Senior Applied Scientist (all genders)

THE ROLE & THE TEAM As a Senior Applied Scientist in ZMS, you will help deliver effective and scientifically-sound solutions to our main business problems: real-time recommendation for our Sponsored Product and Campaign advertisements. Every time a customer interacts with Zalando, our ad tech systems make real-time decisions at immense scale. The platform evaluates thousands of candidate ads, predicts complex performance metrics, and executes sophisticated auction mechanics in tens of thousands of requests per second. At the intersection of market dynamics, machine learning, and high-throughput engineering, you will define how we solve these high-stakes algorithmic challenges. In this role, you will work on complex problems at the intersection of Deep Learning, Auction Theory, Econometrics, Causal inference, and high-load low-latency Machine Learning Engineering. Working alongside Principal Scientists and engineering teams, you will focus on building and implementing technical initiatives within our ad tech systems. This position is a unique opportunity to have a visible impact and connect with exceptional talents from many different backgrounds. WHAT WE'D LOVE YOU TO DO (AND LOVE DOING) - Contribute to the development of our real-time bidding and allocation algorithms, optimizing for advertiser performance and user relevance. - Build, train, and deploy machine learning models to help solve challenges in targeting and ad candidate retrieval. - Work with Product Managers, Engineers, and Analysts to assist in translating business constraints into mathematical objective functions. - Apply high Applied Science and ML Engineering standards within your daily work and code reviews. - Share knowledge and best practices across the team to ensure smooth collaboration with other job functions. WE'D LOVE TO MEET YOU IF - You hold a MSc or PhD in Statistics, Computer Science, Mathematics, or Physics. - You have about 3+ years of industry experience in Machine Learning, Data Science, or Deep Learning. - You have experience in developing solutions from initial idea to production. - You have strong proficiency in Python and its related stack, coupled with practical knowledge in Deep Learning, Econometrics, or Causal inference. - You have excellent verbal and written communication skills, with a focus on clarity and structure. - Experience in the Advertising or Ecommerce industry is highly preferred. 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) - 2 paid volunteering days a year - Employee shares program - 40% off fashion and beauty products sold and shipped by Zalando, 30% off Lounge by Zalando, discounts from external partners - Relocation assistance available (subject to prior agreement) - Family services, including counselling and support - Health and wellbeing options (including Wellhub, formerly Gympass) - Mental health support and coaching available - Drive your development through our training platform and biannual peer-to-peer review