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 mission is to create experiences that are not only exciting and engaging but also deeply relevant.
As a Principal Applied Scientist, you will play a pivotal role in tackling complex fashion problems using innovative approaches that influence how over 53 million customers discover, choose, and purchase fashion. You will help drive our scientific roadmap, applying your expertise to deliver projects across departments in collaboration with multiple teams. Working closely with Zalando science leaders, you will guide a team of exceptional scientists and engineers to develop advanced models and machine learning products that enhance customer experiences.
WHAT WE'D LOVE YOU TO DO (AND LOVE DOING)
- Utilize your extensive scientific experience in developing, deploying, and architecting machine learning and deep learning solutions to enhance the customer journey for millions of users.
- Collaborate with various teams to create a cutting-edge science stack that aligns with product strategy and drives architectural and design principles.
- Develop long-term scientific roadmaps to address complex fashion challenges using state-of-the-art solutions, ensuring we remain at the forefront of innovation.
- Contribute to our scientific endeavors through internal peer reviews and external publications in top-tier journals and conferences.
- Act as a mentor to junior and senior scientists, fostering collaboration with other teams and actively sharing knowledge and expertise within Zalando’s science community.
- Forge close partnerships with applied science leaders, product managers, and other business stakeholders to deliver cutting-edge machine learning solutions to our customers and uncover new opportunities for growth.
WE'D LOVE TO MEET YOU IF:
- You hold a PhD in computer vision, deep learning, search & recommendation, or related fields (or possess equivalent experience), accompanied by over 6 years of industry experience.
- You have experience in developing long-term research roadmaps and applying scientific methods to solve research problems.
- You possess a strong inclination to collaborate with product, science, and engineering managers to solve business problems through scientific solutions.
- You have an extensive track record of addressing large-scale real-world problems using machine learning throughout the entire product lifecycle, including problem analysis, data processing, literature review, production deployment, monitoring, and maintenance.
- You have strong publication records at top-tier venues such as SIGIR, KDD, WWW, ICLR, NeurIPS, ICML, JMLR, etc.
- You have extensive hands-on experience in deep learning, with proficiency in Python and frameworks like PyTorch or TensorFlow.
PERKS AT WORK
- Culture of trust, empowerment, constructive feedback, open source commitment, meetups, game nights, and 70+ internal technical and fun guilds.
- Knowledge sharing through tech talks, an internal tech academy, blogs, product demos, parties, and events.
- Competitive salary, employee share shop, 40% Zalando shopping discount, discounts from external partners, centrally located offices, public transport discounts, municipality services, great IT equipment, flexible working hours, additional holidays, and volunteering time off.
- Free beverages and fruits, diverse sports, and health offerings.
- Extensive onboarding, mentoring, and personal development opportunities within an international team of experts.
- Relocation assistance for internationals, PME family services, and parent & child rooms (available in selected locations).
INCLUSIVE BY DESIGN
At Zalando, our vision is to be the leading pan-European ecosystem for fashion and lifestyle e-commerce—one that is inclusive by design. We assess candidates solely based on qualifications, merit, and business needs. We welcome applications from individuals of all gender identities, sexual orientations, personal expressions, racial identities, ethnicities, religious beliefs, and disability statuses. We only want to know why you’re an ideal fit for this role, so please avoid including your picture, age, or marital status in your CV.
We strive to provide a great candidate experience. Please inform us of any accommodations you may need, so we can best support you throughout the hiring process.
OUR OFFER
Zalando provides a range of benefits; here’s an overview of what you can expect. Ask your Talent Acquisition Partner to learn more about what we offer.
- Employee shares program.
- 40% off fashion and beauty products sold and shipped by Zalando, and 30% off Lounge by Zalando, along with discounts from external partners.
- Two paid volunteering days per year.
- Hybrid working model with up to 60% remote work per week; actual practice varies by team.
- Work from abroad for up to 30 working days a year.
- 25 days of vacation per year for full-time employees.
- Health and wellbeing options (SportAbo in Zurich).
- Swiss SBB Halbtax (half-fare card).
- Mental health support and coaching available.
- Drive your development through our training platform and biannual peer-to-peer reviews.
Apply online using the form below.
Only applications matching the job profile will be considered.