Senior Principal Applied Scientist - ZMS (all genders)

Responsibilities

• Lead the research and development of our real-time bidding and allocation algorithms, optimizing for long-term platform health, advertiser performance, and user relevance.
• Advance our Auction and Mechanism Design capabilities to ensure a fair, efficient, and transparent marketplace.
• Collaborate with Product Managers, Engineers, and Analysts to translate complex business constraints into mathematical objective functions.
• Drive the long-term scientific and execution roadmap for ZMS Ad Tech Bidding Optimization in collaboration with Engineers and ML Scientists and foster a culture of technical excellence.
• Mentor and grow senior level members of the team, acting as a force multiplier for our scientific community.

Requirements

• PhD in Machine Learning with a track record of publications and industry experience.
• Proven track record of research excellence, evidenced by peer-reviewed publications in relevant fields such as Computational Advertising, Auction Theory, Mechanism Design, or Game Theory.
• At least 10+ years of experience in optimizing complex systems through automated algorithms, specifically within Ad Tech, Marketplaces, or related fields.
• Deep theoretical and technical expertise in optimization, control theory, or reinforcement learning applied to bidding and budget pacing.
• Expert knowledge of productionalizing ML models within ultra-low latency constraints and experience with large-scale distributed systems.
• Strong proficiency in Python and related stack, with a solid understanding of how to architect scalable data pipelines for sparse, high-dimensional advertising data.

Conditions

• 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.
• Hybrid working model with up to 60% remote per week.
• Work from abroad for up to 30 working 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 counseling 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.