Spandan Mishra, PhD. — CTO
I build AI systems that go from zero to thousands of users in months, not years.As Head of AI & Data Science at Palo Alto Networks, I lead the Vertical AI team where we turn ambitious AI ideas into production systems that people actually use. My approach: deep technical expertise + relentless focus on shipping + obsession with business impact. RECENT WINS: Built an AI RFP/RFI generator that compressed weeks of work into 30 minutes—scaled to 4,000 users in under a quarterLaunched an AI quoting tool solving complex multi-objective optimization problems (pricing, discounts, ARR) for enterprise sales. Deployed an AI SDLC platform that auto-converts PRDs to Jira stories and unit tests, cutting development cycles by 30%. Creating AI based marketing collateral (blogs , newsletters , product marketing documents ) generators that maintain velocity and standardization at scale. WHAT MAKES ME DIFFERENT: I don't just design AI strategies—I build them. I’m building LLMs from scratch for underrepresented languages like Nepali & Maithili . This open-source project goes beyond using existing frameworks—I’m implementing everything at the foundational level to truly understand how these models work. The goal is to create accessible AI technology for languages that have historically been overlooked in the AI revolution I've developed novel LLM-guided genetic algorithm frameworks for enterprise optimization problems. I lead R&D on agentic frameworks and automated LLM assessment pipelines. My technical toolkit spans large language models, supervised fine-tuning (SFT), reinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF), multi-objective optimization, and cloud infrastructure optimization. MY PHILOSOPHY: SPEED is a feature. I believe in POC-to-production velocity, not endless pilots. I translate complex ML concepts into solutions that non-technical stakeholders understand and technical teams can ship. Whether it's pricing optimization with thousands of decision variables or NLP systems processing enterprise documents, I focus on scalable impact. Before Palo Alto Networks, I spent over a decade building ML systems that solve real business problems, not just research problems.
Stackforce AI infers this person is a SaaS and Mobility AI specialist with a strong focus on enterprise solutions.
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Experience: 11 yrs 5 mos
Skills
- Ai Strategy
- Deep Reinforcement Learning
- Machine Learning
- Deep Learning
Career Highlights
- Built AI systems scaling to thousands of users quickly.
- Expert in transforming AI concepts into production systems.
- Developed innovative solutions for enterprise optimization.
Work Experience
Palo Alto Networks
Head of AI , Enterprise AI (1 yr 4 mos)
Sr Principal ML Engineer (2 mos)
Principal AI/ML Engineer (2 yrs 6 mos)
Spin (Ford Motor Company)
Lead Data Scientist-Algorithms (2 mos)
Senior Data Scientist - Algorithms (10 mos)
Wells Fargo
Data Scientist (1 yr 3 mos)
Acellent
Sr. Algorithm Engineer (3 yrs 3 mos)
George Mason University
Postdoctoral Research Associate (4 mos)
High Performance Materials Institute, Florida State University
Graduate Research Assistant (Graduate Student) (4 yrs 4 mos)
Department of Industrial Engineering, Tribhuvan University
Deputy Head of Department (7 mos)
Surya Agro Products Pvt. Ltd.
Production Supervisor (1 yr 4 mos)
Education
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) at Florida State University
Bachelor of Engineering at Tribhuvan University, IOE, Thapathali Campus