Lead Applied Data Scientist (Economist)
- Location
- Germany
- Rate, USD
- Not specified
- Work schedule
- Full Time,
- Language skills
- English, German, Italian, Turkish
- Available for Hire
- Yes
About me
I’m a Lead Economist (Applied Data Scientist) at Zalando, where I work at the intersection of experimentation, causal inference, and machine learning. I enjoy taking problems end-to-end from spotting customer pain points to building solutions, testing them rigorously, and turning the results into actionable insights for the business. I also lead the scientific roadmap for my team, making sure our work connects to the bigger picture and delivers impact. In the past few years, I’ve consistently received “leading ahead” performance ratings for both my technical work and leadership. I hold a PhD in Economics from the Paris School of Economics, where I focused on advanced causal inference, a foundation that continues to shape how I approach real-world problems today.
Professional area
Education
- Sept 2011 – May 2015 Ph.D. in Economics @ Paris School of Economics & Nova School of Business and Economics
Dissertation: Advanced Causal Inference Techniques; specialized in causal inference methods for policy evaluation.
- Sept 2009 – Sept 2011 M.A. in Economics @ Bilkent University
- Sept 2004 – Feb 2009 B.A. in Economics @ Bilkent University
Experience
- March 2025 – Present Lead Economist (Applied Data Scientist) @ Zalando
Acting as a science lead across multiple teams, managing 2 data scientists and analysts on causal inference and experimental design, running workshops to upskill product and commercial teams on measurement thinking, and driving alignment on scientific priorities and roadmap with senior product leadership. Building reusable tools and frameworks to standardize how experiments are analyzed and decisions are made, partnering with data engineers and PMs to embed economist-driven models into products.
- June 2024 – March 2025 Senior Economist (Applied Data Scientist) @ Zalando
Leading the scientific roadmap for the lifestyle expansion at Zalando, driving strategic experimentation and long-term incrementality measurement. Partnered cross-functionally with product, engineering, and analytics to define causal measurement frameworks, evaluate sustained treatment effects, and translate findings into actionable product decisions.
- May 2022 – June 2024 Economist (Applied Data Scientist) @ Zalando
Led and built a machine learning model to predict the probability of ordering for customer-level (70 million customers), extracted data insights for VP-SVP, and Management Board level stakeholders, utilizing designed A/B experiments to test the model.
- Oct 2015 – Apr 2022 Assistant Professor, Chair of Econometrics @ Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg
Taught graduate and undergraduate courses in Econometrics, Causal Inference, and Statistics, including hands-on Python/R labs for data analysis and model implementation.
- Feb 2017 – Apr 2022 Research Affiliate @ Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH)
Conducted applied research on the economic impact of technological interventions; utilized large panel datasets, Stata, R, and Python for data cleaning, causal analysis, and visualization.
- Nov 2014 – Aug 2015 Postdoctoral Fellow @ Collegio Carlo Alberto
Developed quantitative models in R and Python to analyze large-scale household survey data; applied fixed-effects regressions, IV methods, and panel data techniques.
- Jan 2013 – Dec 2013 Consultant @ Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
Analyzed wage inequality trends in the USA using Stata and R; provided policy recommendations to senior economists.
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