Sam Lightstone
Distinguished Engineer @Airbnb
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WORK HISTORY
Distinguished Engineer @Airbnb
Toronto, ON, CA
A member of the executive leadership team at Airbnb working on data infrastructure.
EDUCATION
University of Waterloo
M.Math, Computer Science - Software Engineering
Queen's University
B.Sc. Eng., Electrical Engineering
SKILLS
ABOUT SAM LIGHTSTONE
I lead research & development and ops for data infrastructure at Airbnb. My career has focussed on database, data analytics & AI. I am a frequent keynote speaker on Data and AI. Past CTO and Fellow for 900 engineer team. 70+ patents. 30+ papers. Author of 4 books. Still writing some code. From 20••••24 I was Facebook\'s (Meta\'s) senior executive software engineer for operational data systems, helping to develop and operate one of the world\'s largest data fleets. I worked on large scale distributed systems, especially on improving scalability, simplicity, and operations. I also led Meta\'s research and university relations programs for data systems. From 20••••21 I was CTO for AI at IBM, and an IBM Fellow leading IBM\'s company-wide technical strategy for AI. From 20••••20 I was CTO for Data, and an IBM Fellow leading IBM\'s product development for big data, warehousing, and operational databases. I\'ve led multiple large scale initiatives including projects related to: machine learning/deep learning, IoT distributed analytics, data virtualization, fast data, data warehousing, platform as a service, cloud data warehousing, cloud databases, big data + data lakes. Founder and leader of several successful, high revenue, large-scale software R&D projects related to data management simplicity, performance, and cloud computing. Expert at incubating disruptive technology, recruiting top talent, growing and leading engineering teams, and go-to-market activities. More than 70 and patents pending and several dozen publications including tier-1 scientific venues. Author of the critically acclaimed career book \"\" and co-author of \"\"Some additional notables: In 2020 I was Chair of the Technical Team for Data and AI, which includes all Technical Executives across the division of ppl. In 2019 I led a 5x increase in invention generation across the Data and AI organization which includes several thousand engineers. In 2018/19 I chaired the Joint Program committee planning IBM\'s research strategy for Data and AI division of ppl.
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