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, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Washington state, and Washington DC the standard base pay range for this role is $136,300.00 - $217,700.00 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 $129,500.00 - $206,900.00 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

• 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

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.