Abhishek MacHiraju

WORK HISTORY

EDUCATION

ABOUT ABHISHEK MACHIRAJU

I’m an Operations Research Scientist at Optym, and my path has taken me from IIT Delhi to an MS in Operations Research at Columbia. What people usually notice about me quickly is that I take ownership—if something is messy, ambiguous, or half-defined, I’m comfortable jumping in, bringing structure, and pushing it all the way to a real outcome. Not just something that sounds good, but something that actually works.At work, I’m known for being dependable under real constraints—shipping improvements, supporting deployments, and staying close to clients so solutions don’t get stuck in “theory mode.” If you hand me something important, it gets done—cleanly, on time, and without drama. Before Optym, I was at Dell, where I built dashboards and automation that helped reduce excess/obsolete exposure by $1M+—the kind of impact that’s hard to argue with because it shows up directly in results. I’ve also spent time teaching and mentoring as a TA, which I genuinely enjoyed—I like helping people get unstuck and level up.Outside work, I’m naturally curious and I like building things just because they’re interesting—like a Texas Hold’em Coach AI side project that blends simulation with coaching-style feedback. I’m also pretty social and team-oriented: I like collaborating, being in the mix, and keeping the energy up—whether that’s through work conversations or life outside it (piano, chess, pickleball, board games, cars). The simplest way to put it is: teams feel stronger with me around because I’m both a driver and a connector—and it’s noticeable when I’m not there.