Her Story
About Steffy
Steffy Oommen is a research scientist at Meta, where she works on ranking and recommendation systems for products including Instagram. She specializes in recommendation systems, applied machine learning, responsible AI, and building large-scale AI systems that are reliable, scalable, and responsible. With around 12 years of experience in the field, she previously worked at Intel for 10 years as a council member of their Responsible AI Council, ensuring guardrails for AI projects, and received multiple division and department recognition awards along with Employee of the Year awards. She began her career as a Java developer before transitioning to AI through hands-on industry experience. Steffy holds an undergraduate degree in computer science and engineering from one of the top 10 engineering colleges in India and a master's degree in computer science from Ohio. She is an IEEE project reviewer, an AI mentor for startups through a government mission in India, and a Volunteer and GenAI collaborator with the Exploratorium in San Francisco. She has volunteered with American Red Cross blood donation camps for eight years, Greenpeace, and Write Around Portland as a volunteer for book events. Steffy knows six languages and values curiosity, integrity, kindness, and giving back through mentoring and volunteering.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Steffy
01What do you attribute your success to?
I think being comfortable starting over has helped me the most. Whether it was moving countries, changing roles, or learning entirely new technologies, I’ve never been afraid to be a beginner again.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
As AI becomes better at retrieving information, focus on building deep understanding instead of memorizing facts. Knowledge and judgment are what create long-term value. That will take you forward. This changed how I thought about gaps between what AI does and what I understand.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Don't be intimidated by the field. Technology changes so quickly that nobody knows everything. Stay curious, keep learning, don't dismiss anything you don't understand. Don't compare your journey to someone else's. Focus on building real skills and solving meaningful problems. Find mentors who challenge and support you. Don't wait until you feel ready to take on opportunities.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
The biggest opportunity in AI is that we’re moving from building models to building systems that people rely on every day. The challenge is making those systems responsible, transparent, and trustworthy while continuing to innovate. As AI becomes more capable, technical excellence alone won’t be enough—we also need thoughtful governance, evaluation, and diverse perspectives to ensure the technology benefits everyone.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Curiosity - genuinely enjoying new technology, cultures, meeting people with different perspectives. Integrity - building technology responsibly and being honest about capabilities and limitations. Kindness and giving back through donating, volunteering, and mentoring because we are all successful because someone helped us.
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