Database Reference
In-Depth Information
2
Caitlin
Smallwood
Netflix
Caitlin Smallwood
is the VP of Science and Algorithms at Netflix, a provider of
on-demand Internet media, streaming both TV programs and movies. Netflix has
over fifty million subscribers in more than forty countries and is expanding rapidly,
with members able to watch as much as they want, anytime, anywhere, on nearly
any Internet-connected screen without commercials or commitments. Netflix stands
at the forefront of Internet television and has further bolstered its leadership posi-
tion by starting to develop and produce its own programming. As the amount of
content available and consumed grows rapidly (more than one billion hours of TV
shows and movies are currently streamed per month), the predictive engines and
data infrastructure required to effectively personalize recommendations and ensure
instantaneous content delivery become ever more complex.
To tackle these challenges at Netflix, Smallwood draws on her broad technical exper-
tise in experimentation, analytics, and recommendations acquired over the course of
more than twenty years of experience in
Internet data products, including spells at
Intuit, Yahoo!, and Hyperion Solutions. She has also held various prior roles at Netflix,
most recently as Director of Consumer Science and Analytics, and worked as an
analytical consultant for PwC and SRA International. She holds an MS in Operations
Research from Stanford University and a BS in Mathematics from the College of
William and Mary.
Smallwood's career has spanned the evolution of big data, analytics, experimenta-
tion, and recommendations from the infancy of the Internet to the ever-connected,
