Mahir Yavuz
Head of Engineering, Etsy Search, Recs, Ads
- Role
- Senior Director of Engineering at Etsy
- Location
- New York, NY, US
- LinkedIn followers
- 500 followers
About Mahir Yavuz
Product-minded engineering leader with over 25 years building AI-powered products at scale. I lead organizations across ML, full stack, and app engineering. Currently leading a large Search, Recommendations, and Ads org at Etsy (have stepped into interim product leadership when needed) working on improving relevance and personalization across Etsy with LLMs and vector systems.Have led ML hiring practices, engineering competency improvements, coaching, and partnerships with OpenAI, Google, and Apple that resulted in multiple high-visibility product launches. Skilled at hiring at scale, leadership development, and multi-layer people management, I combine technical depth with sharp product intuition and a focus on business impact. I also teach at Columbia University, where I bring real-world AI/ML challenges into the classroom.
Experience
Senior Director of Engineering
Dec 2024 — Present
Head of Engineering, Etsy Search, Recs, Ads
Education
Istanbul Bilgi University
BA, Communication Design / Engineering
1998 — 2003
Istanbul Bilgi University
MFA, Communication Design / Engineering
2003 — 2006
Universität für künstlerische und industrielle Gestaltung Linz
PhD (withdrawn), Interface Cultures
2006 — 2011
Find verified contacts for anyone on LinkedIn
Unifers gives sales teams verified emails and direct dials, enriched profiles, and outreach that lands in the inbox.
Free plan included · No credit card required
This profile is compiled from publicly available professional sources. Unifers is not affiliated with or endorsed by LinkedIn. Request removal of this profile.