Slava Agafonov
Senior Staff MLE @Cisco | Ex-Airbnb | Ex-Meta | Ex-Microsoft
Seattle, Washington
Invests in
Locations:
Min Investment:
$5,000.00Max Investment:
$50,000.00Target Investment:
$25,000.00
Skills
Education
Lists including Slava
Investments
Work Experience
2025
Senior Staff Machine Learning Engineer
2025
At Cisco, our AI organization is structured around three mission-driven pillars: AI Research & Modeling, AI Infra & Platform, and Applied AI & Solutions Engineering. Together, we drive core LLM model innovation, build robust, scalable platforms, and partner with product teams to deliver measurable business value through advanced AI solutions. This integrated approach accelerates the entire AI lifecycle, establishing Cisco as a leader in AI-driven autonomous networks. Tech stack: Kubernetes + Go, Python, TypeScript + React, LangChain, HuggingFace, and Databricks.
2024 - 2025
Staff Software Engineer
2024 - 2025
I helped to shape the way Airbnb connects millions of guests and hosts by building intelligent data systems that enhance personalized search and discovery in knowledge graph team. Using ontology, graph learning, NLP, and machine learning, I worked on transforming vast amounts of data to create seamless product taxonomies, and personalized experiences for everyone in the Airbnb community using Kubernetes, Java, Janus Graph, Gremlin and Airflow+PySpark.
2024 - 2024
Staff Software Engineer
2024 - 2024
Cross-Integrity (XI) problem space search initiatives on Instagram and Facebook, addressing moderation challenges in 6 high-risk areas like child safety, human exploitation, fraud and drugs. I created scalable tools and automated content workflows for 500 content reviews per day in searches on type ahead and SERP. Searchability team for Facebook and Instagram handled billions of daily classifications for text, image and complex entities like profiles, pages, events or groups. I built language-agnostic infra to enforce content violations, using Hack (Fork of PHP), DataSwarm (Apache Airflow fork) and Mercurial mega repo source control.
2011 - 2024
Senior Software Architect
2011 - 2024
✓ Architected Azure Geo expansion cycle time through architectural enhancements and integration of OpenAI into rollout workflows for new data centers across the globe ✓ Architected HoloLens Integrated Visual Augmentation System and Devices Manufacturing Test. Set up infrastructure and security in lab and factory. Onboarded a new factory in USA. Delivered defect-free device hardware and software 1.2 to US Congress and military ✓ Fraud detection project for $10B supply chain using IoT data and ML, saving $18M annually. Worked with engineers across 3 time zones on advanced analytics using Azure DevOps, improved repos to be compliant, and made secure pipelines and data lakes ✓ Xbox accessories and Hardware Security Module updates - $60M savings for Microsoft Devices ✓ Intelligent Radio Frequency Machine Learning pipelines for multiple Surface Book laptops, Surface Phone Duo including 5G and Wi-Fi. AI based framework saved time and space in the global factories. ✓ Led AI Core projects in Bing Search. Created Knowledge Graph answers for Bing.com and Office. ✓ Built service for NLP - Skydance, scaled it to 700+ VMs and Improved performance and memory 3x as Machine Learning Engineer. ✓ Mentored team of four to build portal for content type and encumbrances. Integrated with Bing Entity Pane, Bing Knowledge API ✓ Led team of three to develop Bing Ads Content API v2. Made migration tools from Google and increased revenue to $12M. Onboarded major customers ✓ Service to send ad emails from SMTP server - 1M per hour ✓ Engine to extract and upload storage content in Azure Table. Supported speed over 1000 rows per second ✓ Service for credit card payments and Commerce Transaction Platform integration ✓ Automated tests and fixed bugs for Bing Business Portal, MSN offers, and Loyalty service ✓ Automation for CAP for on-call support in Windows, MSN, and Xbox. Resolved 100 product bugs ✓ Developed WPF UI automation with 70% coverage for Windows and Office live support teams
2010 - 2011
Senior Software Engineer
2010 - 2011
Reverse engineered and verified surgical device in Boston with software on O-arm X-ray system. ✓ Improved O-arm stability with TCP/IP network framework. ✓ Saved time and money for lab testing and travel. ✓ Made web tool for log analysis and Excel integration. Boosted support team productivity and debugging speed. ✓ Enhanced communication framework with keep-alive and XML validation. Increased application and network performance. ✓ Built hardware emulator for remote development. Tech stack: WPF, WinForms, ASP.NET, ASP.NET MVC, C++, C#, WCF
2008 - 2009
Senior Software Engineer
2008 - 2009
Worked as a consultant and remote offshore team in Ukraine to acquire new businesses in publishing, recruitment, and e-commerce. Traveled extensively for new projects to Europe and USA. ✓ Built new system and team for all projects. ✓ Consulted Talents, an online recruitment application. ✓ Solved and implemented problems for IBM, Yorkshire Water Services, and Hampton’s. ✓ Analyzed hiring process and workflows for IBM, Siemens, and Vodafone. ✓ Created portal to link with external servers via web services for recruiting agencies. ✓ Developed e-publishing platform for Apex CoVantage to improve OCR for publishers.
2005 - 2008
Senior Software Engineer
2005 - 2008
Worked full-time while studying bachelor’s degree. Led team of 3 to develop projects for Ukraine's Ministry of Internal Affairs. Trained employees to create applications for phone station certifications and surveillance. Extracted data from GSM and CDMA stations for security personnel. ✓ Created unique message protocols for Lucent/Alcatel phone station. Increased coverage for Intertelecom from 5 to 16 regions. ✓ Certified three positions for Utel and onboarded MTS in Ukraine and Russia. ✓ Mentored team of 5, built core encoding/decoding framework for Huawei, Ericsson, and Lucent stations. ✓ Made client/server program (Switch Node) to emulate and follow network protocol messages. Tech stack: WinForms, .NET, Assembler, C, C++, C#