Ioannis (Yiannis) Spantidakis.
Ioannis (Yiannis) Spantidakis New York

Ioannis Spantidakis

Staff Data Scientist at Lyft
Tech Lead, Marketplace Pricing

I work at the intersection of optimization and machine learning, building large-scale models to make decisions under uncertainty of key inputs like demand or costs. Right now that means pricing for a two-sided marketplace at Lyft.

Before Lyft I was a Research Scientist in Modeling and Optimization (MOP) at Amazon in Seattle, working on middle-mile and inventory optimization. I did my PhD in Operations Research at MIT with Georgia Perakis, working on supply chain projects with companies like Inditex, IBM and Flipkart, as well as COVID-19 forecasting for the CDC.

Lately I've been exploring how to integrate LLMs and agents to improve efficiencies in both business decisions and research.

Experience

Lyft Apr 2025 — Present · New York

Tech Lead, Marketplace Pricing

  • Staff Data Scientist Jul 2026 — Present

    Building granular, dynamic pricing portfolios across multiple regions and ride modes.

  • Senior Data Scientist Apr 2025 — Jun 2026

    Developing models to automate and optimize pricing decisions across the marketplace.

Amazon Sep 2022 — Mar 2025 · Seattle

Modeling and Optimization (MOP)

  • Research Scientist Sep 2022 — Mar 2025

    Leveraging optimization techniques and data science to improve the speed and scalability of Amazon's fulfillment operations while reducing supply chain costs.

IBM Research Jun — Aug 2020 · New York
  • Research Intern Summer 2020

    Developing algorithms and models that integrate prediction and prescription for revenue management applications.

Inditex — Zara Jan — Feb 2020 · A Coruña
  • Research Extern Jan — Feb 2020

    Novel machine learning methods to improve demand forecasting for new products.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sep 2017 — Aug 2022 · Cambridge
  • Research Assistant Sep 2017 — Aug 2022

    Operations Research Center.

  • Teaching Assistant Jan 2019 — May 2021

    Executive MBA Class 20', 21', 22'.

Education

Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2017 — 2022

PhD, Operations Research · Operations Research Center

  • Dissertation

    Constrained Inventory Optimization on Complex Warehouse Networks.

    Advisor: Prof. Georgia Perakis.

National Technical University of Athens 2012 — 2017

Diploma (MEng), Computer Science · School of Electrical and Computer Engineering

  • Diploma Thesis

    Algorithms for Multidimensional Load Balancing.

    Advisors: Prof. Dimitris Fotakis (NTUA), Prof. Paris Koutris (UW–Madison).