Senior Principal Product Manager - Search

About the Role

We are looking for an experienced product leader to shape the future of Search, building intelligent, AI-powered experiences that help millions of customers find exactly what they need quickly and confidently, often before they know how to ask. It's about creating discovery experiences that feel effortless, intuitive, and deeply personalised. You'll lead the strategy and execution for Search and Discovery leveraging AI, machine learning, and customer insights to continuously improve query understanding, relevance, ranking, and the overall search journey

You'll partner closely with Engineering, Data Science, Design, and Commercial teams to solve complex customer problems at scale, while building a product vision that balances innovation with measurable business outcomes.

INCLUSIVE BY DESIGN

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!

At Zalando, our vision is to be the leading pan-European ecosystem for fashion and lifestyle e-commerce – one that thrives on diversity and is truly inclusive by design. We believe that diverse teams fuel innovation and creativity, and we actively seek out talent from all backgrounds.

We actively seek to reduce bias in our hiring and employment processes, focusing on your qualifications, skills, and contributions. To support this, we kindly ask that you refrain from including personal details such as your photo, age, or marital status in your CV, ensuring a fair and equitable evaluation based solely on your abilities and potential.

We are committed to providing an exceptional and accessible candidate experience for everyone. If you require any accommodations to support you throughout the hiring process, please let us know – we are here to assist you.

Discover more about our commitment to creating a diverse and inclusive workplace: https://jobs.zalando.com/en/our-culture/diversity-and-inclusion

WHAT WE'D LOVE YOU TO DO

• Define and own the product strategy and roadmap for Search and Discovery, ensuring it delivers exceptional customer and business value.

• Lead the evolution of AI and machine learning capabilities that improve search relevance, intent understanding, ranking, and discovery.

• Champion customer-first thinking by deeply understanding search behaviours, customer intent, and friction points, translating insights into intuitive product experiences.

• Build search and discovery experiences that just work, reducing customer effort through intelligent defaults, contextual understanding, and seamless discovery.

• Partner with Data Science and Engineering to develop, deploy, and continuously optimise ML models and experimentation frameworks.

• Drive product decisions through data, experimentation, and measurable outcomes, using A/B testing and analytics to improve customer success.

• Collaborate across Product, Design, Engineering, Commercial, and Operations to ensure search capabilities are embedded across the end-to-end customer journey.

• Stay at the forefront of advances in AI, generative AI, semantic search, large language models, vector search, and ranking, personalisation systems, identifying opportunities to apply emerging technologies where they create meaningful customer value.

• Communicate product vision, strategy, and outcomes clearly to senior stakeholders, aligning teams around shared goals and priorities.

WE'D LOVE TO MEET YOU IF YOU BRING..

• Extensive experience leading products for search, discovery, AI/ML products, or customer experience platforms.

• A strong track record of defining product strategy and delivering measurable outcomes in complex, data-rich environments.

• Deep understanding of modern search technologies, including semantic search, relevance, ranking, recommendation systems, vector search, embeddings, and generative AI applications.

• Experience partnering closely with Machine Learning and Data Science teams, with the ability to translate technical capabilities into customer value.

• Strong product discovery and experimentation skills, with experience using customer research, analytics, and experimentation to drive decisions.

• Proven leadership experience, including coaching and developing high-performing product managers.

• Exceptional communication and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to influence across technical and non-technical audiences.

• A systems thinker who can balance long-term strategic investments with delivering customer value iteratively.

• Passionate about applying AI to solve meaningful customer problems by understanding intent, reducing friction, and creating intuitive, trusted experiences that simply work.

• Ability to influence senior leadership through customer insights, data, scientific reasoning, and clear communication.

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.

• 27 days of holiday a year to start for full-time employees

• 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