PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Hamed Nilforoshan

Hamed Nilforoshan is a computer scientist and startup founder whose research applies machine learning to fairness, causal inference and large, messy datasets. At Snapchat they built SliceNDice, a graph-based method for catching botnets and fraudulent advertiser rings, and at Airbnb they designed production algorithms against gun violence, money-laundering and credit card theft. As a Knight-Hennessy Scholar and Stanford computer science PhD student advised by Jure Leskovec, they coauthored Causal Conceptions of Fairness and their Consequences, an ICML Outstanding Paper in 2022, and a 2023 Nature paper on exposure segregation in large cities. They are the CEO and co-founder of HiringCafe, which announced $6.8 million in pre-seed funding in September 2026 and offers a free AI Talent Agent for job seekers.

Now at
HiringCafe
Badges

Timeline

  1. 2019

    SliceNDice at Snapchat

    At Snapchat, they build SliceNDice, a graph-based method used to catch botnets and rings of fraudulent advertisers. They publish it with Neil Shah at the IEEE DSAA conference in 2019.

  2. By 2020

    Data scientist at Airbnb

    With a Columbia University bachelor's degree in computer science, they work as a machine learning data scientist at Airbnb by 2020. There they design algorithms, now in production, to mitigate gun violence, money-laundering and credit card theft.

  3. 2020

    Knight-Hennessy Scholar and PhD

    They join the 2020 Knight-Hennessy Scholars cohort as a computer science PhD student at Stanford, advised by Jure Leskovec. They aim to develop data science and machine learning methods to quantify, understand and mitigate structural inequalities.

  4. 2022

    An ICML Outstanding Paper

    At ICML 2022, Causal Conceptions of Fairness and their Consequences, written with Johann Gaebler, Ravi Shroff and Sharad Goel, receives an Outstanding Paper award. The paper sorts causal definitions of algorithmic fairness into two broad families and proves that, under a prominent definition, college admissions policies must admit all students with the same probability.

  5. 2023

    Segregation in large cities

    Nature publishes Human mobility networks reveal increased segregation in large cities in 2023, which they coauthor with Wenli Looi, Emma Pierson, Jure Leskovec and others. Using mobile phone data, the study finds exposure segregation 67% higher in the ten largest US metropolitan areas than in small ones.

  6. 2023

    Zero-shot causal learning

    With Michael Moor, Jure Leskovec and others, they coauthor Zero-shot causal learning in 2023. The paper proposes CaML, a causal meta-learning framework that predicts the personalized effects of novel interventions such as a newly invented drug.

  7. September 2026

    HiringCafe raises $6.8 million

    They pause their Stanford PhD studies to join Ali Mir in building HiringCafe. In September 2026, the company announces $6.8 million in pre-seed funding led by Spark Capital and launches a free AI Talent Agent that searches millions of open jobs for each candidate.

  8. As of October 2026

    CEO of HiringCafe

    They are CEO and co-founder of HiringCafe, whose mission is to help every individual achieve economic mobility. The company is building a real-time dataset of every job and the AI to match individuals to jobs.

Career

  1. Since 2026HiringCafeCo-Founder, CEO
  2. From 2019Snapchat
  3. AirbnbMachine Learning Data Scientist

Education

  1. 2026Stanford UniversityPhD
  2. Columbia UniversityBachelor's degree

From the biography.

  1. 20% of people at companies who shape AI also hold a university role, led by Google and Stanford UniversityIncludes Stanford University. We estimate that 539 of the 6,766 people with a known current organization (8%) hold both a university role and a company role, including 20% of people at companies and 13% of people at universities.
  2. Google had the most people shaping AI every year from 2014 to 2025Includes Stanford University. Our estimates of which organizations employed the most people shaping AI each year from 1955 to 2025, tracing the shift from university labs to companies.
  3. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionIncludes Stanford University. We estimate where the people shaping AI studied and where their careers led. Massachusetts Institute of Technology leads with 467 former students, including 291 recorded doctorates.
  4. The company share of AI researchers’ top papers was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974Includes Stanford University. We estimate where the people shaping AI worked when their most-cited papers appeared: the company share was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974, and Google led all organizations in 2020–2024.

Colleagues

People named in this biography, and people with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

Photo: We have no published photo of Hamed Nilforoshan yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.

  1. Hamed Nilforoshan - CS PhD @ Stanford University hamedn.com. Checked 21 October 2026.
  2. Hamed Nilforoshan-Dardashti | Knight-Hennessy Scholars at Stanford University knight-hennessy.stanford.edu. Checked 21 October 2026.
  3. ICML 2022 Awards icml.cc. Checked 21 October 2026.
  4. Causal Conceptions of Fairness and their Consequences proceedings.mlr.press. Checked 21 October 2026.
  5. Human mobility networks reveal increased segregation in large cities - PMC ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. Checked 21 October 2026.
  6. [2301.12292] Zero-shot causal learning arxiv.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  7. HiringCafe lands $6.8M to fix the broken job hunt with AI talent agent thenextweb.com. Checked 21 October 2026.
  8. HiringCafe Raises $6.8 Million Pre-Seed And Launches Free AI Talent Agent For Job Seekers pulse2.com. Checked 21 October 2026.