Team Spotlight: Tala Khoury
Tala is a Data Analyst on the Machine Learning (ML) team at Qloo, where she works closely with engineering teams to help bridge the gap between complex queries and actionable insights through Qloo’s Taste AI. In her year and a half at Qloo, she has enriched her proficiency in various programming languages and processes essential for implementing AI models. Tala plays an essential role in data cleaning, exploration, and quality assurance, ensuring the integrity of Qloo’s data. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Cognitive and Brain Sciences from Tufts University, complementing her analytical skills with a deep understanding of human behavior.
Tell us about why you decided to join Qloo.
I was interested in joining Qloo because of my background in Cognitive and Brain Sciences, which covers the intersection between psychology, computer science, and other related topics. I was interested in how we can use AI to understand and predict people’s preferences, like what they might enjoy or dislike, and how we can use these insights to understand larger patterns in consumer behavior and taste personas. Qloo stood out to me because it does something incredibly unique: it can use a small data input, like someone’s opinion on a movie, to predict other preferences, such as what restaurants they might like. I’ve always been interested in technology, especially AI, and I saw joining Qloo as a great opportunity to learn more in this field.
Describe a day in your life as a data analyst at Qloo.
No two days are alike at Qloo—it really depends on client priorities and where our business needs are. Our work is organized by project, which we break down into smaller chunks to work as a team. My day usually starts by checking in on the status of our current project. I’ll talk with Elizabeth about what needs to be accomplished that day, and to see if any of our priorities have shifted based on client needs. The rest of my day is heavily focused on data. I work with a lot of raw and structured data, using PySpark for various tasks like checking data quality, answering client questions, or exploring the data for future ML implementation.
Can you share a particularly memorable project or collaboration you’ve been a part of?
One project that stands out was developing a custom events recommender for a client. I was able to be a part of the process from the initial idea to the development of the final product. The first step was mapping the client’s event catalog to our Qloo catalog through a process called entity resolution. This meant cleaning and aligning their data to accurately match our extensive catalog and ensure complete coverage. We also refined the tags associated with these events to enhance searchability and relevance in our recommender system. It was impressive to see how quickly we adapted our technology to not only incorporate events but also generate personalized recommendations based on these refined tags. I was really impressed with our ability to quickly meet client needs with creative solutions.
What is a project you’re currently working on that you’re excited about?
I’m currently working on creating a tag catalog. The goal is to enhance our existing tools by allowing us to make recommendations based on tags. Now, users can input a tag such as house music into our API and receive recommended tags such as types of cuisine as output. This is a really exciting expansion to Qloo’s capabilities, extending beyond just entity-based recommendations. This is an exciting new capability for Qloo for so many reasons: it allows us to create sentiment-based recommendations across multiple categories, it gives clients more options for filtering data, and overall, it cleans our dataset and improves our taste analyses.
What’s your favorite part of working at Qloo?
My favorite part of working at Qloo is definitely the people. Elizabeth in particular has been a fantastic mentor; her guidance has been invaluable to me, and I’ve learned SO much from her. The approachability of everyone I work with daily definitely contributes to the great work environment. Everyone is hardworking and passionate, which really motivates me. I also appreciate the flexibility that comes with a startup environment. I love having ownership of my work and the opportunity to join interesting projects by reaching out and asking.
If the Qloo office held a talent show, what would your act be?
Oooh, I don’t know… maybe setting the record for eating the most dark chocolate? Actually, I probably bring the best lunch to the office. I love a big salad, and I usually throw whatever is in my fridge into a bowl. My salads always have some sort of roasted veggie like sweet potato, zucchini, mushroom, and I always include a protein so either turkey meatballs, or grilled chicken. Cheese is very important: feta cheese or cottage cheese. I’ll also make some sort of dressing the morning of, like a balsamic vinaigrette or a miso vinaigrette. Always something interesting going on!
Taste Diving with Tala Khoury
- Favorite Movie: Knives Out
- Favorite Publication: Architectural Digest
- Favorite Fashion Label: Magda Butrym
- Favorite Restaurant: The Four Horsemen
- Favorite Travel Destination: Maldives
- Comedy or Drama: Drama
- Still Water or Sparkling: Still unless it’s San Pellegrino or Perrier (Not a fan of Spindrift, La Croix, etc)
Interested in solving problems and working with a dynamic team of engineers? We’re hiring!