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

Role: The Ranking and Recommendations team at Zalando assists customers in their fashion discovery journey and helps them find what they are looking for. We are developing the next generation of our discovery systems, utilising state-of-the-art Deep Learning, Multi-Objective Optimization and Recommender Systems, to create personalised and engaging shopping experiences by creating and optimizing ranking and recommendation algorithms for the Zalando customer experience. As a Senior Principal Applied Scientist, you will address challenging fashion problems using cutting-edge approaches, contributing to define our scientific roadmap, and collaborate with a team of exceptional scientists and engineers developing machine learning products for over 53 million customers. Responsibilities: - Utilise your extensive scientific experience to research, deploy, and architect machine learning and deep learning solutions, particularly in Deep Learning, Recommender Systems, and Multi-objective optimisation, enhancing the conversion journey of millions of customers. - Collaborate with multiple teams to build a cutting-edge science stack aligned with product strategy and drive architectural and design principles. - Develop long-term roadmaps for research topics that span multiple product areas and address concrete business goals. - As part of the leadership team, be a advisor and trusted advisor to senior leadership on investments in people, strategic direction, and make or buy decisions. - Act as a mentor and guide to senior and principal scientists, actively sharing knowledge across Zalando's science community. - Forge close partnerships with applied science leaders and product managers to deliver state-of-the-art ML solutions and grow new opportunities. - Support the entire customer journey through deploy, develop, implement, test, and research of ML models for personalisation, ranking, and recommendations. Qualifications: - PhD in Machine Learning and AI (or equivalent) plus 8+ years of industry experience in deep learning, multi-armed bandits, or large-scale sequential decision-making systems. - Demonstrated ability to lead and shape scientific roadmaps across multiple areas and work with senior Applied Science leaders. - Proven record of solving real-world problems using machine learning, throughout the full product cycle, and raise department and company best practices. - Expertise in deep learning, with strong publication record. - Extensive hands-on experience with Python and deep learning frameworks (PyTorch/TensorFlow) and cloud platforms like AWS. What We Offer: - Culture of trust, empowerment, constructive feedback; open source commitment, 70+ internal guilds, knowledge sharing via tech talks and internal tech academy. - Competitive salary, employee share shop, 40% Zalando shopping discount, external discounts, centrally located offices, public transport subsidies, flexible working time, additional holidays, free beverages, sports and health benefits. - Extensive onboarding, mentoring, and personal development opportunities, international team. - Relocation assistance, family services, and parent & child rooms (selected locations).