Irene Ros

ireneros.com | hello@ireneros.com | (413) 265 3704 | github

Summary

As a seasoned software engineering expert with nearly two decades of experience spanning industry and research, I bring a wealth of expertise in technical leadership and execution of large scale full-stack software engineering, AI/ML, Data Visualization, User Experience design, and Information Retrieval. I am committed to delivering technology-agnostic impactful user experiences that truly matter. I am deeply passionate about building teams, providing mentorship, and cultivating collaborative environments that fuel innovation and success.

Work Experience

Staff Software Engineer

Google | 06/2020 - Present | Cambridge, MA

Staff Software Engineer at Google, leading efforts in Search Quality (Ranking & Features) to help everyone find better answers on the web. Designed and launched a set of high traffic features to present users with nuanced information by surfacing multiple sources for controversial questions. Currently working on new and exciting LLM-powered Search experiences through AI Overviews as well as answers from Human Voices.

I lead a cross-org team, successfully navigate organizational complexity to introduce and execute on novel and complex ideas, contribute technically as an IC and advise across a variety of other projects within our broader organization. I also dedicate a significant portion of my time to mentorship and coaching.

Senior Software Engineer / TLM

Google | 01/2018 - 06/2020 | Cambridge, MA

Led the job search features on Google Search. This included management, mentorship, technical design + execution as well as cross-functional partnership. This role required working across the full Search stack, including indexing, ranking, retrieval, machine learning, and back/front-end engineering.

Founding Director and Principal Data Visualization Engineer

Bocoup, LLC | 07/2011 - 07/2017 | Boston, MA

Founded and led the Data Visualization team at Bocoup. This role involved:

Planned and executed strategic direction for the Data Visualization business at Bocoup
Designed, developed and led technical data visualization projects across the full pipeline: data analysis & transformation, user research, design & prototyping, front and back end development for the web.
Contributed technically to the field of data visualization through public speaking, educational resources, strategic projects, events and mentorship.
Founded and organized OpenVis Conf, a conference about the practice of data visualization on the web running yearly since 2013. Served as its Program Chair. OpenVis Conf fundamentally changed the data visualization community by fostering open and transparent conversations and establishing a spirit of teaching.
Engaged in team management, business development, grant writing, client/account management, sales and marketing.

Selected works:

Measurement Lab - Visualizing the health of the Internet based on 800,000,000+ speed tests.
LINCS Cancer Browser - Enabling researchers to investigate breast cancer biology and drug response through exploratory visualizations.
Stereotropes - Exploring language used to describe gender tropes in film through an interactive visualization experiment.
Npm By Numbers - Exploring the state of software packages on the NPM.js ecosystem, with custom-designed desktop and mobile experiences.
MobileVis - Gathering examples of data visualization usage on mobile devices and observed best practices for building mobile data visualization interfaces in a collaborative web-based gallery.

Research Staff Software Engineer

Visual Communication Lab, IBM Research | 06/2008 - 07/2011 | Cambridge, MA

Designed, prototyped and developed novel information visualization techniques and tools to explore collaborative methods of interacting with data on the web. Participated in academic publication.

Selected works:

ManyBills.us - Exploring congressional legislation. Designed novel visualization and analysis techniques for large bodies of text.
NYTWrites - Exploring topics The New York Times journalists write about in an interactive experiment.
Many Eyes - Allowing users to gather data, visualize it, and discuss their visualizations on a collaborative visualization platform. Designed and developed features and components for the application.

Skills

Disciplines: Machine Learning, Large Language Models, Data Analysis and Visualization, Full Stack Development, User Experience Design, User Research, Prototyping, NLP and Text Analysis, Production and Deployment, Management and Technical Leadership, Mentorship, Teaching, Public Speaking
Programming Languages: C++, Python, Go, Java, JavaScript, CSS, HTML, R, Ruby (+Rails)

Education

University of Massachusetts Amherst, MA

Bachelors of Science in Computer Science - GPA: 3.848
Graduated with Honors (Summa Cum Laude) from Commonwealth Honors College

Frequent invited speaker. Speaking engagements: www.ireneros.com/speaking.html

Publications

Many Bills: Visualizing the Anatomy of Congressional Legislation E. Aktolga, I. Ros, Y. Assogba, J. DiMicco Workshop on Scalable Integration of Analytics and Visualization, AAAI 2011.
Detecting Outlier Sections in US Congressional Legislation E. Aktolga, I. Ros, Y. Assogba SIGIR 2011, pp. 235-244.
Many Bills: Engaging Citizens through Visualizations of Congressional Legislation. Y. Assogba, I. Ros, J. DiMicco, M. McKeon ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2011).
DocBlocks: Communication-minded Visualization of Topics in U.S. Congressional Bills Y. Assogba, I. Ros, M. Mckeon Work In Progress Paper, CHI 2010, April 2010.
Evolution of a cross-platform, multimedia courseware presentation system B. Wallace, W.R. Adrion, P. Dickson, W. Cooper, I. Ros and K. Watts ACM Transactions on Internet Technology, June 2006.
Integrating CASA ERC Wireless Networking into Education B. Wallace, W. Burlson, B. Donovan, J. Kurose, I. Ros, and M. Zink Education, San Juan, Puerto Rico, July 2006.

Personal

I am committed to delivering high quality work in everything I do. I am a strategic thinker, but I also know how to get things done. I love finding the right tools for the job and solving challenges big and small. I've spent many years growing as a technical leader while developing my craft as an engineer and information designer. I bring a spirit of collaboration to the teams I lead, fostering a sense of community, shared purpose and drive to excel.