PeopleofSuperintelligence

Lab leader

Srinivas Narayanan

Srinivas Narayanan is an engineering leader whose work connects applied AI with large software products. He began as a database engineer at IBM, led technology work at Tavant, and co-founded Viralizr before moving into Facebook engineering and applied AI. At Facebook, he led Photos engineering and applied-AI work across computer vision, language, speech, and personalization. He joined OpenAI as vice president of engineering in 2023, led product teams behind ChatGPT and the Developer Platform, and became CTO of B2B Applications in September 2025. In April 2026, he announced plans to leave OpenAI and received an IIT Madras Distinguished Alumnus Award.

Timeline

  1. 1995–1996

    Computer science at IIT Madras

    He earns a BTech in computer science at IIT Madras in 1995 and an MS in computer science at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1996.

  2. 1997

    Database research at IBM

    In 1997, he starts his career as a software engineer at IBM Almaden in research and development.

  3. 2007

    Co-founding Viralizr

    At Tavant, he leads the Technology Group and builds enterprise software. In 2007, he co-founds Viralizr and serves as its CTO on consumer products for social collaboration.

  4. 2009

    Facebook username launch

    At Facebook in 2009, he works as an engineer during the username rollout, which assigns over 50 million usernames in just over a month.

  5. 2019

    Applied AI at Facebook

    In 2019, he leads Applied AI Research at Facebook and discusses scaling computer vision, language understanding, speech recognition, and personalization. He also leads engineering for Facebook Photos and helps start the company’s computer-vision and deep-learning work.

  6. April 2023–September 2025

    OpenAI product engineering

    He joins OpenAI as vice president of engineering in April 2023. He leads product and engineering teams behind ChatGPT and the Developer Platform.

  7. September 2025–April 2026

    CTO of B2B applications

    OpenAI promotes him to CTO of B2B Applications in September 2025. In November 2025, he says India is OpenAI’s second-largest market for ChatGPT. In April 2026, he announces plans to leave OpenAI after three years.

  8. April 2026

    Distinguished Alumnus Award

    IIT Madras names him a Distinguished Alumnus Award recipient at its April 2026 Institute Day.

Sources and credits

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  1. Chief Economic Advisor Dr. V Anantha Nageswaran graces IIT Madras’ 67th Institute Day celebrations iitm.ac.in. Checked 15 October 2026.
  2. Who is Srinivas Narayanan? US techie quits OpenAI, plans to return to India to spend time with ‘ageing parents’ livemint.com. Checked 15 October 2026.
  3. Srinivas Narayanan, Tavant Technologies odbms.org. Checked 15 October 2026.
  4. Designing the Facebook username land rush engineering.fb.com. Checked 15 October 2026.
  5. 2019 @Scale Conference recap engineering.fb.com. Checked 15 October 2026.
  6. Srinivas Narayanan – O’Reilly Author(s) – O’Reilly oreilly.com. Checked 15 October 2026.
  7. Speaker Details: EmTech Digital US 2024 event.technologyreview.com. Checked 15 October 2026.
  8. OpenAI sees India as vital growth market: Narayanan timesofindia.indiatimes.com. Checked 15 October 2026.