About

I’m Rishi. After a decade building AI and data systems at scale, the lesson I keep relearning is that better operations don’t come from more tools — they come from owning your data model. Most of my career has been spent proving that in production.

I started out in tech consulting, quant research, and marketing analytics. Then I spent several years at Meta as a data engineer building consumer augmented-reality products — pipelines, platforms, and relevance systems at a scale few companies ever see. Since then I’ve worked with AI and data startups, from standing up a venture-backed game studio’s first analytics platform as its Head of Data & Analytics to running Ceroh, where I build AI and data systems for media agencies. The two projects I’m proudest of are written up as case studies.

The work I keep choosing has a shape: take something that exists only as a model, an idea, or a pile of raw data, and turn it into a system other people can rely on without me in the room.

When my laptop is closed, I’m strength training, swimming, or snowboarding — and my favorite: 1:1 conversations with fascinating people in cafés all over San Francisco. If you’re one of them, say hi.

Work with me. I take on a small number of engagements alongside running Ceroh: scoped 30-day build sprints (data platforms, pipelines, AI workflows — inside your own infrastructure), fractional data & AI leadership for teams not ready to hire a full-time head of data, and advisory. If that sounds like your problem, email me or book an intro call.

The fastest way to reach me is email: rishi@rishibhatia.io. I’m also on LinkedIn and GitHub.