Sharath Rao

Sharath Rao is an accomplished technology leader with extensive experience in engineering and machine learning. Currently serving as the Vice President of Engineering, Data/AI at Handshake since March 2025, Sharath previously held key roles at Instacart from September 2011 to February 2025, notably as Senior Director of Engineering and Principal Machine Learning Engineer, where efforts contributed to significant growth of the Ads Business from $20 million to over $1 billion in annual revenue. Sharath's expertise extends through various leadership positions within Instacart, including Director of Engineering and Director of Machine Learning, overseeing teams focused on search, recommendations, and ad optimization. Earlier career experiences include positions at Intent Media and Morgan Stanley, where Sharath specialized in machine learning engineering and quantitative analysis. Sharath holds a Master's degree in Language Technologies from Carnegie Mellon University and a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from Boston University.