Applied Scientist - Warehouse Outbound Throughput Algorithms (all Genders)

The Role And The Team

Join our Logistics Algorithms team, where we use research and technology to optimize warehouse throughput while maintaining high fulfillment quality. As the only Applied Scientist while your colleague is on parental leave, you'll play a key role in driving research initiatives and collaborating closely with Software Engineers.

You'll translate real-world logistics challenges into mathematical models, design optimization algorithms, and help build and maintain the systems that run them. If you're passionate about scalable software systems and discrete optimization, this is your chance to make a real impact.

We're a collaborative team of 4 Software Engineers and 1 Applied Scientist, working with Kotlin, Spring Boot, and Postgres in a microservices setup, with a flat, agile structure and shared ownership across roles.

What We'd Love You To Do (And Love Doing)

• Contribute to modeling, solving, and implementing our research-driven optimization framework for warehouse throughput.
• Constantly challenge and improve our existing algorithms and modeling approaches.
• Deliver end-to-end solutions from domain understanding to prototyping and operating production software.
• Collaborate closely with Software Engineers to understand system constraints and co-create robust solutions.
• Identify commonalities across problems and propose generalized approaches.
• Promote an inclusive and collaborative team environment, encouraging knowledge sharing and mutual learning.

We'd Love To Meet You If

• You have a strong academic background in combinatorial optimization and a deep understanding of discrete optimization concepts (e.g. min-cost flows, linear/integer programming, TSP, bin packing).
• You enjoy simplifying complex problems — but know when complex algorithms are needed.
• You bring hands-on experience in software engineering, ideally in a JVM-based language, and are eager to deepen your knowledge. You are familiar with some of the standard concepts such as microservice architectures, design patterns, Spring Boot, REST, Kubernetes, architecture documentation, data and API specifications (e.g. OpenAPI), quality assurance and testing methods.
• You're curious about logistics systems and motivated to build deep domain expertise.
• You are a strong team player who values open communication and agile collaboration.
• You are fluent in English.

If you think you have what it takes, we encourage you to apply even if you don't meet every single requirement. You may just be the right candidate for this or other roles!

Inclusive By Design

At Zalando, our vision is to be the leading pan-European ecosystem for fashion and lifestyle e-commerce - one that is inclusive by design. We only assess candidates based on qualifications, merit, and business needs. We welcome applications from people of all gender identities, sexual orientations, personal expressions, racial identities, ethnicities, religious beliefs, and disability statuses. We only want to know why you're great for this role, so please avoid including your picture, age, and marital status in your CV as well.

We want to provide you with a great candidate experience. Please feel free to inform us of any accommodations you may need, so we can best support and assist you throughout the hiring process.

do.BETTER - our diversity & inclusion strategy: https://jobs.zalando.com/en/our-culture/diversity-and-inclusion

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 Lounge by Zalando, discounts from external partners
• 2 paid volunteering days a year
• Hybrid working model with up to 60% 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 for full-time employees
• 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