Rahul Zende

Rahul Zende is a Principal Data Scientist at Navy Federal Credit Union since 2021, focusing on building language model capabilities for insights capture. Responsibilities include serving as a tech lead for AI/ML projects, delivering presentations at analytics conferences, assisting in hiring data science talent, consulting on AI/ML and data-driven transformations, conducting research on novel AI/ML capabilities, and advocating for advanced analytics practices. Previous positions include Data Scientist roles at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation and Smartsheet, leading significant projects in global health financing and sentiment analysis, respectively. Rahul also served as a Senior Data Engineer at Wells Fargo, contributing to code and process improvements, and has experience in several research and consulting roles. Educational qualifications include a PhD in Information Technology with a specialization in AI/ML and multiple MS degrees from the University of Washington.