Principal AI Scientist (all genders)
At a glance
Senior AI Research role at Zalando. Berlin · full-time.
Pay not stated AI Research salary
aimlroles summary, based on the employer's posting.
What you'll do
- Build and deploy conversational agents that help customers discover fashion, explore trends and find outfit recommendations
- Bring fresh, relevant information into conversations through RAG pipelines, then connect language models with search, recommendations and APIs
- Shape prompts and test conversation quality, grounding and user engagement
- Set up offline and online evaluations, run experiments and improve conversion, engagement and retention
- Lead agent workflow architecture and development, partnering with product, engineering and data science while coaching colleagues
What you bring
- At least ten years working in engineering or applied science
- Strong Python ability and a track record of building production-ready applications
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, including experience improving AI systems against business KPIs
Who this fits
This is a hands-on principal-level role for someone who can shape production AI systems and mentor colleagues. It is based in Berlin and uses a hybrid model with at least sixty percent remote work each week; team practice guides collaboration. Relocation support may be available by prior agreement.
From the employer
ABOUT THE ROLE
Zalando’s Zalando Assistant team is looking for a Principal AI Scientist to help us build the future of retail through conversational AI experiences powered by Large Language Models (LLMs) and intelligent agents. Your expertise will be key in designing and developing AI-driven systems that support fashion discovery, trend exploration, outfit recommendations, and conversational shopping experiences.
As a Principal AI Scientist, you’ll play a significant role in shaping the architecture and capabilities of the Zalando Assistant. You will work on AI agents, RAG pipelines, prompt engineering, and LLM integrations, ensuring high-quality, grounded, and engaging conversations. Your domain will span the full customer lifecycle, helping drive customer activation, engagement, retention, and conversion through intelligent conversational experiences.
This is a hands-on role with direct impact on customer-facing experiences. You will build and improve production AI agents used by millions of customers, working closely with product and engineering partners to deliver measurable business impact through improved product discovery, recommendation relevance, and purchase conversion.
You will be at the center of fostering a culture of experimentation and innovation, ensuring assistant improvements are rigorously evaluated using both offline and online metrics. Your work will directly influence business impact, improving engagement, retention, and long-term customer value through conversational AI.
INCLUSIVE BY DESIGN
At Zalando, our vision is to be inclusive by design. And this vision starts with our hiring - we do not discriminate on the basis of gender identity, sexual orientation, personal expression, ethnicity, religious belief, or disability status. You are welcome to leave out your picture, age, or marital status from your application. We only assess candidates on their qualifications and merit.
We want to provide you with a great candidate experience. Feel free to inform us of any accommodations you may need, so we can best support you throughout the hiring process.
do.BETTER - our diversity & inclusion strategy: https://corporate.zalando.com/en/our-impact/dobetter-our-diversity-and-inclusion-strategy
Our employee resource groups: https://corporate.zalando.com/en/our-impact/our-employee-resource-groups
WHAT WE’D LOVE YOU TO DO (AND LOVE DOING)
Design and build conversational AI agents
Develop and integrate RAG pipelines to enrich experiences with fresh, contextual data
Design, tune, and evaluate LLM prompts to improve response quality and user engagement
Integrate LLMs with search, recommendation, and external APIs
Define and implement evaluation frameworks for conversation quality and grounding
Run experiments and optimize assistant performance for business KPIs (conversion, engagement, retention)
Own the architecture, development, and deployment of LLM-powered agent workflows
Collaborate cross-functionally with engineering, product, and data science teams
Mentor colleagues and share best practices in applied AI and agent development
WHAT WE’RE LOOKING FOR
10+ years of experience in the field of engineering or applied science.
Strong Python skills and experience building production-grade applications
Strong analytical and problem-solving skills
Experience optimizing AI systems for business KPIs
Any of the following is a strong plus:
Experience building LLM-powered applications or AI agents
Experience with prompt engineering, tuning, and evaluation
Experience with agent frameworks such as LangChain, LlamaIndex, PydanticAI, DSPy, or similar
Experience integrating LLMs with external APIs, tools, and/or RAG systems
Experience evaluating conversation quality and defining LLM metrics is a plus
Experience with vector databases, embeddings, or retrieval systems
OUR OFFER
Zalando provides a range of benefits, here’s an overview of what you can expect. Ask your Talent Acquisition Partner to learn more about what we offer.
Employee shares program
40% off fashion and beauty products sold and shipped by Zalando, 30% off Zalando Lounge, discounts from external partners
2 paid volunteering days a year
Hybrid working model with 60% (or more) remote per week, actual practice is up to each team to best support their collaboration
Work from abroad for up to 30 working days a year
27 days of vacation a year to start
Relocation assistance available (subject to prior agreement)
Family services, including counseling and support
Health and wellbeing options (including Gympass)
Mental health support and coaching available
Drive your development through our training platform and biannual peer-to-peer review Learn all about Zalando and our values here: https://jobs.zalando.com/en/?gh_src=22377bdd1us