Senior Applied Scientist II, Ads Optimization @Instacart

Overview

The role involves leading the algorithmic direction of Instacart's Advertiser Optimization team, which supports the $1B+ ads business. The position focuses on converting advertiser goals into real-time auction actions while balancing user experience and platform revenue.

Key Responsibilities

• Design and evolve real-time bid optimization systems to align bidding with advertiser goals.
• Build intelligent budget pacing algorithms that maximize total value across time and auction opportunities.
• Develop analytical frameworks linking bidding, pacing, and budgeting into a coherent optimization objective.
• Shape auction mechanics and reason about design tradeoffs between advertiser outcomes and platform revenue.
• Own the research-to-production loop, diagnose system behavior, formulate hypotheses, design experiments, and measure impact.

Requirements

• Graduate degree (Masters or PhD) in operations research, applied mathematics, control systems, computational economics, or a related field.
• 8+ years of experience in building and deploying optimization or control systems in production environments.
• Strong foundation in feedback control theory, convex optimization, auction theory, and dynamic programming.
• Proficiency in Go, Java, C++, and Python.
• Ability to translate mathematical formulations into scalable production code.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with real-time bidding systems and computational advertising.
• Background in budget-constrained allocation methods and adaptive control.
• Familiarity with causal inference and experimental design.
• Track record of shaping technical strategy in cross-functional teams.

Benefits

Competitive compensation and benefits package, including eligibility for equity grants. Detailed information can be found in the company's benefits offerings.

Location

Remote within the United States.

How to Apply

Visit the Instacart careers page to apply.