AI / Data Engineer Needed to Build a Custom E-commerce Product Research System

We're looking for an experienced AI engineer / data engineer / full-stack developer to build a custom product research system for identifying high-potential e-commerce products before they become saturated. This is not a basic ChatGPT wrapper or an AI product suggestion tool. We are looking for someone who can build a genuinely intelligent research system using multiple real-world data sources, custom scoring logic, and trend detection. Data Sources The system should be capable of collecting and analysing information from a range of publicly available e-commerce, trend, and social media sources. Examples may include: Amazon Helium 10 Exploding Topics Facebook TikTok Where official APIs or approved integrations are available, they should be used. The solution should comply with the applicable terms of service and legal requirements of any platforms or data sources used. We're also open to incorporating additional data sources if you believe they provide valuable signals. What We're Trying to Build The objective is to identify products that are just beginning to gain traction, rather than products that are already obvious winners. We're interested in finding: Emerging consumer trends Products showing strong early momentum Underserved markets Products with strong commercial potential before they become highly competitive The exact research methodology and scoring framework will be shared with shortlisted applicants. What We Don't Want We're not looking for: Generic AI product recommendations Simple ChatGPT wrappers Lists of products generated from public prompts Low-value AI-generated suggestions Instead, we're looking for a developer who can build a genuinely useful research system using quality data, automation, intelligent filtering, and custom logic. Bonus Points If you have ideas for additional features that improve early trend detection, we'd love to hear them. Examples include: Detecting unusual growth signals across multiple sources Identifying products before search demand peaks Cross-platform trend validation Custom scoring algorithms Momentum detection Predictive trend modelling Any other ideas that could create a genuine competitive advantage We're very open to hearing creative suggestions from experienced developers. Ideal Candidate Strong Python experience Experience building data collection pipelines and automation tools Experience working with APIs and large datasets AI / machine learning experience is a plus Comfortable designing custom algorithms rather than relying solely on LLM outputs Experience within e-commerce or product research is highly desirable Project Scope This will initially be a paid project to build the first version of the system. If the project is successful, there is potential for a long-term relationship involving additional features, maintenance, and future automation projects. To Apply Please include: Similar projects you've built Relevant GitHub or portfolio links Technologies you would recommend Any ideas you already have for improving early product discovery Estimated timeline for an MVP We're looking for someone who enjoys solving difficult data problems and wants to build something that provides a genuine competitive advantage rather than another generic AI tool.