Staff Applied Scientist — Real-Time Last-Mile Optimisation

Relay; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Relay is seeking a Staff Applied Scientist to lead optimisation for its last-mile network, developing and refining routing, pricing and scheduling decisions across its real‑time delivery platform.

You will model and optimise operations, develop scalable solvers, and collaborate with ML and OR teams to push the frontier of practical optimisation. A strong OR background and production ML experience are essential.

Qualifications

• Bring deep expertise in operational research, whether from a PhD, publications, or years at the frontier in industry.
• Experience building optimisation systems or ML models that run in production and own the outcomes.
• Ability to collaborate generously and explain complex ideas simply.

Responsibilities

• Lead optimisation for the company’s last mile, determining routing, pricing and scheduling decisions.
• Model and optimise the decisions that define the last-mile delivery network and marketplace.
• Develop solvers and algorithms to perform live at scale.
• Partner with fellow scientists to unite ML and recommender systems with Operational Research.
• Raise the standard for Operational Research and grow the team and research culture.

Skills

Operational Research

Optimization

Machine Learning

Production Systems

Collaboration

Education

PhD in Operations Research / related field

Job description

Relay is seeking a Staff Applied Scientist to lead optimisation for its last-mile network, developing and refining routing, pricing and scheduling decisions across its real‑time delivery platform.

You will model and optimise operations, develop scalable solvers, and collaborate with ML and OR teams to push the frontier of practical optimisation. A strong OR background and production ML experience are essential.