Staff AI Engineer - Search & Discovery

We exist to wow our customers. We know we’re doing the right thing when we hear our customers say, “How did we ever live without Coupang?” Born out of an obsession to make shopping, eating, and living easier than ever, we’re collectively disrupting the multi-billion-dollar e-commerce industry from the ground up. We are one of the fastest-growing e-commerce companies that established an unparalleled reputation for being a dominant and reliable force in South Korean commerce.  

We are proud to have the best of both worlds — a startup culture with the resources of a large global public company. This fuels us to continue our growth and launch new services at the speed we have been since our inception. We are all entrepreneurs surrounded by opportunities to drive new initiatives and innovations. At our core, we are bold and ambitious people that like to get our hands dirty and make a hands-on impact. At Coupang, you will see yourself, your colleagues, your team, and the company grow every day.  

Our mission to build the future of commerce is real. We push the boundaries of what’s possible to solve problems and break traditional tradeoffs. Join Coupang now to create an epic experience in this always-on, high-tech, and hyper-connected world. 

We are looking for an AI Native, AI First Engineer to pioneer and architect entirely new applications where Generative AI and Large Language Models (LLMs) serve as the fundamental core intelligence.

At Coupang, we are redefining the boundaries of what is possible. This role is at the forefront of our invention strategy, building systems that are not just AI-enhanced, but AI-native from the ground up to deliver transformative customer and operational experiences.

In this role, you will own the end-to-end lifecycle of high-scale, non-deterministic AI systems—from rapid prototyping and architectural design to full-scale production deployment. You will operate with a full-stack AI mindset, leveraging cutting-edge LLM technology to solve complex problems and create entirely new product paradigms.

This is a high-impact, pioneering role where you will drive innovation at scale, shape the future of our product intelligence, and demonstrate a proven track record of taking transformative AI concepts from zero to production.

· 3 years of experience in software engineering, with solid coding skills and critical code review capabilities, as well as a deep specialization in leveraging Large Language Models (LLMs) and Generative AI systems and productivity tools.

· Strong product-led engineering mindset with the ability to bridge the gap between cutting-edge AI research and practical, user-centric product features.

· Proven experience owning end-to-end AI applications, including:

· Generative AI agents and conversational interfaces.

· RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) pipelines.

· LLM fine-tuning and optimization for specific domains.

· AI-powered automation and workflow systems.

· Demonstrated track record of taking AI-first products from concept to production, driving measurable improvements in user engagement, operational efficiency, or system performance.

· Deep technical understanding of modern AI stacks, including:

· Prompt engineering and LLM orchestration frameworks (e.g., LangChain, LlamaIndex).

· Vector databases and semantic search architectures.

· Scalable MLOps for non-deterministic AI models.

Our compensation reflects the cost of labor across several US geographic markets. At Coupang, your base pay is one part of your total compensation. 

The base pay for this position ranges from $184,000/year in our lowest geographic market to $376,000/year in our highest geographic market. Pay is based on several factors including market location and may vary depending on job-related knowledge, skills, and experience.