Applied Scientist, Mortgage Ops AI

About the teamThe Artificial Intelligence organization delivers unique AI-powered experiences to millions of customers. Within this organization, the Mortgage Operations AI team leads efforts to streamline the loan production process to enable a fully digital financing experience and provide consistent, unbiased, and personalized loan recommendations. This work aims to make the home-buying process less daunting and more manageable, while helping Zillow scale its mortgage business. We are empowering Loan Officers to build strong relationships with buyers by offering the best loan products for their needs.

About the role

As an Applied Scientist on the MOAI team, you will focus on developing Agentic AI and Generative AI solutions that can reason, plan, and interact with data and tools to streamline mortgage operations. You’ll bring together LLM-based methods with classical ML models to design robust, trustworthy systems that improve how borrowers and Loan Officers experience the financing process.

Your success will be measured by your ability to break down complex problems, experiment quickly, and deliver science-driven solutions that have real impact on customers and the business.

You Will Get To:

• Develop agentic workflows. Build intelligent agents that use LLMs, planning, and tool integration to support Loan Officers and improve borrower experiences.
• Prototype and validate. Rapidly design and test solutions with offline evaluations and online experiments, and ship the winning approaches.
• Blend approaches. Combine generative reasoning with classical ML (e.g., scoring, ranking, recommendation) for end-to-end decisioning.
• Apply cutting-edge research. Track advances in GenAI and ML, bring relevant techniques into practice, and share insights across the org.
• Communicate across functions. Clearly explain findings and trade-offs to scientists, engineers, and business partners to drive alignment.

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, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington state, and Washington DC the standard base pay range for this role is $134,000.00 - $214,000.00 Annually. This base pay range is specific to California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington state, and Washington DC 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.

Who you are

• Hands-on AI practitioner. 3+ years building and assisting in the production of AI/ML systems in Python with frameworks such as PyTorch, TensorFlow, or Scikit-learn.
• Agentic + GenAI skills. Familiar with LLMs, multi-agent systems, tool-augmented reasoning, or other GenAI methods; excited to apply them in production.
• Traditional ML foundation. Comfortable with predictive modeling and data-driven experimentation when reliability and scale are key.
• Data wrangler. Experienced with SQL and distributed tooling (Spark, Hive, Databricks) for large-scale, messy data.
• Engineering mindset. Strong coding practices, including Git, CI/CD, testing, and code reviews.
• Collaborative communicator. Able to translate technical depth for varied audiences and build trust across disciplines.

Get to know us

Zillow is reimagining real estate to make home a reality for more and more people.

As the most-visited real estate website in the United States, Zillow® and its affiliates help movers find and win their home through digital solutions, first class partners, and easier buying, selling, financing and renting experiences. Millions of people visit Zillow Group sites every month to start their home search, and now they can rely on Zillow to help make it easier to move. The work we do helps people get home and no matter what job you're in, you will play a critical role in making home a reality for more and more people.

Our efforts to streamline the real estate transaction are supported by a deep-rooted culture of innovation, our passion to redefine the employee experience, a fundamental commitment to Equity and Belonging, and world-class benefits. These benefits include comprehensive medical, dental, vision, life, and disability coverages as well as parental leave, family benefits, retirement contributions, and paid time off. We’re also setting the standard for work experiences of the future, where our employees are supported in doing their best work and living a flexible, well-balanced life. But don’t just take our word for it. Read recent reviews on Glassdoor and recent recognition from multiple organizations, including: the 100 Best Companies to Work For, Glassdoor Employees’ Choice Award, Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index, Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Corporate Equity Index, and TIME 100 Most Influential Companies list.

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.

Applicants who receive job offers from Zillow Group will be asked to sign a Proprietary Rights Agreement which includes confidentiality, intellectual property assignment, customer and employee non-solicitation, and non-competition provisions. If you are contacted for a role at Zillow Group and wish to review a copy of the Proprietary Rights Agreement prior to receiving an offer, you may request a copy from your Recruiter.