Pelin Cay, PhD

I'm an Operations Research scientist who builds things that ship. My PhD is in mixed-integer nonlinear optimization; my day job is leading a team at SAS Institute that turns that kind of mathematics into production systems for Fortune 500 companies — supply chain networks, manufacturing processes, transportation assignments, and more recently, quantum-classical hybrid solvers.

Over the past decade I've worked across the full stack of applied OR: formulating MINLP and MIP models, integrating machine learning into prescriptive pipelines, deploying on SAS Viya and cloud environments, and communicating results to C-suite stakeholders in ways that drive real decisions. Along the way, I've co-invented three US patents across different areas — from ML-integrated manufacturing optimization to quantum-classical hybrid methods — and a long-running Fortune 50 consumer goods partnership earned an Edelman Prize semi-finalist nomination, one of the highest recognitions in Operations Research.

More recently, I've been building and growing teams. As a manager in SAS's Applied AI & Modeling group, I lead data scientists through the full product lifecycle — from ideation and experimentation to production deployment. I launched the company's first independent Strategic Supply Chain Optimization offering and co-led a quantum computing partnership with a Fortune 50 consumer goods company. What drives me is finding problems where rigorous optimization creates measurable impact — and making sure the solution actually reaches the people who need it.