About this role
About the Role As a Senior Applied Scientist on Zalando's Marketing Science team, you will own the Brand Measurement scientific roadmap and work with senior scientists and leaders to maximize marketing efficiency by moving beyond proxy metrics to true causal incrementality. You will design and implement advanced experimentation and modeling approaches to measure and optimize the impact of brand investments across the funnel. What You'll Do
- Take ownership of highly ambiguous, macro-level research questions, prioritizing pragmatic, rapid solutions to establish causal baselines before iterating for algorithmic complexity.
- Apply advanced Deep Learning, Bayesian time-series, and CausalML methodologies to bridge offsite brand awareness to long-term value add.
- Champion MLOps best practices by ensuring models are production-ready, thoroughly tested via automated unit/integration tests, and robustly documented.
- Mentor junior and mid-scientists, conduct rigorous code/methodology reviews, and foster a culture of continuous learning and scientific excellence within the team.
- Bridge the gap between deeply technical methodologies and commercial strategy, confidently defending scientific integrity to executive stakeholders and translating model parameters into actionable business decisions. What We're Looking For
- Strong academic foundation (Master's or PhD preferred) in Econometrics, Statistics, Machine Learning, or Causal Inference, with at least 5 years of practical industry experience specifically within marketing science or measurement.
- Proven experience building, deploying, and maintaining Marketing Mix Models (MMM) and a deep theoretical understanding of adstock transformations, saturation curves, and Bayesian priors.
- Deep proficiency in Python, SQL, and PySpark, with a commitment to high coding standards, including active participation in code reviews and elevating the team's engineering culture.
- A self-starter with a proven track record of architecting measurement frameworks in high-ambiguity environments where user-level tracking is limited (e.g., ATT, cookieless environments).
- Demonstrated experience guiding, upskilling, and mentoring mid-to-junior data scientists and driving the team's technical roadmap.
- Exceptional communication and negotiation abilities, capable of aligning incentives between Performance Marketing, Brand Marketing, and Finance leaders while maintaining absolute technical precision. Compensation & Benefits Zalando provides a range of benefits, here’s an overview of what you can expect:
- 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 program
- 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 counseling 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