Nima Rad

About Nima Rad

Proven technology leader in Big Data Analytics and Machine Learning/AI fields with experience in leading large and diverse engineering departments. Time and again I have revitalized low performing teams and transformed them to a data driven, platform centric groups.

Experience

1. Director of Engineering

   Roku

   Apr 2021 — Present · San Francisco, CA, US

   Recruited to establish a clear, platform-centric vision for the Knowledge Platform. Transformed the organization into a hub of innovation, delivering cutting-edge ML/AI solutions that drive core business strategy.• Leadership & Visionary Strategy:o Defined and executed a long-term vision for ML/AI and data initiatives, directly aligning them with Roku\'s overarching business goals.o Pioneered initiatives in advanced content understanding and synthesis across audio, video, and text by building enterprise-scale knowledge systems using multimodal AI, RAG pipelines, and Agentic AI principles.o Led cross-functional teams to develop and deploy state-of-the-art NLP and Deep Learning models for content matching, achieving a greater than 40% increase in precision and recall.• Team Transformation & Growth:o Revitalized and scaled the engineering organization by 325%, building high-performing, multi-disciplinary teams across multiple time zones.o Cultivated a culture of collaboration and continuous learning, instituting rigorous recruitment processes to attract top-tier talent in ML/AI and data engineering.o Mentored team members to foster professional growth and cultivate the next generation of leadership.• Technical Architecture & Agile Execution:o Architected robust and scalable ML/AI systems leveraging BERT, CLIP, LLMs, TensorFlow, and PyTorch.o Championed agile methodologies to streamline development processes, significantly reducing time-to-market for key initiatives.

Education

• University of Maryland

  BS, Computer Science

  2010

• University of Maryland

  BS, Economics

  2010