Data Engineering Manager, Digital
United States
INTERNATIONAL DISTINGUISHED INNOVATION AWARD
Samanth Gurram is a distinguished technology leader, innovator, and researcher with over fifteen years of experience in artificial intelligence, big data engineering, and enterprise data architecture. His career is defined by a strong commitment to building scalable, reliable, and governance-driven data systems that enable advanced analytics, machine learning, and AI-powered decision-making across global organizations. With deep expertise in cloud-native platforms and distributed data ecosystems, he has consistently delivered solutions that combine technical excellence with measurable business impact. Currently, Samanth serves as Engineering Manager for Data and AI at Nike, where he leads the design and execution of high-volume, globally distributed data platforms supporting analytics and AI use cases. His work has transformed consumer and marketplace data products through modern architectures, achieving significant performance improvements and cost efficiencies while ensuring compliance with international data privacy regulations. By introducing near real-time analytics capabilities, he has reduced time to insight from days to minutes and contributed to multi-million-dollar enterprise savings through strategic modernization initiatives. Previously, Samanth held senior engineering and architecture leadership roles at BNY Mellon, Sony Music, TD Bank, ASCAP, and Google. At Google, he was recognized with the You Rock Award for exceptional innovation, including the redesign of complex systems and the application of machine learning to automate critical internal processes. Across these organizations, he has led large-scale cloud migrations, designed enterprise data frameworks, and mentored global teams, consistently driving innovation, operational excellence, and timely delivery of high-impact solutions. Beyond industry leadership, Samanth is an active contributor to academic research. He has authored multiple peer-reviewed publications in ISSN Awards-recognized international journals, addressing critical challenges such as executable data contracts for reliable AI pipelines, adaptive drift defense frameworks for large language model applications, and enterprise data product valuation. His research bridges theory and practice, offering frameworks that improve AI reliability, governance, and long-term value in real-world systems. Samanth Gurram contributions have earned him numerous international honors, including the International Distinguished Innovation Award, Global Leader Awards in Enterprise Architecture and Digital Transformation, and Gold recognition at the Stellar Global Awards. He is a Full Member of Sigma Xi, Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Fellow of the Soft Computing Research Society, and an Honorary Fellow of international research organizations. Through sustained leadership, innovation, and scholarly contribution, Samanth Gurram continues to advance the global data and AI ecosystem with meaningful and lasting impact.