Aditya Rao

Hi, I'm Aditya.

I'm a machine learning engineer. Right now I'm building production features at a Series B fintech. Before that, a mix of startups and established companies, most of them small enough that I owned whole systems end to end.

  • Built an NBA model that beat ESPN's picks, 74% across 400+ games.
  • Built LLM-powered CRM and outreach features as founding engineer at an a16z-backed startup.
  • Building an edtech startup that teaches K-5 math through live sports.
  • Published a peer-reviewed paper on generative AI for stock forecasting.
  • Worked across cybersecurity, insurtech, revenue management, edtech, fintech, and supply chain.

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THE ARCADE

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CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

16

Built a K-5 math platform that teaches through live sports

Co-Founder & CTO · Edtech Startup · May 2025 - Presentnow

15

Building production features for a B2C consumer product

Machine Learning Engineer · Series B Fintech · Jun 2026 - Presentnow

14

Founding AI Engineer

Founding AI Engineer · Stealth AI Startup (a16z-backed) · Feb 2026 - Jun 2026

13

Built a fall-detection health app on Apple Health, pitched to angels

Co-Founder & CTO · Guardian AI · Aug 2025 - Jan 2026

12

Built top-level domain ingestion pipelines with ML

Machine Learning Engineer Intern · Cybersecurity Startup (Series B) · Aug 2025 - Dec 2025

11

Cut LLM evaluation time 40% with Langfuse observability tooling

Full-Stack Machine Learning Engineer Intern · Sixfold AI (Series B) · Jun 2025 - Aug 2025

10

Built a photographer-to-client platform with recommendations

Full Stack Developer · Pick N Show · Feb 2024 - Jun 2025

9

Cut a content team's manual transcript formatting by ~80%

Software Engineering Consultant · Independent Client · Nov 2024 - Mar 2025

8

Built an NBA model at 74% across 400+ games, ahead of ESPN's picks

Founding Machine Learning Engineer · HoopSight AI · Aug 2024 - Feb 2025

7

Cut quote-creation turnaround 30%: a fiscal-year plan shipped in weeks

Machine Learning Product Intern · Model N · Jun 2024 - Aug 2024

6

Red-teamed LLMs for 3 international businesses

LLM Red-Teaming Specialist · Upwork · Jan 2024 - May 2024

5

Built an iClicker alternative driven by gesture recognition

Machine Learning Researcher · Google exploreCSR · Oct 2023 - Dec 2024

4

Built GPT-4 chatbots that lifted retention 40%

AI Chatbot Developer · ChatBuilt · Dec 2023 - Jan 2024

3

Researched stock-prediction algorithms and pattern matching

ML Researcher · Finance-Flash (Alphashots.AI) · Dec 2023 - Feb 2024

2

Built EAST-based text recognition for natural images

Signal Processing & CV Engineering Intern · Open Avenues · Sep 2023 - Nov 2023

1

Built sentiment analysis to help colleges read student surveys

AI Implementation Intern · DIA Higher Ed · Sep 2023

PROOF · CHECK IT YOURSELF

MODEL

NBA prediction platform

74% accuracy across 400+ games, ahead of ESPN's picks. The platform itself is private, but the dataset it was built on is public.

the dataset on Kaggle →

PUBLISHED

S&P 500 forecasting with generative AI

A GPT-4 trading prediction model for short- and long-term forecasting, published in the UC Merced Undergraduate Research Journal.

doi.org →

OPEN SOURCE

the bug behind the nba_api v1.11.3 warning

Root-caused a data-integrity failure in nba_api, the open-source Python client with 3.4k+ stars and 1M+ downloads. The runtime warning and docs shipped in v1.11.3 are built on that analysis.

read the thread →

RECOMMENDATIONS · QUOTED VERBATIM

01 · MANAGED ADITYA DIRECTLY

The scope of the project was quite huge, but he had an unwavering determination to take it to completion. After one of his internal presentations, a comment he received was that it usually takes a team almost a year to build what Aditya could do on his own in 2 months.
Director of Product Management · Model N

02 · MANAGED ADITYA DIRECTLY

Aditya took ownership of foundational research that directly shaped the project's architecture. What stood out most was his ability to operate independently on ambiguous, research-heavy work, and deliver outputs that the team continued to build on well after his internship ended.
Engineering Leader · Sixfold AI

03 · SENIOR TO ADITYA AT MODEL N

What impressed me most about Aditya was his ability to pick things up quickly and pivot to make changes where feedback was provided. Within a short period of time, Aditya was able to deliver a usable model that our product team can move forward with.
Chief Product Officer · Vendavo

all 7 on LinkedIn

THE LIBRARY · FROM MEDIUM