Manager, Machine Learning, Personalization

At Loblaw Digital, we know that our customers expect the best from us. Whether that means building the best, most innovative online shopping experiences, or designing an app that will impact the lives of people across the country, we’re up for the challenge. Loblaw Digital is the team responsible for building and operating the online businesses of Canada’s largest and most successful retailer. Based in downtown Toronto, we are an entrepreneurial, fast-paced, and collaborative team working towards transforming the way Canadians shop by creating leading eCommerce experiences in the online grocery shopping, beauty, pharmacy, loyalty, and apparel spaces, and we’re only just getting started! To achieve these goals, we are looking for talented and passionate individuals who want to collaborate and solve challenging problems and make significant and lasting impact on Canadians. 

The impact you will make

As the Engineering Manager of Machine Learning for our personalization initiative, you will play a pivotal role in leading the design, development, and deployment of advanced machine learning models and algorithms, including integrations with LLMs and other GenAI tools. Your leadership will shape the digital experiences of millions of Canadians, enhancing how they engage with our platforms and improving their overall shopping journey.A key responsibility will be to assess and optimize model performance through various metrics, ensuring maximum efficiency and accuracy. Staying current with the latest advancements in machine learning and related technologies is essential, as you'll apply this knowledge to continually improve our solutions.

You will lead a team of skilled Machine Learning Engineers, focusing on delivering high-quality results and operational excellence. Reporting to the Director of Software Development, you will define and execute the strategic vision for machine learning, ensuring models are integrated and scaled effectively across all personalization efforts. Additionally, you will mentor engineers, prioritize team initiatives, and work closely with cross-functional teams—including data scientists, product managers, and business leaders—to deliver cutting-edge personalized experiences that drive meaningful business outcomes.

• Define the long-term vision for your team of ML Engineers, aligning with your organization's strategic and tactical goals.
• Lead and empower a team of high-performing individuals, while maintaining the inclusive and open culture, and channelizing individual efforts towards cohesive team goals.
• Work cross-functionally, collaborate and partner with product & business teams, and other engineering counterparts to execute on product and business strategy and build novel products and features.
• Drive the planning, development, and implementation of new features on a high impact Recommendations Platform, focussing on the Machine Learning component.
• Champion a culture of technical excellence by promoting best practices, exploring cutting-edge technologies, and driving high-quality outcomes.
• Participate in the full development cycle: design, development, test, experimentation, analysis, and launch. You’ll be reviewing code and design docs, giving feedback on product specs and mocks, and generally helping out wherever is needed.
• Coach and mentor Machine Learning Engineers by providing technical guidance, conducting code reviews, and promoting continuous learning.
• Hold regular one-on-one meetings with team members to provide feedback, discuss career development goals, and foster open communication.
• Document systems and processes thoroughly for future reference and efficient knowledge transfer within the team.

• A deep understanding of developing Machine Learning solutions with a minimum of 5 years of hands-on programming expertise.
• Experience with developing and deploying high performance engineering solutions in consumer internet space.
• Accomplished at thriving in a team environment and being comfortable with working in a highly collaborative cross-functional setup.
• At least 2 years of experience in managing Machine Learning or Data Science teams of 5 or more members.
• A track record of successfully mentoring and nurturing other engineering or data science professionals in your previous roles.
• Opinionated about what constitutes great software but remains open to others' ideas and perspectives.
• Skilled in software estimation, adept at handling complexity and uncertainty.
• Decision-making based on data is your forte. You are proficient in utilizing tools to measure various aspects of applications and team performance.
• Excellent communication skills are a must. You should be able to effectively collaborate with teams in a fully remote setting and articulate complex topics to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Open-minded and enthusiastic about learning and sharing knowledge, always on the lookout for better approaches to tasks.
• Proficient in developing complex consumer-facing software using Python, AirFlow, Data Warehouses, SQL & NoSQL Databases and have familiarity with Docker and Kubernetes
• Experience with deploying engineering products on public cloud platforms (Google Cloud Platform, AWS, Azure).
• Possess a deep understanding of web services and web application

How you’ll succeed

At Loblaw Digital, we seek great people to continually strengthen our culture. We believe great people model our values, are authentic, build trust and make connections. We’re able to keep innovating because our colleagues are passionate about their work and excited about the future of eCommerce. You will get to work with some of the best digital minds and will have the support of world class technologies to craft products our customers will love!

If you are unsure whether your experience matches every requirement above, we encourage you to apply anyway. We are looking for varied perspectives which include diverse experiences that we can add to our team.

We have a long-standing focus on diversity, equity and inclusion because we know it will make our company a better place to work and shop. We are committed to creating accessible environments for our colleagues, candidates and customers. Requests for accommodation due to a disability (which may be visible or invisible, temporary or permanent) can be made at any stage of application and employment. We encourage candidates to make their accommodation needs known so that we can provide equitable opportunities.