Senior Machine Learning Engineer (Hands-on)

At VavaCars, we're not just a tech start-up. We're visionaries, innovators, and trailblazers in the used car industry, committed to revolutionising the automotive landscape in Turkey.

Our company thrives on a culture of deep engagement, proactive initiative, and entrepreneurial spirit. Our employees aren't just doing a job, they're pushing boundaries and breaking norms. We believe in the power of practical, inter-departmental collaboration and challenging the status quo, not only within our own industry, but beyond.

Regardless of your Professional background, educational history, or the industry you hail from, if you have a track record of exceptional work and a passion for innovation, we want you on our team. At VavaCars, it's not just about what you've done, but what you're capable of.

Join us in this exciting journey as we redefine the future of the automotive industry. Our work is not just about buying and selling cars, it's about creating an unparalleled user experience that reshapes how people perceive the used car market. We're not just changing the game - we're creating a new one.

Are you ready to steer your career into the fast lane? Embark on the VavaCars journey today.

Requirements

About the role

VavaCars is a used-car marketplace using data and AI to price, sell and operate on a scale. We're looking for a senior, hands-on data leader to own our data science, data engineering and analytics function. You'll build and ship production models and pipelines yourself, and you'll also be the company's data voice at the executive level. You'll report to Software Development Director and present data strategy to leadership each month.

This role suits someone who enjoys writing code as much as shaping strategy, and who measures success by whether solutions are used in business, not just built.

What you'll do

Own the pricing engine. Maintain and improve our ML-based vehicle price prediction system, which runs a nearly fully automated pricing pipeline. This includes retraining schedules, performance monitoring and model reliability in production.

Lead data strategy at the executive level. Present monthly updates to C-level, turn business priorities into a data roadmap, and advocate for data-driven decisions across the company.

Run experimentation. Design and analyze A/B tests across product and pricing and keep experimentation central to how we work.

Build models beyond pricing. Partner with other business areas to identify where ML can help, then design, train and ship models for their use cases.

Run recurring pricing operations. Produce and send regular retail pricing reports, prepare and apply price increases and adjustments, and make sure the business has the pricing information it needs on schedule.

What we're looking for

Must-haves

• 7+ years in data science, data engineering or analytics, including at least 2–3 years leading a team or function.
• Strong hands-on Python and SQL skills, with experience putting ML models into production. Ideally, you've owned their monitoring and retraining too.
• Solid data engineering skills: building pipelines and working with cloud data platforms (Azure preferred; AWS, GCP, Snowflake or Databricks are also valuable).
• Experience with BI tools such as Power BI or Tableau, and with delivering analytics that business users rely on.
• A good grasp of experimentation and statistics, including A/B test design and analysis.
• Proven ability to communicate with senior stakeholders and translate between technical and business language.
• Professional-level English.

Nice-to-haves

• Hands-on work with LLMs, RAG pipelines or AI agent frameworks (e.g. AutoGen, n8n, OpenAI APIs).
• Experience with pricing models, marketplaces or the automotive sector.
• MLOps practices: Docker, CI/CD (GitHub Actions or Azure DevOps), and APIs with FastAPI or Flask.
• Experience building a data function or data culture from an early stage.
• Spanish

Benefits

We offer a unique and exciting package — something never before tried in the local automotive industry — and we aim to be the very best. Alongside a competitive compensation package, we foster a culture focused on employee happiness and well-being.

• Performance bonus
• Private health insurance
• Transportation support
• Meal allowance