Zelal Gungordu

Zelal Gungordu has a diverse work experience spanning various companies and roles. Starting from 2022, they have been working at Eventbrite as a Principal Engineer, specifically focusing on Search and Discovery. Prior to that, from 2019 to 2022, they were a Senior Lead Data Engineer and Lead Data Engineer at Capital One.

Before joining Capital One, Zelal worked at EBSCO Information Services as a Principal Software Engineer, where they played a crucial role in developing and maintaining the search engine that powers the company's extensive range of e-journals, e-books, and research databases.

From 2011 to 2015, they worked at MITRE as a Lead Software Engineer, where they contributed to the design and development of analytical solutions for the Data Analytics Department. During their tenure, they created a prototype network visualization, integration, and analysis tool for the fuel industry.

Zelal also served as a Computational Linguistic Consultant at Bart & Associates from 2010 to 2011, providing expertise in computational techniques and systems used in multi-cultural name-matching. Zelal actively participated in the development of technical white papers and made oral presentations for a government contract proposal.

As an Independent Contractor from 2007 to 2010, Zelal worked as a Computational Linguist and NLP Developer for Turn2Live. In this role, they designed and developed a mood-based information retrieval capability for a web-based live music search engine, utilizing data mining and machine learning techniques.

Zelal'searly career includes significant roles such as a Member of the Technical Staff at Cycorp Inc from 1998 to 2006, where they served as a Project Manager and Lead Programmer. Zelal contributed to the development of collaborative sense-making projects and designed novel algorithms for semantic similarity of concepts. Furthermore, Zelal was a Post-doctoral Fellow at Bilkent University in Ankara, Turkey, where they conducted research on finite-state kernel architecture for processing Turkish and taught C programming courses to science students.

Zelal's academic involvement includes roles such as a Tutor in Theoretical Linguistics II at the University of Edinburgh from 1995 to 1997, and as a Research Assistant and Teaching Assistant in Fundamental Structures of Computer Science I/II at Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey from 1991 to 1993.

With their extensive experience in software engineering, data engineering, computational linguistics, and academic research, Zelal Gungordu brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to their current role at Eventbrite.

Zelal Gungordu earned a Ph.D. in Cognitive Science from The University of Edinburgh, where they studied from 1993 to 1997. Prior to that, they completed their Master's degree in Computer Engineering and Information Sciences at Bilkent University from 1991 to 1993. Zelal also obtained a Bachelor's degree in Computer Engineering and Information Sciences from the same university, attending from 1987 to 1991. Zelal Gungordu completed their high school education at Ankara Science High School (Ankara Fen Lisesi) and received a diploma in 1987. In addition to their academic qualifications, they have obtained several certifications in various specialized fields from Amazon Web Services (AWS). These include certifications in AWS Certified Database - Specialty, AWS Certified Machine Learning - Specialty, AWS Certified Data Analytics - Specialty, and AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate.