Taxi Pricing Analyst

The Yandex Taxi platform connects millions of drivers and passengers every day in 30+ countries. To ensure the taxi markets grow and more rides are registered in the system, we solve many complex technological problems. One of the most important is determining the cost of a taxi ride. Each ride has many unique features, and it's important to consider them all so that the resulting price suits both the passenger and the driver.

Our team develops pricing mechanics—technologies that allow us to calculate a fair cost for each ride, and we also create algorithms to reduce costs by choosing a more optimal drop-off point.

What tasks await you

Reducing ride cost by optimizing the arrival point One of the main factors affecting the cost is the ride route. Changing the entrance to an office building, metro station, shopping center, or making a slight adjustment to the arrival point can significantly change the route and thereby reduce the cost of the ride. You will need to invent and improve both algorithms for selecting drop-off points and the Yandex Go product to make the possibility of price reduction more transparent.

Furthermore, in some cases, walking part of the way is faster than going by car. For example, it might be enough for a passenger to cross the road, while the driver has to make a significant detour to turn around. You will need to develop algorithms for identifying such situations and adapt how these cases are displayed in Yandex Go.

Developing tools to increase the share of fixed prices in foreign markets Yandex Taxi is gradually expanding its geographical presence. In new locations, there can be problems with specifying the destination point for various reasons. We cannot always fix the causes of such behavior. In such cases, we use interval pricing to guarantee a fairer offered price. You will be tasked with improving current interval price formation algorithms and inventing new ones.

Developing pricing based on ride direction Taxis can be ordered in areas with different order densities and different traffic directions. A ride may be heading towards an area with high order density or moving away from it. You will be tasked with developing pricing algorithms based on travel direction to make the driver's earnings fair. You will also need to adapt communication for drivers to encourage them to go to areas where there is a shortage of drivers.

More about analytics at Yandex—in the channel Yandex for Analytics

We expect you to

• Have a technical or economic education
• Be proficient in mathematical statistics, have applied it in practice, and be skilled in Python and SQL
• Be able to see the physical meaning behind numbers and find the causes of phenomena
• Can work under uncertainty, structure and formalize tasks
• Defend your own point of view in a reasoned and clear manner and listen to others
• Be ready to communicate with development, product managers, and business development managers, and be able to work with them cohesively