive travel experience for everyone. Inclusion is at the heart of everything we do. It’s a place where you can make your mark and have a real impact in travel and tech.” We ensure that colleagues with disabilities are provided the adjustments and tools they need to participate in the job application and interview process, to perform crucial job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Application Process: Let’s go places together: How we HireThis role does not come with relocation assistance, therefore candidates must be currently based in the Netherlands in order to be considered. Booking.com is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, or veteran status. We strive to move well beyond traditional equal opportunity and work to create an environment that allows everyone to thrive. Key Skills N/A Pre-Employment Screening If your application is successful, your personal data may be used for a pre-employment screening check by a third party as permitted by applicable law. Depending on the vacancy and applicable law, a pre-employment screening may include employment history, education and other information (such as media information) that may be necessary for determining your qualifications and suitability for the position.