Senior Machine Learning Scientist (Agentic Modelling Team)

• This opening is for the Agentic Modeling Team within the Data & AI Marketplace department
• The Agentic Modeling team is responsible for enabling mission teams across Booking.com to build, deploy, and continuously improve production-grade AI agents
• We provide a modular, configuration-driven platform where teams compose reusable building blocks e.g. tools, memory, context management, agent strategies, and system prompts, into custom agents tailored to their domains
• Our tooling supports the full agent lifecycle: building, evaluating, optimizing, publishing, and iterating on agents that power the Connected Trip experience
• As a Senior Machine Learning Scientist, you will research, design, and develop the core AI capabilities that power our agentic platform, focusing on agent strategies, reasoning architectures, context management, memory systems, and multi-agent patterns
• You will work at the intersection of LLM research and production systems, translating state-of-the-art techniques into reusable, scalable capabilities that teams across Booking.com can leverage through configuration
• Research and develop advanced agent strategies - iterative planning, self-correction, multi-step reasoning, and conditional execution paths
• Design and build context management and memory systems (session-level and long-term) that enable personalized, improved agent experiences
• Research and implement multi-agent patterns - enabling specialized agents to collaborate, share context, and delegate sub-tasks
• Help build systematic experimentation and optimization - model selection, strategy comparison, prompt engineering, and architecture decisions backed by quantitative analysis
• Build reusable ML components that encode production best practices and are available to all teams through configuration
• Collaborate closely with ML engineers to ensure research translates into production-grade capabilities with appropriate latency and reliability
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams (product managers, mission teams, platform engineers) to translate business requirements into agent capabilities

Benefits

• Health insurance
• Free access to Headspace for you and your loved ones
• Global Employee Assistance Program
• Meditation and Breastfeeding rooms at the office
• Booking Cares - 2 days per year to volunteer and learn
• Life insurance
• Disability insurance
• Pension plan
• Annual paid time off
• Parental leave - 22 weeks
• Grandparent leave - 10 days
• Care leave - 10 days
• Bereavement leave - up to 4 weeks
• Anniversary leave
• Working from Home Furniture and Ergonomic Support
• Working from Abroad - up to 20 days per year
• Discounts & Wallet credits to spend on our products
• Upgrade to Booking.com Genius Level 3
• Friends & Family Booking.com discount vouchers
• Free access to online learning platforms
• Development and mentorship programs to support career growth
• Access to trainings and workshops
• Team development opportunities
• Local discount programs
• Game rooms in offices
• On-site meals, coffee and snacks including vegan options- Successfully driving technical and people-related initiatives while communicating with stakeholders at all levels
• Experience designing and building production agentic or conversational AI systems at scale
• Relevant work or academic experience (MSc + 6 years, or PhD + 4 years), applying Machine Learning to business problems
• Leading by example, developing your team and motivating them to achieve their goals. Providing timely feedback and managing key performance indicators
• Experience designing and executing end-to-end R&D plans. Preferably evidenced by peer-reviewed publications, patents, or open-source contributions
• Excellent English communication skills, both written and verbal
• Experience collaborating cross-functionally in the development of ML-powered products
• Strong working knowledge of Python and ML/AI frameworks. Experience with LLM APIs and retrieval systems
• Experience with LLM evaluation and optimization - designing metrics and systematically improving model-based systems
• Masters degree, PhD or equivalent experience in a quantitative field (e.g., Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Mathematics, Physics, etc.)
• Advanced knowledge and experience in NLP, LLM-based systems, and agentic AI architectures - including tool use, reasoning, retrieval-augmented generation, and agent planning