PhD Research Fellow, Intelligent Search, Recommendation and Procurement Optimization

This is a fully remote position, open to applicants in Brazil.

📋 Description

• Assess and analyze the existing search system at Mercado IGA, focusing on ranking algorithms, semantic search, and relevance of results.

• Create models for clustering similar offers to enhance the Buy Box feature and facilitate vendor comparisons.

• Develop conceptual search frameworks that can convert purchasing intents into organized product collections.

• Design automated solutions for cart generation from various sources, including lists, commercial proposals, or natural language inputs.

• Construct multi-criteria optimization models to suggest cart configurations based on factors like lowest cost, shortest delivery time, or minimal supplier involvement.

⛳️ Requirements

• Completed PhD or currently enrolled in a PhD program.

• Doctorate in fields such as Computer Science, Data Science, Computer Engineering, Engineering, Information Systems, Artificial Intelligence, Natural Language Processing, Applied Mathematics, or related disciplines.

• Relevant practical or academic experience with search systems, ranking methodologies, or recommender systems.

• Expertise in Python for modeling, AI, optimization, or data science tasks.

• Familiarity with embeddings, vector search, or similarity techniques.

• Background in optimization algorithms or operations research.

• Understanding of multi-agent systems or intelligent agent frameworks.

• Capability to model decision-making scenarios involving multiple criteria and constraints.

• Willingness to commit to 40 hours per week.

• Previous experience in marketplace, e-commerce, procurement, or supply chain (preferred).

• Knowledge of Buy Box mechanics, product matching, item recommendations, or cart optimization (preferred).

• Understanding of multi-criteria optimization (preferred).

• Familiarity with Elasticsearch, Typesense, or comparable search technologies (preferred).

• Knowledge of graphs, ontologies, or semantic product representations (preferred).

• Publications, research, or applied projects related to recommendation systems, optimization, agents, or intelligent search (preferred).

🏝️ Benefits

• Stipend of BRL 9,000 for PhD candidates or BRL 11,000 for those with completed PhDs.

• Fully remote work opportunity.

• Commitment of 40 hours per week.

• Contract duration of 12 months.