Principles for Scaling Data Teams & Products

Solmaz is the Head of Commerce Intelligence, and VP of Data Science and Engineering at Shopify. In her role, Solmaz oversees Data, Engineering and Product teams responsible for leveraging data and artificial intelligence to reduce the complexities of commerce for over 1.7 million businesses worldwide.

Over the past 9 years, Solmaz has built the company's financial data warehouse, played a critical role in Shopify’s successful IPO, implemented and scaled the company's first AI products, and grown the Data team from the ground up to a team of over 500 people. In addition to this, Solmaz champions a company culture that makes ethical, data-informed decisions and is passionate about building high-quality data products to improve the user experience. In 2021, Solmaz was recognized for her leadership and work in the Technology field, and named a recipient of the Forty Under 40 by the Ottawa Business Journal.

Beyond Shopify, Solmaz is a founding partner of Backbone Angels, a collective of active angel investors that have come together to invest in women and non-binary founders, with a focus on investments in Black, Indigenous, and Women of Colour-led companies.

Prior to Shopify, Solmaz worked at Morgan Stanley as an analyst and McGill University as a cancer researcher.