Distinguished Scientist

About the team The Agentic AI team at Zillow is at the forefront of transforming the real estate industry by helping millions of people use advanced AI technologies across every step of their home-shopping and financing journey. We are building proactive, always-on assistants that integrate deep user understanding, market intelligence, and sophisticated reasoning to guide people from initial intent through closing and beyond. By embedding domain knowledge and specialized expertise into these assistants, we empower industry professionals and consumers to work more efficiently while preserving Zillow’s competitive edge and trusted brand. Our team brings together applied scientists, machine learning engineers, and software engineers who own the full lifecycle of AI experiences—from data collection and foundation model training to agentic skill design, multi-agent orchestration, evaluation, and large-scale deployment. We operate in a highly collaborative environment with AI platform, finance, and product teams, and we rely on Zillow’s unique, privacy-preserving real-estate and transaction datasets to build capabilities that few other companies can match. About the role In this role, you will define and drive the technical vision for long-horizon, supervised agentic systems at Zillow. You will design agent architectures, memory and supervision frameworks, and learning strategies that allow our agents to build and maintain context-rich relationships over weeks and months, not just single sessions, while remaining trustworthy, compliant, and measurably helpful. You will leverage Zillow’s uniquely rich domain datasets—such as interaction logs, behavioral signals, and structured real-estate and transaction data—to train and adapt agents that make high-quality, human-caliber recommendations at scale. As a Distinguished Scientist, you will: Own the end-to-end research and technical strategy for long-horizon agentic experiences across shopping, financing, and professional workflows, in close partnership with the Agentic AI, data platform, and product teams. Design and advance LLM post-training and evaluation methods (e.g., SFT, preference learning, RLHF/RLAIF, long-context modeling) tailored to supervised, high-stakes journeys in a complex, regulated domain. Architect systems that combine persistent memory, tool use, and multi-agent collaboration to deliver consistent, context-rich guidance over long timelines. Translate Zillow’s heterogeneous data (text, voice, behavioral, and structured real-estate/transaction data) into agent-ready knowledge and signals , in partnership with data and platform teams. Collaborate with product and design to define success metrics, evaluation frameworks, and experiment plans for agentic experiences, including human-in-the-loop supervision and safety reviews. Operate as a senior IC with the option to lead a small pod (up to ~5 scientists/engineers) focused on long-horizon agentic systems, mentoring principal-level talent and setting a high technical bar. Represent Zillow’s work externally through publications, talks, open-source contributions, and thoughtful engagement with the research community , helping position Zillow as a destination for top agentic AI talent. This is a highly visible role with broad impact across AI & Experiences. You will partner closely with senior leaders to align foundational research, platform investments, and product roadmaps around a coherent vision for Zillow as an AI-native company . This role has been categorized as a Remote position. “Remote” employees do not have a permanent corporate office workplace and, instead, work from a physical location of their choice, which must be identified to the Company. U.S. employees may live in any of the 50 United States, with limited exceptions. In California, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Washington state, and Washington DC the standard base pay range for this role is $270,700.00 - $432,300.00 annually. This base pay range is specific to these locations and may not be applicable to other locations. In Colorado, Hawaii, Illinois, Minnesota, Nevada, Ohio, Rhode Island, and Vermont the standard base pay range for this role is $257,100.00 - $410,700.00 annually. The base pay range is specific to these locations and may not be applicable to other locations. In addition to a competitive base salary this position is also eligible for equity awards based on factors such as experience, performance and location. Actual amounts will vary depending on experience, performance and location. Employees in this role will not be paid below the salary threshold for exempt employees in the state where they reside. Who you are You are a recognized leader in agentic and generative AI who is excited to tackle long-horizon, high-judgment problems in a complex, real-world domain. You have: A PhD in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or a related field—or equivalent experience—with emphasis in areas such as foundational LLMs, agentic AI, reinforcement learning, AI planning, or natural language processing . 10+ years of hands-on experience building and deploying large-scale AI systems, including at least several years focused on agent-based systems, multi-agent collaboration, or long-horizon conversational assistants . Deep, current expertise in generative and agentic AI , including multimodal foundation models, transformers, advanced reasoning models, and post-training techniques (SFT, DPO, RLHF/RLAIF, preference learning, etc.). A track record of leading ambiguous, cross-functional initiatives from concept to production—framing the problem, shaping data strategy, designing models and evaluation, and iterating based on live metrics and user feedback. Demonstrated impact in the research community through publications at top venues (e.g., NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, ACL, EMNLP, CVPR) and/or widely used open-source contributions in LLMs, agentic frameworks, or related areas. Experience designing evaluation and supervision frameworks for long-horizon agents , ideally in regulated or high-stakes domains such as finance, healthcare, or large-scale marketplaces, with an emphasis on safety, fairness, and trust. Strong technical leadership skills: you mentor senior scientists and engineers, create clarity amid ambiguity, and build alignment across research, engineering, product, and leadership stakeholders. Excellent communication skills with the ability to distill complex ideas into clear narratives for executives, cross-functional partners, and external audiences. You’re excited about: The opportunity to define how AI agents support people and professionals as they navigate complex, high-stakes decisions in one of the most important categories in their lives—their home. Leveraging Zillow’s unique, domain-specific datasets to build capabilities that are difficult to replicate elsewhere. Working in a remote-first, highly collaborative environment where you can move quickly, challenge assumptions, and ship innovations that millions of people experience. Get to know us At Zillow, we’re reimagining how people move—through the real estate market and through their careers. As the most-visited real estate platform in the U.S., we help customers navigate buying, selling, financing and renting with greater ease and confidence. Whether you're working in tech, sales, operations, or design, you’ll be part of a company that's reshaping an industry and helping more people make home a reality. Zillow is honored to be recognized among the best workplaces in the country. Zillow was named one of FORTUNE 100 Best Companies to Work For® in 2025 , and included on the PEOPLE Companies That Care® 2025 list, reflecting our commitment to creating an innovative, inclusive, and engaging culture where employees are empowered to grow. No matter where you sit in the organization, your work will help drive innovation, support our customers, and move the industry—and your career—forward, together. Zillow Group is an equal opportunity employer committed to fostering an inclusive, innovative environment with the best employees. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity or Veteran status. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please contact your recruiter directly. Qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment in accordance with applicable state and local law. Los Angeles County applicants: Job duties for this position include: work safely and cooperatively with other employees, supervisors, and staff; adhere to standards of excellence despite stressful conditions; communicate effectively and respectfully with employees, supervisors, and staff to ensure exceptional customer service; and follow all federal, state, and local laws and Company policies. Criminal history may have a direct, adverse, and negative relationship with some of the material job duties of this position. These include the duties and responsibilities listed above, as well as the abilities to adhere to company policies, exercise sound judgment, effectively manage stress and work safely and respectfully with others, exhibit trustworthiness and professionalism, and safeguard business operations and the Company’s reputation. Pursuant to the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.