As well as the title of chief data officer, Fayyad will be senior vice-president of the strategic data solutions group and will also be responsible for prioritising data investments and managing the company's data processing infrastructure and analysis.
Prior to joining Yahoo!, Fayyad co-founded data mining and data strategy consulting company, the DMX Group as well as co-founding data analysis and data mining company DigiMine.
Fayyad has also spent five years spent at the data mining and exploration division at Microsoft Research and building the data mining products for Microsoft's server division.
Earlier in his career, he spent almost seven years at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory where worked in the analysis and exploration of scientific databases.
At Yahoo!, he will be based in Sunnyvale, California, and report to chief technology officer Farzad Nazem.
After having spent years working in the database marketing industry, Fayyad has built up a wealth of experience in managing and analysing large-scale data infrastructures, which the internet search giant hopes will give it a leading presence in the fields of data management, business intelligence, and analytics.
According to Nazem: "Usama is one of the world's most accomplished figures in the field of data mining, knowledge discovery in databases and analytics, and we are fortunate to have him join our team."
He added: "He has a proven record of thought leadership, business acumen and technical innovation, and his talents will give Yahoo! an industry-leading data executive that will enhance our ability to manage data and put it to work for our consumers and marketing partners."
If you have an opinion on this or any other issue raised on Brand Republic, join the debate in the .