Senior Principal Applied Scientist - Ranking and Recommendations (all genders)

Role The Ranking and Recommendations team at Zalando develops next‑generation discovery systems using deep learning, multi‑objective optimization and recommender systems. As a Senior Principal Applied Scientist you will tackle challenging fashion problems, drive the scientific roadmap and collaborate with scientists and engineers to enhance the experience of over 53 million customers. Responsibilities - Research, develop, deploy and architect machine‑learning and deep‑learning solutions for ranking and recommendation, including deep learning, recommender systems and multi‑objective optimisation. - Collaborate with product, science and engineering teams to build a cutting‑edge science stack aligned with product strategy and design principles. - Define long‑term research roadmaps spanning multiple product areas and address concrete business goals. - Serve as a trusted advisor to senior leadership, influencing investments, strategic direction and make‑or‑buy decisions. - Mentor senior and principal scientists and share knowledge across Zalando’s science community. - Lead large delivery projects with high uncertainty, applying scientific methods to solve complex challenges and communicating with stakeholders. Qualifications - PhD in Machine Learning or AI (or equivalent) with 8+ years of industry experience in deep learning, multi‑armed bandits or large‑scale sequential decision‑making systems. - Proven experience leading scientific roadmaps and collaborating with applied science leaders and product managers. - Strong track record of delivering end‑to‑end machine‑learning solutions and advancing state‑of‑the‑art methods, with a solid publication record. - Expertise in deep learning frameworks such as PyTorch or TensorFlow and proficiency in Python. - Experience with cloud platforms (e.g., AWS). What We Offer - Competitive salary, employee share scheme and 40 % Zalando shopping discount. - Extensive onboarding, mentoring and personal development opportunities. - Flexible working times, additional holidays, volunteering time off and relocation assistance. - Access to internal technical guilds, tech talks, meet‑ups, game nights and a vibrant community. - Modern office facilities, great IT equipment, free beverages and fruits, and diverse sports and health offerings.