Principal Applied Scientist - IR (all genders)

 The Discovery team 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, utilizing state-of-the-art information retrieval (IR) methods, particularly transformer-based deep neural networks and large language models (LLMs).  

As a Principal Applied Scientist, you will play a key role in addressing challenging fashion problems using cutting-edge approaches. You will help drive our scientific roadmap, applying your scientific capabilities to deliver department-wide and cross-department projects in collaboration with multiple teams. Working closely with Zalando science leaders, you will guide a team of exceptional scientists and engineers to develop models and cutting-edge machine learning products that enhance the experience of over 51 million customers. 

WHERE YOUR EXPERTISE IS NEEDED

• Utilize your extensive scientific experience in researching, deploying, and architecting machine learning and deep learning solutions in IR to enhance the inspiration journey of millions of our customers. Collaborate with multiple teams to create a cutting-edge science stack that aligns with the product strategy and drive architectural and design principles.

• Develop long-term scientific roadmaps to address complex fashion challenges using state-of-the-art solutions, ensuring we stay at the forefront of IR 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, foster collaboration with other teams, and actively share knowledge and expertise within Zalando’s science community.

• Forge close partnerships with applied science leaders, product managers, and other business stakeholders to deliver state-of-the-art machine learning solutions to our customers and uncover new opportunities for growth.

WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR

• PhD in IR, search & recommendation, information & knowledge management, or related fields (or equivalent experience), accompanied by 6+ years of industry experience in modern IR systems, especially neural IR. Comprehensive understanding of the key components of an IR system, including query processing, indexing, evaluation, etc. 

• Experience in developing long-term research roadmaps and applying scientific methods to tackle research problems. A strong inclination to collaborate with product, science, and engineering managers and solve business problems through scientific solutions.

• Extensive track record of addressing large-scale real-world problems using machine learning throughout the entire product cycle, encompassing problem analysis, data processing, literature review, production deployment, monitoring, and maintenance. 

• Strong publication records at top-tier venues such as SIGIR, KDD, WWW, ICLR, NeurIPS, ICML, JMLR, etc.

• Extensive hands-on experience in deep learning with proficiency in Python and frameworks like PyTorch or TensorFlow. Familiarity with LLMs. Proficiency in full-text search engines such as Elasticsearch, OpenSearch, Apache Lucene is also desired.

• Knowledge of classical IR models is a plus (boolean, vector, and probabilistic).   

PERKS AT WORK

• Culture of trust, empowerment and constructive feedback, open source commitment, meetups, game nights, 70+ internal technical and fun guilds, knowledge sharing through tech talks, internal tech academy and blogs, product demos, parties & events.

• Flexible hours

• Work load of 80-100%

• Competitive salary, employee share shop, 40% Zalando shopping discount, discounts from external partners, centrally located offices, public transport discounts, municipality services, great IT equipment, additional holidays and volunteering time off, free beverages and fruits, diverse sports and health offerings.

• Extensive onboarding, mentoring and personal development opportunities and an international team of experts.

• Relocation assistance for internationals, PME family service and parent & child rooms* (*available in selected locations)

INCLUSIVE BY DESIGN

At Zalando, our vision is to be inclusive by design. And this vision starts with our hiring - we do not discriminate on the basis of gender identity, sexual orientation, personal expression, ethnicity, religious belief, or disability status. You are welcome to leave out your picture, age, or marital status from your application. We only assess candidates on their qualifications and merit. ​

• We want to provide you with a great candidate experience. Feel free to inform us of any accommodations you may need, so we can best support you throughout the hiring process. 

• do.BETTER - our diversity & inclusion strategy: https://corporate.zalando.com/en/our-impact/dobetter-our-diversity-and-inclusion-strategy
  Our employee resource groups: https://corporate.zalando.com/en/our-impact/our-employee-resource-groups

• Opportunity to work from abroad for 30 (working) days per calendar year

ABOUT ZALANDO

It’s the perfect time to join Zalando on our journey, from being a pioneer in the world of e-commerce, to the starting point for fashion in Europe. We connect customers, brands, and partners across 23 markets.

Help us drive digital and sustainable solutions for fashion, logistics, advertising and research, bringing head-to-toe fashion to more than 48 million active customers through a team of diverse skill-sets, cultural backgrounds, and interests.

Our values https //jobs.zalando.com/en/our-founding-mindset

do.More - our sustainability strategy https //corporate.zalando.com/en/sustainability

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Please note that all applications must be completed using the online form - we do not accept applications via email.