Location
Berlin
Contract
Full time
Job Category
Applied Science & Research
Zalando fulfills more than a hundred million customer orders every year, and volumes are increasing. Logistics Capabilities within Zalando builds and operates systems that are at the core of our Logistics Strategy, ensuring timely, efficient, and correct delivery of our customers’ orders.
As a Principal Applied Scientist, you will play a pivotal role in a team of researchers and engineers responsible for developing and operating algorithmic decision components that optimize order fulfillment in all of Zalando’s fulfillment centers. Beyond technical development, you will be instrumental in connecting research to measurable business value through A/B testing, statistical analysis, and systematic impact evaluation. Collaborating with teams of highly talented colleagues in Logistics Capabilities, you will drive innovation and resilience within our logistics operations while ensuring our research translates into real-world improvements.
Learn more about Logistics Capabilities.

• As a Principal Applied Scientist you will serve as a senior scientific leader, collaborating extensively with key stakeholders across Logistics Operations, B2B business units, and other Applied Science teams within Logistics Capabilities. In this role, you will deeply engage with the domain, leveraging your expertise to model, solve, implement, and evaluate our research-driven software frameworks to cater for the increasing scale and load. Constantly question the models and the algorithms we use and seek for a consistent improvement.
• In partnership with our highly skilled teams, you will lead the research, development and deployment of our mathematical models and algorithms in production, ensuring their robustness and adaptability over time. Your expertise will also contribute to the ongoing maintenance and refinement of these models and algorithms to meet evolving business needs.
• You will help optimize a wide range of intralogistics processes across our fulfillment centers (e.g. order batching, scheduling, and real-time prioritization under uncertainty) by leveraging various mathematical approaches, including combinatorial optimization, Mixed-Integer Linear Programming, and others.
• Together with your fellow Principal Applied Scientists, and the teams, you help shape the long-term scientific vision and research roadmap for the department, identifying future challenges and opportunities that will help our business to grow.
• More generally, you will be part of our vibrant community of Applied Scientists at Zalando, participating for example in regular exchange meetings, reading groups and mentoring opportunities.