Head of Applied Science

Rohlik
Prague +1 more
Hybrid

Who this role is best for

Strong fit for candidates with hands-on technical depth in forecasting and optimization who can unify teams and drive operational impact, particularly those with experience in e-commerce and supply chain domains.

Best fit for

  • Candidates with 8+ years of applied machine learning or operations research in supply chain or logistics
    — “8+ years applying machine learning, forecasting, or operations research to real operational or commercial problems”
  • Leaders with experience building high-performing teams and aligning technical work with business outcomes
    — “Merge Forecasting and Optimization into one high-performing team; set hiring standards, develop ML engineers and applied scientists”
  • Individuals who have experience deploying models in production with fast MVPs and backtesting
    — “Experience building and shipping production models in time-series/probabilistic forecasting or mathematical optimization”

Things to consider

  • The role requires direct collaboration with operations teams and on-the-ground problem understanding
    — “Experience working directly alongside supply chain, warehouse, or logistics operations, including spending time on the floor”
  • Candidates must have a strong grasp of AI tooling and coding agents for daily use
    — “Active use of coding agents and modern AI tooling in your daily workflow”

How to stand out

  • Highlight your experience merging forecasting and optimization into a single function
    — “Unification of two core capabilities: You will bring Forecasting and Optimization into a single function”
  • Emphasize your ability to translate complex models into business trade-offs for executives
    — “translating complex model mechanics into business trade-offs for executives”
  • Showcase your fluency in Python, SQL, and experience with production pipelines and backtesting
    — “Fluency in Python and SQL; hands-on experience with production pipelines, monitoring, and backtesting”
  • Demonstrate your leadership in hiring and developing top technical talent
    — “set hiring standards, develop ML engineers and applied scientists”
Pace · Fast PacedCollaboration · HighAutonomy · HighDecision Impact · Company

Derived from job-description analysis by Serendipath's career intelligence engine.

What success looks like

  • owning business results delivered by forecasting and optimization
  • unifying forecasting and optimization into one function
Typical background
8+ years of experience applying machine learning or operations research

Skills & requirements

Required

Machine LearningForecastingOptimizationOperations ResearchTechnical Leadership

Preferred

Agentic WorkflowsAI Coding Agents

Stack & domain

Machine LearningForecastingOperations ResearchTime-series ForecastingMathematical OptimizationAI Coding AgentsLeadershipProblem-solvingTeamworkCommunicationDecision-makingStrategic PlanningAIOperationsOptimization

About the role

Original posting from Rohlik via Ashby

Rohlik is the leading Central European e-grocer. More than a million customers shop with us across Rohlik.cz http://Rohlik.cz, Knuspr.de http://Knuspr.de, Kifli.hu http://Kifli.hu, Gurkerl.at http://Gurkerl.at, and Sezamo.ro http://Sezamo.ro, choosing from over 20,000 items delivered within hours in 15-minute windows.

Behind every order is a continuous stream of automated decisions: how much inventory to buy for each warehouse, how many pickers to schedule on Thursday morning, where in the warehouse a product should sit, and which van carries which bags. Our models make these choices every day across five countries. When a forecast is accurate, shelves stay full and waste is minimized. When a plan is right, warehouses run on exact labor needs and orders arrive precisely in the customer’s chosen window. Get it wrong, and it immediately translates into shrink, overtime, tied-up capital, and missed customer deliveries.

WHY THIS ROLE IS EXCITING

  • Direct operational and business impact: Your team’s models directly drive availability, shrink, fulfillment costs, and working capital across all five markets.
  • True ownership with zero friction: We operate automated production pipelines with no committee between your team and deployment—a solid backtest is all you need to ship.
  • Unification of two core capabilities: You will bring Forecasting and Optimization into a single function, building an end-to-end decision-making ecosystem from the ground up.
  • AI-first environment: Our engineers use AI coding agents (Devin, Claude Code) daily, and we expect you to push the boundaries of modern agentic workflows and tooling.
  • Direct executive exposure: Reporting directly to the Group CTO, you will have the mandate and space to shape technical strategy and execution.

