Staff Data Scientist I - Matching

About the Role

As a Staff Data Scientist I – Matching, you will own the end-to-end matching and dispatch architecture for Careem’s Food and Groceries verticals. You will design and implement real-time assignment systems that optimize cost, SLA compliance, and marketplace efficiency at scale.

This role sits at the core of the marketplace engine solving complex, multi-objective optimization problems under uncertainty. You will build systems that dynamically match orders to captains, optimize batching and pooling decisions, and continuously re-optimize as new information arrives. You will operate as a senior technical IC, leading architecture decisions, mentoring other data scientists, and setting optimization standards across the domain.

What You'll Do

1. Matching & Dispatch Architecture Ownership

• Design and own the end-to-end matching and dispatch systems for Food & Groceries.
• Architect scalable assignment frameworks incorporating:
• Static and dynamic assignment
• Online matching under uncertainty
• Batch and pooling optimization
• Continuous re-optimization with dynamic events
• Establish robust optimization standards and best practices across the organization.

2. Multi-Objective Optimization & Algorithm Development

• Formulate and implement multi-objective optimization models balancing:
• Cost minimization
• SLA compliance
• Marketplace efficiency
• Develop and deploy:
• Min-cost flow and assignment models
• Graph-based optimization frameworks
• Custom solvers and OR-Tools based solutions
• Incorporate stochastic elements and uncertainty-aware decision-making into assignment policies.
• Continuously refine matching quality under high-scale marketplace conditions.

3. Real-Time Systems & Production Delivery

• Build production-grade real-time matching systems using Python, Spark, and Trino.
• Design scalable pipelines capable of handling large-scale, high-throughput marketplace events.
• Collaborate with Engineering and Platform teams to ensure reliable model serving and system performance.
• Lead performance monitoring, diagnostics, and system optimization.

4. Experimentation & Impact Measurement

• Define evaluation metrics aligned with marketplace and operational objectives.
• Design and run controlled experiments to quantify matching improvements.
• Analyze system trade-offs and communicate clear, data-driven recommendations to Product and Operations stakeholders.
• Ensure decisions translate into measurable improvements in efficiency and SLA performance.

What You'll Need

• 6–8+ years of experience in Applied Machine Learning, Optimization, or Data Science.
• Advanced degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Operations Research, Mathematics, or a related quantitative field.
• Strong expertise in:
• Optimization and assignment algorithms
• Graph modeling and min-cost flow problems
• Multi-objective optimization
• Dynamic and online decision systems
• Hands-on experience with OR-Tools or custom optimization solvers.
• Proficiency in Python, SQL, Spark, and distributed data systems.
• Experience building real-time or near-real-time decision systems.
• Strong understanding of experimentation and performance evaluation in marketplace systems.
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to explain algorithmic trade-offs in business terms.

What we’ll provide you

We offer colleagues the opportunity to drive impact in the region while they learn and grow. As a full time Careem colleague, you will be able to:

• Work and learn from great minds by joining a community of inspiring colleagues.
• Put your passion to work in a purposeful organisation dedicated to creating impact in a region with a lot of untapped potential.
• Explore new opportunities to learn and grow every day.
• Work 4 days a week in office & 1 day from home, and remotely from any country in the world for 30 days a year with unlimited vacation days per year. (If you are in an individual contributor role in tech, you will have 2 office days a week and 3 to work from home.)
• Access to healthcare benefits and fitness reimbursements for health activities including gym, health club, and training classes.