Vladimir Fux, Senior Applied Scientist at Zalando, gave us some fascinating insights into his current projects and explains what he loves about working with his team.
Vladimir, could you give us an overview of your role?
Applied Science at Zalando encapsulates Machine Learning, Economics and Statistics, among other things. I am specifically interested in Operations Research and mathematical optimization topics, though in the past I’ve also worked on Game Theory and Mechanism Design.
Could you tell us about the projects that your team works on?
We work on large-scale optimization and forecasting to solve The Pricing Problem, focusing on providing engaging and financially sound discount recommendations for Zalando wholesale. If the discount is too high, the product might sell too fast. Too low, and we run a risk of carrying overstock at the end of a season. If the price of the product you bought from Zalando was marked red, it was most likely set by our team.
Do you have a favorite project?
Yes — our biggest project, which makes article-level discount recommendations. We care a lot about naming in our team, and for a while we have been using bird names for our projects, according to their size and complexity. This one is called Falcon. It involves complex and effective machinery, combining Operations Research, Machine Learning and Data Engineering developments in one. We are extremely proud of it, as few teams in the world build optimization models on such a big scale!
How would you describe your team?
The best team I’ve ever worked with! The spirit is democratic — we make most of the decisions together as a team, and every team member has a chance to speak up. Every opinion matters: from the very first day I, as a newbie, already had an impact on team processes. We also have an amazing team role: Rotating Dictator. This role is rotated weekly, and while you are the Dictator, you need to make a lot of decisions and take care of most of the communication with stakeholders. It’s a great opportunity for taking extra ownership and responsibility.
What should a new joiner to your team expect?
The first thing that comes to mind is the impact. You will have a big impact both within the team and on the business — after all, we are talking about recommendations for the whole Zalando assortment!
Also expect a lot of learning. This is the most exciting thing for me at Zalando. There are specialists in almost every area of Computer Science, and many of our colleagues are eager to share their knowledge. Our team specifically is active in knowledge sharing — we regularly present our work inside and outside the company.
What are your ambitions for your team in 2022?
Our ambition is to roll out our new product, Falcon, applying it to all of the Zalando assortment to replace the current discount recommendation system (also developed by our team). In addition, we look to grow our skills and knowledge in the area of forecasting and data quality.
