About

David Avakian is an accomplished technology leader with over 17 years of experience in the field of ML/AI applications. He is currently working as an Engineering Manager at Meta, where he is responsible for building next-gen tech and leading a Computer Vision & Machine Learning team at XR Tech. David has managed multiple engineering teams across Meta, including Instagram and Reality Labs, and has built the Recommendation engine for all of shopping on Instagram, a production ML system serving over 1 billion people in 80+ countries. He has also delivered a range of ML applications affecting billions of users and unlocking new use cases, from Social Graph Ranking to Data-driven Marketing & Sales. Prior to his current role, David has built ML and DS teams from scratch and delivered innovative products at top-tier financial institutions such as JPMC and BlackRock. He has also built News Analytics ML/NLP systems that drove sales and won awards at Bloomberg. David is a Senior Software Engineer with expertise in AI, ML, Computer Vision, NLP, Data Scientist, and Research Scientist. He has a Master's degree in Computer Science from the University of Michigan and a Bachelor's degree in Mathematics from Yerevan State University. David is an expert in growing high-performance cross-functional teams and creating next-gen products in finance and tech. He is passionate about pushing the state of the art in AR/VR, Generative AI, AR effects, and 3D calling. David is a results-driven leader with a proven track record of delivering innovative products and driving business growth.