Principal Applied Scientist, Remote - User Modeling & RL

Zillow Group; United States; Remote; USD 196,000 - 312,000; Full time

Job summary

Zillow Group is seeking an Applied Scientist to own post-training pipelines for LLMs, build fast reward models, and design on-policy assessments at scale. You will translate advances in sequence modeling and reinforcement learning into production impact while collaborating with product, engineering, science, and data teams.

The role emphasizes remote work, with flexibility across US locations, and equity opportunities in a dynamic, mission-driven AI organization focused on transforming home

Qualifications

• PhD in CS/Statistics/ML with reinforcement learning or causal inference depth.
• Hands-on experience modeling user behavior at scale with sequence models.
• Practical depth in causal inference or RL for sequential decisions.
• Ability to scope and solve ambiguous problems end-to-end, with leadership.
• Proficiency in Python and ML frameworks (PyTorch or TensorFlow).

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end post-training pipelines and training on GPU infrastructure.
• Design reward models and evaluate agent trajectories.
• Translate research into production impact through collaboration.
• Provide technical leadership to scientists and ML engineers.

Skills

Python

PyTorch

TensorFlow

Reinforcement learning

Causal inference

User modeling

End-to-end ownership

Education

PhD in CS/Stats/ML

Tools

GPU infrastructure

Experimentation tooling

Job description

Zillow Group is seeking an Applied Scientist to own post-training pipelines for LLMs, build fast reward models, and design on-policy assessments at scale. You will translate advances in sequence modeling and reinforcement learning into production impact while collaborating with product, engineering, science, and data teams.

The role emphasizes remote work, with flexibility across US locations, and equity opportunities in a dynamic, mission-driven AI organization focused on transforming home