Yi Zhang is a technology executive and entrepreneur best known as the CEO and founder of the Codatta. His prior career spans roles in data science and engineering management at technology and financial institutions, including serving as a senior engineering manager at Alipay, a data scientist at Pinterest, and an early-career position at Huntington National Bank focused on quantitative analysis of Bitcoin-related risk exposure. ^{[1] [2]}​

Education

Yi Zhang obtained a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Cincinnati, completed between 2009 and 2016. During the same period, he also earned a Master of Science (M.S.) in Mechanical Engineering from the same institution (2009–2012). Prior to this, he received a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) in Mechatronics Engineering from the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, where he studied from 2005 to 2009. ^{[3] [3]}

Career

Yi Zhang has worked across data science, engineering, and artificial intelligence. Since 2022, he has served as the founder and chief executive officer of Codatta, based in San Mateo, California. Prior to this, he was a senior engineering manager at Ant Group from 2018 to 2021, where he led multiple engineering teams and contributed to large-scale consumer and merchant-facing systems.

From 2016 to 2018, Zhang worked as a data scientist at Pinterest in San Francisco, focusing on content systems and advertising technologies. Earlier, he held a senior data scientist role at Atos between 2015 and 2016, where he developed machine learning models for reliability applications. He also worked as a senior modeling analyst at Huntington National Bank from 2014 to 2015, contributing to fraud detection and anti-money laundering systems. ^{[2] [3] [4]}

Public Appearances and Media

Yi Zhang has discussed Codatta and related AI/data topics in public forums. One notable appearance is a long-form interview published by KITE AI under the title “AI on Air Ep.8 - Build on Kite: Codatta and the Next Era of AI Data with Yi Zhang (CEO of Codatta),” uploaded on 20 August 2025. The interview runs just over an hour and provides extended commentary on the project’s focus and Zhang’s perspective on AI data in web3 contexts. ^[1]​