Principal Applied Scientist 100%

The Role and the Team

The DAGT team builds state-of-the-art machine learning systems, including recommendation systems, GenAI/LLMs, and neural search, to address high-impact challenges across the customer journey. Our goal is to create experiences that are exciting, engaging, and deeply relevant.

In this pivotal role, you will engage with challenging fashion problems using cutting-edge approaches that impact over 53 million customers as they discover, choose, and purchase fashion. You will contribute to the scientific roadmap, applying your expertise to deliver projects both within your department and in collaboration with other teams. Working closely with Zalando science leaders, you will guide a talented team of scientists and engineers in developing models and machine learning products that enhance customer experiences.

Key Responsibilities

• Utilize extensive scientific experience in researching, deploying, and architecting machine learning and deep learning solutions to enhance the customer journey for millions of users.
• Collaborate with multiple teams to create an advanced science stack that aligns with product strategy, driving architectural and design principles.
• Develop long-term scientific roadmaps to tackle complex fashion challenges with state-of-the-art solutions, ensuring leadership in innovation.
• Contribute to scientific endeavors through internal peer reviews and external publications in prestigious journals and conferences.
• Serve as a mentor to junior and senior scientists, fostering collaboration and knowledge sharing within Zalando’s science community.
• Build partnerships with applied science leaders, product managers, and business stakeholders to deliver advanced machine learning solutions and uncover new growth opportunities.

Desired Qualifications

• PhD in computer vision, deep learning, search & recommendation, or related fields (or equivalent experience), backed by 6+ years of industry experience.
• Demonstrated experience in developing long-term research roadmaps and applying scientific methods to address research questions.
• Proven ability to collaborate with product, science, and engineering managers to solve business challenges through scientific solutions.
• Extensive track record in addressing large-scale real-world problems using machine learning across the entire product lifecycle.
• Robust publication record at leading venues such as SIGIR, KDD, WWW, ICLR, NeurIPS, and ICML.
• Significant hands-on experience in deep learning with proficiency in Python and frameworks such as PyTorch or TensorFlow.

Benefits

• Culture of trust, empowerment, and constructive feedback, along with a commitment to open source and knowledge sharing through various internal initiatives.
• Competitive compensation, an employee share program, and discounts on fashion products and services.
• Comprehensive onboarding, mentoring, and professional development opportunities within an international team of experts.
• Flexible working arrangements, including the option to work from abroad and generous vacation and wellness support.

Inclusivity Commitment

We envision a leading pan-European ecosystem for fashion and lifestyle e-commerce that is inclusive by design. We assess candidates based solely on qualifications and merit. We welcome diverse applications and encourage individuals of all backgrounds to consider joining us.

We strive to provide a remarkable experience throughout the hiring process and encourage candidates to share any accommodations needed for support.

Our Offer

Zalando provides a variety of benefits designed to support your professional and personal growth. Explore the possibilities of an enriching career with us.