# Clifton Collins

Clifton Collins is a remote worker on Himalayas, Staff AI/ML Engineer & Data Scientist at Meta, based in United States.

Source: https://himalayas.app/@cliftoncollins

```text
Staff AI/ML Engineer at Meta who advanced Facebook and Instagram recommendations and cut p95 inference latency by 30%.
```

| Detail | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Availability | Open to opportunities |
| Location | United States |
| Authorized to work in | United States |
| Salary expectations | 135k+ USD |
| Job categories | AI ML Engineer, Data Scientist, Data Engineer, Software Engineer |
| Skills | AI, Machine Learning, Generative AI, Large Language Models, RAG, Recommendation Systems, Learning To Rank, Agentic AI, Distributed Training, Computer Vision, Data Engineering, MLOps, ML Platform Architecture, AI ML Architecture, Production AI |
| LinkedIn | https://linkedin.com/in/clifton-collins-656586313 |

## About

```text
At Meta, I architected production AI/ML systems for Facebook and Instagram recommendation surfaces. I advanced feed and Reels recommendations with two-tower retrieval, learning-to-rank, and multimodal embeddings, while improving feature freshness latency by 60%.

I developed generative AI capabilities around Meta's Llama ecosystem, combining retrieval-augmented generation, vector search, and agentic orchestration. I also optimized production inference, lowering p95 latency by 30%, increasing serving throughput by 2.1x, and reducing compute cost per prediction by 20%.

At Realtor.com, I led personalization for home search and discovery, increasing search-result relevance by 10%. Earlier, I engineered banking data pipelines at JPMorganChase and developed property valuation and mortgage technology applications at CoreLogic.
```

## Experience

### Staff AI/ML Engineer & Data Scientist

[Meta](https://himalayas.app/companies/meta). Aug 2022 - Aug 2026

```text
Architected large-scale production AI/ML systems for Facebook and Instagram recommendation surfaces, including feed and Reels platforms. Engineered streaming data pipelines and generative AI capabilities, optimizing inference and leading cross-functional technical delivery.
```

Skills: Python, PyTorch, Transformers, Distributed-Training, Feature-Stores, Apache-Spark, Kafka, Apache-Flink, Delta-Lake, LLM, RAG, Vector-Search, Agentic-AI, Vision-Transformer, Self-Supervised-Learning, GPU-Acceleration, Model-Quantization, Kubernetes, MLFlow, Model-Registry, Apache-Iceberg, DBT, SQL, Causal-Inference, Uplift-Modeling, A-B-Testing

### Lead AI/ML Engineer

[Realtor.com](https://himalayas.app/companies/realtor-com-careers). May 2019 - Jun 2022

```text
Led personalization for home-search and discovery using learning-to-rank, collaborative filtering, and embedding models. Engineered scalable ML pipelines and operationalized high-traffic services with MLOps practices.
```

Skills: Learning-To-Rank, Collaborative-Filtering, Embedding-models, Gradient-Boosting, Apache-Spark, Airflow, Feature-Stores, BERT, Embeddings, Text-Classification, CNN, Transfer-Learning, Object-Detection, XGBoost, LightGBM, Time-series-Forecasting, MLFlow, Docker, Kubernetes, A-B-Testing, Statistical-Validation

### Senior Data Engineer

[JPMorganChase](https://himalayas.app/companies/jpmorgan-chase-co). Sep 2014 - Apr 2019

```text
Architected large-scale banking data pipelines and near-real-time transaction flows. Developed computer vision document-processing pipelines and established trusted data foundations for machine learning.
```

Skills: Apache-Spark, Hadoop, HDFS, Hive, Kafka, Spark-Streaming, SQL, Cassandra, Python, Dimensional-Modeling, Data-Quality, Metadata-Management, Lineage, OpenCV, OCR, CNN, ETL, Feature-Engineering

### Software Engineer

CoreLogic. Jan 2011 - Aug 2014

```text
Engineered property valuation and collateral-analysis applications using Python and statistical modeling. Built full-stack mortgage technology solutions and developed data-processing pipelines.
```

Skills: Python, scikit-learn, SQL, Java, Spring-Framework, REST-APIs, JavaScript, SQL-Server, ETL, OpenCV, Go, C#-.NET, Testing-Automation

## Education

### Alcorn State University

Master of Science, Computer Science. 2011 - 2015

```text
Pursued a Master of Science in Computer Science, focusing on advanced computing topics.
```

### Alcorn State University

Bachelor of Science, Computer Science. 2009 - 2011

```text
Completed a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science, building a strong foundation in computing principles.
```

## Tech stack

- Apache Spark
- Microsoft Azure
- Kubernetes
- dbt
- Cassandra
- Hadoop
- Spring
- OpenCV
- JavaScript
- Python
- Java
- Go
- PyTorch
- MLflow
- scikit-learn
- Kafka
- TypeScript
- Docker
- Airflow
- SQL
- XGBoost
- LightGBM
- Apache Iceberg
- Delta Lake
- Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG)
- AWS

To contact Clifton, message them from this profile with a Himalayas employer account: [Hire on Himalayas](https://himalayas.app/hire).

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