Vijay Janakiraman
Engineering Leader | AI Innovator | Mentor

With a Ph.D. in Machine Learning and over 15 years of hands-on experience in AI, Vijay Janakiraman has charted an inspiring journey from NASA research labs to leading groundbreaking LLM products at Meta. He’s not just an engineer—he’s a builder of both technology and people.

At Meta, Vijay led the development of cutting-edge AI experiences—from the world’s first factual chatbot on smart glasses to 100M+ user-scale recommendation systems on Instagram. Before that, he scaled AI systems powering millions of documents at Intuit, and earlier, conducted impactful AI research at NASA on aviation safety and satellite data.

Vijay has managed teams of 30+ engineers, mentored engineering managers and tech leads, and consistently delivered real-world AI applications at scale. A US citizen based in the Bay Area, he’s a published researcher with 30+ papers, 600+ citations, and 3 patents, and has earned awards from Meta, Intuit, and NASA.

As a mentor, Vijay is deeply passionate about helping the next generation of technologists find their voice, navigate ambiguity, and grow into impactful leaders. Whether you’re exploring AI for the first time, deciding on a college major, launching your thesis project or writing research papers to build your profile for college admissions—he’s here to guide, inspire, and unlock your potential.

“Great mentorship isn’t about giving answers—it’s about helping you ask better questions.”