An expert in machine learning, natural language processing, and deep learning, Vaijanath Rao is as technically skilled as possible. He holds a bachelor's degree in computer science and engineering. As a young professional, Rao started his career in software engineering roles. He helped build the technology to detect SMS spam messages for Roamaware right after graduation, and since then, he has continued to work on cutting-edge tools and technologies.
Working for some of the largest digital conglomerates like Yahoo! and AOL, Rao has played a vital role in designing and implementing some of the most complex online interactions of the early 2000s. As a senior software engineer at Yahoo!, he was responsible for several search verticals, such as Movie Search, Kids Search, and Recipe Search, that made it easier for online users to navigate the internet and find the information they were looking for.
Moving from Yahoo! to AOL, Rao continued to change how people interacted with the online world. He was the technical lead for the MapQuest search team in India and was tasked with making MapQuest the best search experience for users. Under his leadership, MapQuest in India went from requiring multiple information inputs from the user to understanding a single-line search. This shift was revolutionary at that time, fundamentally altering how customers interacted with the tools.
Taking things even further, Rao was responsible for the spatial search feature that recommended alternative routes to users based on their interests and the end location they were targeting. This was one of the first examples of user personalization in the digital space, and we can still see its impact today. Rao's work at AOL also resulted in a patent filing for the organization.
Today, Rao is kept busy as the Head of Data Science at Quicken, a personal finance and money management software company. With every personal finance tool on the market, personalization is vital. If financial recommendations don't fit a person's lifestyle or financial goals, then the machine learning algorithm that publishes them becomes unreliable, making the tool overall unreliable and untrustworthy. For players in the financial space, customer trust is a foundational pillar of success, and at Quicken, it's Rao's work that helps bolster that sense of trust between the platform and its users.
Quicken's mission is to help its customers lead healthy, confident financial lives, and Rao's due diligence makes that possible. He leads the teams that build the machine learning products responsible for pulling together data from multiple sources within the Quicken ecosystem and providing efficient data analytics and insights to the tool's user base. These models are trained to learn user patterns to reduce redundant customer interactions, ultimately making the user experience as seamless as possible.
Rao's technical talent has never been questioned; he's always delivered incredible products that have fundamental impacts not only on a specific organization but also on the industry landscape overall. But now, his new challenge is being a leader. He brings strategic plans to life and has become fundamental to keeping Quicken at the forefront of the personal finance space.
As a software engineer, Rao's spark came from solving problems with new technologies. As a technical leader, he finds that he's most excited about helping his teams succeed. As he moved from individual contributor roles to leadership roles, a lot changed, but there is one constant: Rao will always find a way to exceed expectations. So much of his career has revolved around improving the customer experience, and now, he gets to improve the customer and the employee experience simultaneously.
