{"id":4290864,"url":"https://alion.io/job/zalando-senior-applied-scientist","title":"Senior Applied Scientist","company":{"id":139,"name":"Zalando","domain":"zalando.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/zalando","size_band":"5000+","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Workday","truth_index":{"grade":"A","score":85,"open_postings":43,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":0.791,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":19,"computed_at":"2026-11-12T10:38:37Z"}},"role":"AI/ML","role_family":"AI/ML","seniority":"senior","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Zurich, Switzerland"],"countries":["CH"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":null,"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":6,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":true,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"AI Agents","optional":false},{"name":"Machine Learning","optional":false},{"name":"NLP","optional":false},{"name":"Python","optional":false},{"name":"PyTorch","optional":false},{"name":"TensorFlow","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-11-13T23:17:38Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-11-13","last_verified_at":"2026-11-13T23:17:38Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":0,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":0},"description":"THE ROLE & THE TEAM\nAgentic Systems is building Zalando Assistant, our own agentic fashion assistant, with the goal of making it the starting point for fashion. We combine state-of-the-art machine learning (including GenAI/LLMs, agentic systems, personalization, and neural search) with Zalando’s catalog, data, and fashion expertise to deliver an experience that inspires customers in a new way.\nThe team has grown, and we’re looking for a Senior Applied Scientist to lead research-related projects and raise our best practices. You will take on the hardest scientific problems in the product, set technical direction across teams, and work with a group of exceptional scientists and engineers to build machine learning products that improve the experience of millions of customers.\nWHAT WE’D LOVE YOU TO DO (AND LOVE DOING)\nLead research projects end to end, from problem framing and approach to experimentation, production deployment, and monitoring. Shape the science stack for Zalando Assistant so that it aligns with product strategy, and drive architectural and design principles across teams.\nDefine and drive the scientific roadmap for complex fashion and agentic-assistant challenges, ensuring we apply state-of-the-art solutions where they create customer value. Contribute to our scientific standing through internal peer reviews and, where appropriate, external publications at top-tier conferences and journals.\nRaise the bar for how the team works: set best practices in experimentation, evaluation, and statistical rigor, and make sure results reflect real improvements rather than noise.\nMentor scientists across the team, review their technical work, and share knowledge with Zalando’s wider science community.\nPartner closely with applied science leaders, engineering, and product managers to deliver machine learning solutions to our customers and uncover new opportunities for growth.\nWE’D LOVE TO MEET YOU IF\n PhD in NLP, deep learning, search & recommendation, or a related field (or equivalent experience), 6+ years of industry experience, including leading research or applied science work at scale.\nExperience 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.\nExtensive 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. \nStrong publication records at top-tier venues such as SIGIR, KDD, WWW, ICLR, NeurIPS, ICML, JMLR, etc.\nExtensive hands-on experience in deep learning with proficiency in Python and frameworks like PyTorch or TensorFlow.\nOUR OFFER\nZalando 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.\n27 days of holiday a year to start for full-time employees (+1 day for every calendar year up to 30 days)\n40% off fashion and beauty products sold and shipped by Zalando, 30% off Lounge by Zalando, discounts from external partners\nFamily support, including counselling and dedicated services for parents and carers\nCompany pension scheme\nEmployee shares programme\nHealth and wellbeing options, including Wellhub & SportAbo in Zurich)\nSwiss SBB Halbtax (half-fare card)\nMental health support and coaching\nDevelopment through our training platform and biannual peer-to-peer review\n2 paid volunteering days a year\nRelocation assistance (subject to prior agreement)\nINCLUSIVE BY DESIGN\nIf you think you have what it takes, we encourage you to apply even if you don't meet every single requirement. You may just be the right candidate for this or other roles!\nAt Zalando, our vision is to be the leading European technology platform for fashion and lifestyle - one that thrives on diversity and is truly inclusive by design. We believe that diverse teams fuel innovation and creativity, and we actively seek out talent from all backgrounds.\nWe actively seek to reduce bias in our hiring and employment processes, focusing on your qualifications, skills, and contributions. To support this, we kindly ask that you refrain from including personal details such as your photo, age, or marital status in your CV, ensuring a fair and equitable evaluation based solely on your abilities and potential.\nWe are committed to providing an exceptional and accessible candidate experience for everyone. If you require any accommodations to support you throughout the hiring process, please let us know - we are here to assist you.\nDiscover more about our commitment to creating a diverse and inclusive workplace: https://jobs.zalando.com/en/our-culture/diversity-and-inclusion","description_format":"text","description_chars":4870,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":6,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"phd","optional":false},"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":["Paid volunteering days","Relocation assistance"],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":true,"industries":["E-commerce Platforms","Marketplaces"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-11-13T23:17:38Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":86,"band":"hot","label":"Hiring now","p_open":1,"p_active":0.86,"p_room":1,"age_days":0,"expected_fill_days":19,"reasons":["conf:1","win:early","comp:brand"],"computed_at":"2026-11-14T01:16:06Z"},"pay":null,"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/zalando-senior-applied-scientist","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/zalando-senior-applied-scientist.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-11-14T01:16:06Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":821,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-11-15T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.1,"usd":0.01,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":139},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=139"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fzalando-senior-applied-scientist"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"free","price":{"credits":0,"usd":0},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fzalando-senior-applied-scientist"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.1,"usd":0.01},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fzalando-senior-applied-scientist"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/zalando-senior-applied-scientist\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fzalando-senior-applied-scientist"}],"agent":{"mcp":"https://alion.io/mcp/jobs","mcp_open":"https://alion.io/mcp/open","next":[{"tool":"get_job","arguments":{"id":4290864}},{"tool":"search_jobs","arguments":{"company":"zalando.com","detail":"compact"}},{"tool":"match_people","arguments":{"job_id":4290864},"note":"people open to offers who fit this vacancy"}],"note":"The same data through MCP tools: https://alion.io/mcp/open needs no sign-in (compact searches, postings, people); https://alion.io/mcp with an Alion account has everything. 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