WHAT YOU WILL OWN AND DELIVER

  • Business outcomes: Own the business results delivered by the forecasting and optimization portfolio, setting targets with cell leads and tracking financial and operational impact in production.
  • Strategic roadmap & prioritization: Define which decisions to automate next across purchasing, fulfillment center planning, workforce scheduling, and commercial optimization (promotions, markdowns, demand shaping).
  • Technical standards & architecture: Set the bar for problem framing, method selection, fast production MVPs, honest evaluation/backtesting against business metrics, and reliability monitoring.
  • Function unification & leadership: Merge Forecasting and Optimization into one high-performing team; set hiring standards, develop ML engineers and applied scientists, and foster an AI-first way of working.
  • Cross-functional partnership: Partner closely with cell leads, operations managers, product owners, and engineering leads to align on business metrics, baselines, and seamless system integration.

WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR

  • Track record of impact: 8+ years applying machine learning, forecasting, or operations research to real operational or commercial problems, with clear metrics demonstrating business results.
  • Works backwards from outcomes: A proven habit of defining target metrics first, selecting the simplest effective method, shipping fast MVPs, and iterating in production.
  • Hands-on technical depth: Experience building and shipping production models in time-series/probabilistic forecasting or mathematical optimization (LP, MIP, CP, heuristics, simulation), with enough depth to review models and judge when simple heuristics beat complex models.
  • Technical skills: Fluency in Python and SQL; hands-on experience with production pipelines, monitoring, and backtesting; familiarity with modern forecasting stacks or solvers (Gurobi, CPLEX, OR-Tools).
  • Operational fluency: Experience working directly alongside supply chain, warehouse, or logistics operations, including spending time on the floor to understand problems before framing models.
  • Leadership & communication: Proven experience leading technical teams, hiring top talent, developing engineers, and translating complex model mechanics into business trade-offs for executives.
  • AI-first mindset: Active use of coding agents and modern AI tooling in your daily workflow, driving the same approach across your team.
  • Quantitative background: M.S. or Ph.D. in Operations Research, Computer Science, Statistics, Applied Mathematics, or equivalent hands-on experience.

Nice to have:

  • Experience in e-commerce, grocery, supply chain, or logistics at scale.
  • Experience building or scaling a forecasting, optimization, or decision-science function from an early stage.
  • Experience feeding probabilistic forecasts directly into optimization models.
  • Experience with GCP, Snowflake, or BigQuery, and ML platforms such as ZenML or Vertex AI.

WHAT’S IN IT FOR YOU

  • Fair reward - You’ll get a strong fixed salary, no bonus games, no politics. Great work is rewarded clearly and fairly.
  • Good food every day - You’ll enjoy a free lunch every day and fresh fruit & veggies in the office. Because good food fuels great work.
  • Life, not just work - You’ll have real flexibility three days in the office, 2 days at the Home Office where it suits you. And unlimited paid vacation based on trust.
  • Personal growth - You’ll grow as fast as Rohlik does. Every challenge is a chance to learn and make an impact.
  • Real impact - What you do here matters. You’ll see your work changing how people eat and live from day one.
  • Recognition among colleagues - Your effort won’t go unnoticed. You can recognise others (and be recognised) through peer credits to use in our internal cafeteria.
  • Xtra membership - You’ll get free Xtra membership and 10% cashback on everything you buy on Rohlik.cz http://Rohlik.cz.
  • Sport & wellbeing - You’ll stay active with company sports challenges or a subsidised Multisport card.
  • A team that sticks together - You’ll work with people who move fast, support each other and celebrate wins together.
  • If this sounds like you - You’re someone who takes ownership, acts fast and gets things done. Ready to bake something great with us?

#LI-ML1

Source: Rohlik careers (Ashby)

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