Senior Applied Scientist - Agentic AI (all genders)

Zalando; Berlin; On-site; EUR 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

27 days of holiday

Volunteer days

Employee shares programme

Discounts: 40% off fashion/beauty

Relocation assistance

Family services

Wellbeing options

Mental health support

Biannual peer‑to‑peer review

Training platform

Job summary

Zalando is seeking a Senior Applied Scientist in Berlin to join the Customer Care Technology family. You will design, build, and scale Agentic AI systems and production-ready LLM applications to optimize the customer self-service journey.

You’ll work with data engineers, software engineers, analysts, and product managers to translate scientific innovations into scalable AI products that improve the experience for millions of customers and thousands of care specialists.

Qualifications

• Strong track record of autonomously tackling complex research projects and shipping innovations into AI products.
• Extensive ML, DL and NLP expertise with production-grade experience in LLM applications.
• Proficient in Python and modern ML frameworks, with hands-on experience in Databricks.

Responsibilities

• Drive End-to-End Research: lead projects from discovery to production deployment.
• Build Agentic Systems: design, fine-tune, evaluate, and scale advanced LLM applications.
• Own Production Models: architect, deploy, monitor and optimize AI models in production.
• Mentor & Inspire: coach junior scientists and raise methodological rigor.

Skills

LLM expertise

Python

PyTorch

SQL

Databricks

Agentic systems

NLP

Communication

Mentoring

Tools

PyTorch

PydanticAI

Databricks

Job description

THE ROLE & THE TEAM

In Customer Care Technology, we build the intelligent applications and infrastructure driving the full customer journey, supporting millions of customers and thousands of customer care specialists. We are seeking a Senior Applied Scientist to join our Berlin-based Applied Science team in a business-critical role. In this position, you will design, build, and scale cutting-edge Agentic AI systems and Large Language Models (LLMs) for high-volume production, directly optimizing customer self-service solutions to handle millions of queries monthly. Working closely with a cross-functional team of data engineers, software engineers, analysts, and product managers, you will turn scientific innovations into scalable AI products that elevate the customer experience.

INCLUSIVE BY DESIGN

We believe that diverse teams fuel innovation and creativity, and we actively seek out talent from all backgrounds. We 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. We 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. Discover more about our commitment to creating a diverse and inclusive workplace: https://jobs.zalando.com/en/our-culture/diversity-and-inclusion

WHAT WE’D LOVE YOU TO DO (AND LOVE DOING)

• Drive End-to-End Research: Translate ambiguous, high-impact business challenges in Customer Care Technology into structured research plans, leading projects from discovery to production deployment.
• Build Agentic Systems: Apply rigorous scientific methodologies to design, fine-tune, evaluate, and scale advanced LLM applications and agentic workflows.
• Own Production Models: Take end-to-end accountability for AI models in production—including architecture design, performance optimization, deployment, and real-time monitoring at scale.
• Elevate Standards: Establish best practices for research methodologies, ensuring high-quality, reproducible experiments across the team.
• Mentor & Inspire: Coach junior Applied Scientists, fostering a culture of scientific rigor, innovation, and operational excellence.
• Collaborate Cross-Functionally: Partner with product managers, data engineers, and software engineers to seamlessly integrate AI solutions into production services.

WE’D LOVE TO MEET YOU IF AI Productionization:

• You have a strong track record of autonomously tackling complex research projects and shipping scientific innovations into customer-facing AI products at scale.
• Core LLM Expertise: You have extensive expertise in Machine Learning, Deep Learning, and Natural Language Processing (NLP), with a focus on building and scaling production-grade LLM applications.
• Agentic System Design: You have a strong understanding of agentic architectures, agent orchestration, hallucination mitigation, and retrieval augmented generation (RAG).
• Engineering & Tech Stack: You have excellent programming skills in Python (including frameworks like PyTorch and PydanticAI), strong SQL skills, and hands‑on experience with Databricks.
• Strategic Communication: You have the ability to think strategically and effectively translate complex technical concepts into clear, actionable insights for non‑experts and senior leadership.
• Agile & Collaborative Mindset: You have a results‑driven, collaborative mindset, feel comfortable navigating high‑uncertainty environments, and actively take initiative to uncover high‑value research opportunities.

OUR 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 programme
• 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

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 25 markets. Help us drive digital and sustainable solutions for fashion, logistics, advertising and research, bringing head‑to‑toe fashion to 50 million active customers through a team of diverse skill‑sets, cultural backgrounds, and interests. Our values do.More - our sustainability strategy Follow us on Instagram: instagram.com/insidezalando