About

Alex Wainger is a highly skilled Data Scientist with over 5 years of relevant experience in the tech industry. Currently, he is working with Instagram as a Data Scientist, where he co-led the launch of Feed Recs, the most impactful change to Instagram's Feed since algorithmic ranking was introduced in 2016. As a tech lead of the Feed Recs data science team, he is responsible for setting roadmaps and technical direction, as well as mentoring other data scientists on the team. Alex is adept at identifying opportunities to improve the Feed Recs recommendation system, and his analysis informs the roadmap of a team of 15 engineers, which has led to top-line Instagram visitation, time spent, and revenue wins. He regularly presents analyses and recommendations to product, engineering, and analytics leadership. Alex has also worked with Facebook as a Data Engineer, where he built data infrastructure to support experimentation and analysis for Facebook News, one of the largest news destinations in the US. In addition to traditional DE work, he led experiment reviews and contributed to ranking model feature engineering. He also designed an "Intro to SQL" class and a data hackathon with the University Recruiting team, which have each generated dozens of intern and full-time hires. Alex has also worked as a Data Engineering Intern with Facebook, where he built datasets, dashboards, and experimentation metrics for two product teams in the FB Marketplace organization. Alex holds a Master's Degree in Data Science from Columbia University and a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Brown University. He also completed his High School from Poly Prep Country Day School. Alex has a strong tech stack, including expertise in Data Science, Research Science, Recommendation System, Data Engineering, SQL, Infra, and Senior Software Engineering. He is a highly analytical and strategic thinker with a proven track record of delivering results in complex and fast-paced environments.