Nicholas Kridler

Director, Machine Learning
2022
Lead a team of data scientists to identify promising startups - Develop KPI models to surface interesting companies - Improved operationalization of ML strategies

2021 - 2022

Lead Machine Learning Engineer
2021 - 2022
Real-time ML-based Product Recommendation Algorithms - Maintained infrastructure for recommendation systems: real-time ranking models deployed as microservices - Developed and deployed an embedding based personalization module for the e-commerce shop - Provided cost savings via improvements to our dynamodb cache Analytics Platform Support - Developed custom ETLs that retrieved data from ad platforms via REST APIs (e.g. Pinterest) - Developed ETLs for additional data sources in dbt - Provided Looker support to business stakeholders

2020 - 2021

Senior Data Scientist
2020 - 2021
Led apparel ranking initiatives on the search and personalization team - Delivered a 10% increase to apparel orders through changes to the search algorithms - Developed a process to improve roadmap alignment between the product and ranking teams - Plan Quarterly goals (OKRs) and identify the potential lift in revenue associated with each project Contributed to the core search ranking models - Introduced new features to help characterize predictive behavior of users in search - Train ranking models in interactive (Sagemaker) and batch (Batch) environments - Improve search relevance by designing retrieval algorithms in elasticsearch End-to-End ownership of ranking algorithms - Responsible for backend production algorithm implementation in Kotlin - Develop offline frameworks in Python to evaluate algorithm improvements - Responsible for analyzing A/B tests using variance reduction techniques (e.g. CUPED) to assess the overall impact

2020 - 2020

Senior Data Scientist
2020 - 2020
Drove adoption of Contextual Bandits - Leveraged ML platform to accelerate the adoption of contextual bandits - Presented proof-of-concept to Senior Leadership Team Influenced product strategy through the development of new metrics - Developed metrics that help characterize customer engagement with Turbo Tax Pioneered new technologies for the team - Led effort to deploy models to the ML platform - Developed tools to enable data scientists and analysts automate their workflows

2018 - 2019

Lead Machine Learning Engineer
2018 - 2019
Developed product recommendations for the styling service - Leveraged binary classification models for high-dimensionality categorical data - Deployed models through RESTful API microservices Increased sales through recommender model enhancements - Improved recommendations for new customers by tuning the model and training data - Algorithmically combined recommendations to improve stylist efficiency - Evaluated model enhancements through AB tests End-to-End Data Products to support the recommendation platform - Developed dashboards to monitor algorithm performance - Developed metrics to evaluate inventory health Hands-on project management - Weekly one-on-one meetings with team members - Develop roadmap and manage projects via Agile/Scrum

2014 - 2018

Data Scientist
2014 - 2018
End-to-End ML-based Data Products - Developed a data source used to create ML features that powered multiple capabilities - Built and maintained ETLs using Spark (SQL and PySpark) - Created binary classification models to identify product expansion opportunities - Developed simple web applications to surface recommendations to business partners Drove Vendor Partnership through Sharing Data - Introduced a vendor-facing data portal for sharing performance metrics - Used NLP techniques to characterize customer feedback for each product - Introduced a vendor-buyer collaboration tool for capturing data needed to power other data science initiatives Hands-on project management - Responsible for project scope, implementation, and delivery - New-hire onboarding and mentorship

2014 - 2014

Senior Data Scientist
2014 - 2014
Transitioned legacy AB Testing Framework code to Python - ETLs and statistical tests to track the results of in-game experiments - Constructed an API to assess potential test biases due to player cohort imbalances Worked towards developing a centralized datastore across all studios - Responsible for defining data model and extracts for the Redshift data warehouse - Collaborated with the engineering team to design aggregate tables Identified the scale and missed revenue opportunity caused by in-game cheating - Created an anomaly detection algorithm to look for abnormal game actions - Presented findings to stakeholders to address revenue loss

2012 - 2014

Senior Data Scientist
2012 - 2014
Leveraged predictive modeling techniques to improve internal processes - Developed a prioritization algorithm to optimize work-flow Identified potential opportunities for missed revenue using Matrix Factorization - Developed a prototype One-Class Collaborative Filter in R - Successfully identified opportunities not found by human auditors Predicted Inpatient length-of-stay using historical Medicare data - Developed a physician aid for assessing the need for inpatient admittance - Utilized a decade of Medicare claims data

2006 - 2012

Staff Scientist
2006 - 2012
Apply machine learning techniques to reduce false alarms in detection systems. -Utilize decision trees and support vector machines to discriminate false alarms -Develop additional derived metrics to boost performance Produce end-to-end solutions from data ingestion to actionable insights. -Generate scripts to scrub data and extract additional features -Present results at quarterly meetings Develop production software leveraging GPU image processing in OpenGL. -Implement image filters as GLSL shaders Develop research software for automatic target recognition in OpenCV. -Design C++ software for wide-area template matching

2005 - 2006

Analyst
2005 - 2006
Conduct Operations Analysis studies using the Naval Simulation System (NSS). Interface with customers to develop and implement new features in NSS. Instruct training classes for new NSS users.

Director of ML at Goodwater