Senior Software Engineer (Data/ML) - all genders

Role: Senior Software Engineer (Data/ML) in the Pricing Platform department, responsible for building cutting-edge algorithmic pricing solutions to optimize profit and manage stock risk across all articles on the Zalando platform. This role sits at the intersection of data platforms, machine learning, optimization, and product development, working closely with Applied Scientists, Product Managers, Engineers, and commercial stakeholders. Responsibilities: - Build and operate production systems for data ingestion, optimization, forecasting, and machine learning. - Design scalable data and ML pipelines using Python, Databricks, Spark, and Airflow, with clear data contracts and reliable failure handling. - Enable Applied Scientists to develop and evaluate models efficiently by providing reusable training, evaluation, deployment, and experiment-tracking capabilities. - Productionise models: define dependable inputs and outputs, automate deployment, monitor quality and performance, and make model behaviour traceable in production. - Develop and operate workloads in the appropriate execution environment: Databricks jobs for distributed data and ML processing, and Dockerised applications running as Kubernetes pods where needed. - Build operational dashboards, alerts, and runbooks so that users and engineers can understand system state, identify issues, and respond effectively. - Work with product and commercial partners to convert business rules and decision requirements into maintainable software components. - Raise the engineering bar through pragmatic standards for system design, testing, code review, CI/CD, observability, and operational ownership. Qualifications: - 4+ years of experience building and running data or ML systems in production, for example in MLOps, data engineering, ML platforms, or ML product development. - Maintainable production Python and established software-delivery practices, including automated testing, code review, and CI/CD. - Strong software engineering fundamentals: reliability, scalability, observability, and maintainable system design. - Understanding of cloud workloads including AWS, Docker containers, and Kubernetes-based execution. - Clear communication with technical and non-technical stakeholders, and ability to turn ambiguous problems into dependable systems. - Familiarity with AI-assisted development tools such as Co-pilot, Codex or Claude Code is welcome. What We Offer: - 27 days of holiday a year to start for full-time employees (+1 day for every calendar year up to 30 days) - 40% off fashion and beauty products sold and shipped by Zalando, 30% off Lounge by Zalando, discounts from external partners - Family support, including counselling and dedicated services for parents and carers - Company pension scheme - Employee shares programme - Health and wellbeing options, including Wellhub - Mental health support and coaching - Development through our training platform and biannual peer-to-peer review - 2 paid volunteering days a year - Relocation assistance (subject to prior agreement)