The Tech Trek

Meet:  Ken is the data engineering manager at Alto Pharmacy - which offers free, same-day medication delivery to customers.   Alto's data engineering team supports the entire business with a large focus on improving the logistical efficiency of the organization. Ken's career has focused on data engineering in which he has held a variety of roles in management,  data engineering, and data architecture roles, and worked as both an employee and consultant.   Ken feels that data engineering is a specialization of software engineering - and benefits from many of the same process innovations - around testing, agile, DevOps, and dataops methodologies. What you’ll learn: What does a modern data warehousing solution look like Data engineering shift from GUI tools to software engineering Data engineering viewed as specialized software engineering If you would like to get in touch with Ken regarding anything discussed on this episode, please connect via: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kenfar/

Meet: Prior to LeafLink, Nikhil led the data science function for Gartner’s Marketing practice, gaining deep expertise in building scaled data products for large consumer brands. He has extensive experience in generating insights from e-commerce, search and transactional data leveraging experimentation, machine learning, and implementing business intelligence solutions. Nikhil has also held positions managing data science teams at and consulting F500 clients on marketing and advertising. Currently, Nikhil is responsible for continuing to evolve the data platform that powers the LeafLink marketplace. What you’ll learn: Adjusting to a less regulated industry Building out the data infrastructure Technology choices and tradeoffs

Meet: Nachi is a Director of Engineering at Electric.AI. Having started his career building software at a large investment bank, he has since transitioned into working for startups based out of NYC. He enjoys the role of being an early technology hire and is passionate about building inclusive & diverse engineering cultures, strong agile practices, and delighting customers. Topic: Empowering engineers to understand the why behind what they are working on To connect with Nachi: https://www.linkedin.com/in/n4ch1k3t/

Meet: Kunal Bhattacharya is a Security Leader, Organization builder, and mentor who helps organizations build robust Cyberdefense and detection capabilities. He does this by building Secure SDL processes and machination encapsulating Shift left strategy, SecDevOps, Cloud, and Penetration testing. Kunal's prior experience in all phases of application development, System and database administration, and Quality engineering have helped him in building lasting relationships with peers in engineering and product organizations and working towards shared security goals. Kunal has worked with Tech Titans like PayPal, Credit Karma, Symantec, etc in the Silicon Valley and has been instrumental in building multiple high-performing organizations in his career. What you’ll learn: Moving security from a black box view Thinking about security earlier in the design and development phase Mental health aspects for security professionals If you have any questions for Kunal, please feel free to reach out to him via LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kunal-bhattacharya/

Meet: Chris Millikin is the Head of Infrastructure and Security at Nuna. Prior to Nuna, Chris spent over a decade building security engineering teams focused on detection, response, and security by design at Google as well as Alphabet’s Security “bet”, Chronicle Security.  Chris is passionate about building strong teams and developing them to their full potential and is currently hiring passionate problem solvers. What you’ll learn: How a security breach can shape your future views Applying an innovative mindset to healthcare Striving for balance in security If you would like to reach out to Chris about anything discussed on the podcast, please reach out to via: https://www.linkedin.com/in/%F0%9F%97%85-chris-millikin-80b2951/ https://www.twitter.com/chrismillikin

Meet: Ben is a Senior Director of Software Engineering at Flatiron Health, where he leads the Machine Learning Team. Prior to Flatiron, he worked at Google on NLP applications for Google Search. He has a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Washington. What you’ll learn: The impact of machine learning in healthcare data Solving text classification problems Can machine learning be overused If you would like to reach out to Ben about anything discussed on the podcast, please reach out via: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-birnbaum-657a4730/ https://twitter.com/benbirnbaum

Meet: Joel Anderson has worked in cybersecurity and IT as an engineer, advisor, and executive with impact across public, private, and social sectors: - technology leader for over 15 years - strong focus on information security and emerging technologies - agile, proven strategic thinker/thought leader relating technology to business value - experienced leading global teams What you’ll learn: CI/CD Business Systems for Performance and Security Mainland China Deployments Navigating Compliance as a Growing Company If you would like to reach out to Joel about anything he discussed on the podcast, please reach out via: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jcpanderson/

Meet: Ella Alkalay Schreiber, Head of Pricing and Recommendations she leads a cross-functional team of product managers, data scientists, designers, and engineers in the creation of data-driven fintech products that make travel planning easier, most notably our Price Freeze product. These services leverage our immense first and third-party data to create products and values that do not exist elsewhere. In less than 12 months, Hopper has grown its attach rate of Fintech products on travel bookings from 0% to +50% and today 75% of the company's revenue is derived from them. As VP of Data Science at Hopper, I was responsible for leading the company’s data science team and building a data-driven culture within the organization. During my time at Hopper, I have tripled the data science team and spearheaded the company’s AI and machine learning efforts which drive over 20% of the company’s sales. What you’ll learn: Customer-driven and LTV New data science features that impact business revenue Move quickly and optimize later If you have any questions for Ella, please feel free to reach out to her via LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ella-alkalay-schreiber-94a986a8/

Meet: Wen-Ying is helping revolutionize how data insights can be turned into accelerators for strengthened growth at Plastiq. She has been a leader and champion of analytics and science in both start-up and corporate environments, including LendingClub, Mercari, GREE, Storm8, and eBay. What you’ll learn: Impact - address impact, to the business, to yourself to drive results Project Management - work backward, set deadlines and time tables to ensure successful projects Effectively communicating - Know your audience

Meet: Sen Xu is the head of engineering at Replica, where he leads the engineering effort to build a scalable data solution to provide movement insights. Prior to Replica, he was at Lyft's self-driving division, Uber, Twitter, and cofounded his own startups in the commodity trading industry. What you’ll learn: Moving forward from activities and processes that don’t scale 4 main pillars of engineering management Scaling requires more specialization If you would like to reach out to Sen about anything he discussed on the podcast, please reach out to him via: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sxualex/ Blog mentioned: https://replicahq.medium.com/reimagining-work-in-the-covid-19-era-1026a5f69845