Marco De Sa is the Chief Data Officer at OLX Group. He is responsible for data strategy, governance, and AI, and for designing the organization that delivers on them: how data teams are structured, how the data platform and machine learning investments connect back to business goals, and how progress gets measured with meaningful KPIs.

Marco’s career spans some of the most influential technology companies of the last two decades. After completing a degree in computer science, a master’s in Information Systems, and a PhD in user research in Portugal, he moved to the US and joined Yahoo as a research scientist, working on projects like augmented reality on mobile devices and live video production. He then spent years at Facebook, Twitter, and Spotify, including working on the launch of Twitter’s ML-ranked timeline, and scaled his impact through management and team building in the Bay Area before moving into data leadership roles.

As a CDO, Marco is known for a people-first approach to data leadership, working backwards from goals, managing distributed teams, and overcoming resistance with evidence-based persuasion. He discussed the modern Chief Data Officer role, org design, and career advice for aspiring data leaders on the DataTalksClub podcast.