Manager, Applied Science

The RealReal
US
Remote

Job Description

About The Role

The Inbound team is the gateway to our marketplace. We build high-scale, automated systems that ensure every item entering our ecosystem is authentic and documented with high-fidelity digital listings. As the Applied Science Manager (ASM) for Inbound, you will lead a world-class team of scientists to solve complex problems in computer vision, natural language processing, and multi-modal learning. You will own the end-to-end lifecycle of our AI systems—from early-stage research and architectural design to global deployment and long-term maintenance. This is a high-impact leadership role requiring a blend of deep technical expertise and the ability to mentor a high-performing team in a fast-paced environment.

What You Get To Do Every Day

  • Lead the design, development, and deployment of scalable AI models that process millions of items with high precision and low latency.
  • Help define the long-term science roadmap for Inbound, ensuring our AI solutions remain at the cutting edge of authenticity verification and automated metadata extraction.
  • Partner closely with Product, Engineering, and Business teams to translate business requirements and goals into precise, data-driven, and validated technical solutions.
  • Recruit, mentor, and retain a diverse team of Applied Scientists, fostering a culture of scientific rigor and iterative innovation.
  • Oversee the health and performance of production models, ensuring they remain performant as data distributions shift and business needs evolve.
  • Contribute to the company's intellectual property and technical leadership through patents and publications at top-tier conferences and journals.

What You Bring To The Role

Minimum Requirements:

  • PhD or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Mathematics, or a related quantitative field.
  • 3+ years of industry experience directly managing a team of Applied Scientists or Applied Research Engineers.
  • 5+ years of experience building and deploying large-scale machine learning models (e.g., Computer Vision, NLP, or Multimodal systems) into production.
  • Professional experience with Python and deep learning frameworks such as PyTorch or TensorFlow.
  • Proven ability to translate ambiguous business problems into technical roadmaps and deliver results through others.

Preferred Requirements:

  • Expertise in Computer Vision: deep knowledge of algorithms/techniques for Image Recognition, Object Detection, and/or Generative AI (LLMs/Diffusion models), specifically applied to product categorization or fraud detection.
  • Experience with cloud-based ML pipelines (e.g., AWS SageMaker, GCP Vertex AI), handling of massive datasets, and design of experiments.
  • A strong publication record in top-tier conferences (e.g., CVPR, ICML, NeurIPS) or a history of significant patent contributions.
  • Experience working in e-commerce, logistics, or supply chain technology, with a focus on high-throughput "inbound" processing.
  • Ability to explain complex scientific concepts to non-technical stakeholders and executive leadership effectively.

Compensation, Benefits, + Perks

  • Employee Stock Purchase Plan
  • 401K with Company Match
  • Medical, Dental & Vision Insurance
  • Paid Parental Leave
  • 9 Paid Company Holidays
  • Flexible Time Off (With Manager Approval)
  • Find out more about our Benefits

The expected salary range for this role is $232,789.00-$264,375.00. To determine starting pay we carefully consider a variety of factors, including primary work location and an evaluation of a candidate’s skills, experience, market demands, and internal parity. Additionally, salary is just one component of TRR’s total rewards package. Depending on role, employees may also be eligible for a bonus program, incentive pay and benefits.

Skills & Requirements

Technical Skills

computer visionnatural language processingmulti-modal learningAI systemshigh-scaleautomated systemsauthenticity verificationautomated metadata extractioncloud-based ML pipelinesmassive datasetsdesign of experimentse-commercelogisticssupply chain technologyinbound processingPythondeep learning frameworksPyTorchTensorFlowleadershipmentoringteam managementscientific rigoriterative innovationcommunicationproblem-solvinginbound teammarketplaceauthenticity verificationautomated metadata extractionAI systemse-commercelogisticssupply chain technology

Salary

$232,789 - $264,375

year

Level

manager

Posted

3/22/2026

Apply Now

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