Principal Data Scientist - Ad Tech

Company Description

As the world’s pioneering local delivery platform, our mission is to deliver an amazing experience, fast, easy, and to your door. We operate in over 70+ countries worldwide, powered by tech, designed by people. As one of Europe’s largest tech platforms, headquartered in Berlin, Germany. Delivery Hero has been listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange since 2017 and is part of the MDAX stock market index. We enable creative minds to deliver solutions that create impact within our ecosystem. We move fast, take action and adapt. No matter where you're from or what you believe in, we build, we deliver, we lead. We are Delivery Hero.

Job Description

We are on the lookout for a Principal Data Scientist to join the Ad Tech data science team in our mission to deliver consistently amazing experiences.

As part of our Vendor Team, you’ll be the driving force behind the success of thousands of restaurants, shops, and local businesses. Your contributions will empower vendors with advanced tools to manage their operations, boosting their visibility, and reach. Every feature you help build will create growth opportunities for businesses of all sizes, strengthening Delivery Hero’s ecosystem and impact.

We are using AdTech to introduce people to new food they love and to enable our partners to meet their future customers at the perfect moment. a range of products that we have developed to offer advertising solutions for restaurants, which help them to increase their visibility and reach, improve their order conversion, and eventually drive more sales by covering the entire marketing funnel. Operating across about 70 countries around the clock, our AdTech connects the ideal advertiser with the ideal customer millions of times every day. In 2024/25, AdTech is a fundamental area for us on our path to profitability and is predicted to generate more than 1 billion euros in revenue for Delivery Hero; our innovative tech and product offering is the backbone of that development.

In this role, you will be a thought leader, driving innovation by designing and deploying our models to the forefront of technology to solve complex problems, delivering revenue for Delivery Hero at the frontline of our growth & profitability journey. 

• Work on one of the most exciting topics at Delivery Hero with significant top management attention

• Drive transformative innovation in AI-powered ranking and bidding systems for digital advertising

• Define and own the direction of data science models for our new adtech products to ensure they are built for our future needs 

• Lead the creation of advanced models and strategies that redefine auction dynamics, maximise advertiser ROI, and deliver exceptional user experiences

• As an expert and visionary, you will elevate our advertising intelligence capabilities, setting new industry benchmarks while shaping the future of data-driven decision-making at scale.

Qualifications

Exceptional AI and ML Expertise:

• Mastery of ranking models (eg neural ranking architectures, neural auction approaches, and cutting-edge approaches to personalisation and relevance).

• Expertise in bidding algorithms, multi-objective optimisation, and reinforcement learning (RL) applications in advertising.

• Advanced knowledge of AI frameworks (eg TensorFlow, PyTorch) and their application to real-time decision systems.

Advertising Domain Mastery:

• In-depth understanding of ad auctions, ad exchange platforms, and auction dynamics.

• Proven experience optimising CPC, CPA, and ROAS metrics for advertisers at scale.

Exceptional Data and Statistical Expertise:

• Advanced proficiency in Python, SQL, and designing workflows for front-end tracking data.

• Strong foundation in probabilistic modelling, causal inference, and statistical rigour in experimental design.

• Ability to solve multi-objective problems, balancing metrics like revenue, engagement, and fairness.

Proven Leadership in AI Systems:

• A track record of designing and deploying large-scale AI systems in production, with measurable business outcomes.

• Experience influencing organisational strategy through actionable, data-driven insights.

• A history of mentoring teams to achieve exceptional technical outcomes while driving alignment across engineering, product, and data organisations

Nice-to-Haves:

• Expertise in econometrics or game theory as applied to auction and pricing strategies.

• Contributions to open-source AI tools or publications in top-tier machine learning conferences.

• Knowledge of calibration techniques (eg Platt scaling, isotonic regression) to ensure prediction reliability.

• Familiarity with transformer-based architectures or graph neural networks for complex data interactions.

Additional Information

Ensuring you and all our Heroes are looked after, happy, and healthy is always on the menu. Because if you’re in good shape, then we’re in good shape.

• Make the most of our hybrid working model and join the team for face-to-face connection and collaboration in our beautiful Berlin campus 2 days a week

• We offer 27 days holiday with an extra day on 2nd and 3rd year of service

• We will support you in developing yourself and your career growth opportunities: 1.000 € Educational Budget, Language Courses, Parental Support and access to the Udemy Business platform to explore a variety of online courses.

• Get moving and release those wonderful, mind-boosting endorphins: Health Checkups, Meditation, Yoga, Gym & Bicycle Subsidy

• Cash. Dough. Cheddar. Whatever you call it, we’ll help you with it: Employee Share Purchase Plan, Sabbatical Bank,  Public Transportation Ticket Discount, Life & Accident Insurance, Corporate Pension Plan

• The power of getting together over some food is unrivaled. Here are a few ways to help you do that. All the yum: Digital Meal Vouchers, Food Vouchers, Corporate Discounts. Courses.

Ready to join our team? If you’re excited to grow, collaborate and be part of the world’s leading delivery platform, we’d love to hear from you. Apply today!

We believe diversity and inclusion are key to creating not only an exciting product, but also an amazing customer and employee experience. Fostering this starts with hiring - therefore we do not discriminate on the basis of racial identities, religious beliefs, color, national origin, gender identities or expressions, sexual orientations, age, marital or disability statuses, or any other aspect that makes you, you. We encourage you to let us know if you need any accommodations or specific accessibility support to ensure a smooth interview experience—just include it in your application. You're welcome to share your pronouns (he/she/they) right from the start so we can address you respectfully from our first contact.