Elena Zhizhimontova

Elena Zhizhimontova is the Co-Founder and CEO of Spiral. Elena previously worked as a Software Development Engineer II at Amazon from July 2014 to July 2018, where they worked on the Alexa on FireTV team and participated in the development of devices like Echo Show, Kindle Tablets, Echo, FireTV, and others. During their time at Amazon, they implemented the Alexa Media Player that plays Alexa-enabled music on Amazon devices like FireTV, Echo, Echo Show, etc. and integrated the player with various music providers like Amazon Music, iHeartRadio, TuneIn, Pandora, and others. Elena also implemented a voice-enabled video player used on FireTV and Echo Show to play Youtube, show connected security cameras, and other video streams. In addition, they brought various Alexa Domains into FireTV's Alexa integration such as Sports, Flash Briefing, Q&A, etc. and designed and implemented the hands-off FireTV Cube Video Domain experience where users can find and play a video with just their voice, no remote required. Lastly, they implemented voice-enabled playback controls within audio and video players. Prior to Amazon, Elena Zhizhimontova was a Software Development Engineer Intern at Amazon from May 2013 to August 2013 and a Computer Science Teaching Assistant at Clark University from January 2013 to January 2014.

Elena Zhizhimontova completed their Master of Engineering degree in Computer Science from Cornell University. Elena also has a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics and Computer Science from Clark University. Elena has a certification from an art school in their diploma.