Driven by problem solving and data, Liran Agami built her career in generative AI

Everyone wants to work on generative AI, says Liran Agami, senior manager, software engineering. Liran and her team are excited that they get to be a part of Elastic’s generative AI working group.

Liran works on the broad Search team and manages the Search Relevance team. Her team’s goal is to make sure every search query returns relevant and performant data, she says. 

The Search Relevance team is providing tools to manage and enhance search relevance, making it easy for developers to incorporate robust search functionalities into their applications.

Some of the great things the team is currently working on are semantic_text field type, semantic reranking, and Learning to Rank.

“Our mindset is to make generative AI powered by search easy to work with,” Liran says. “Not just going into advanced use cases, but making it easy to plug into workflows.”

For Liran, working with generative AI is just the latest technology challenge that’s been introduced during her career. First it was big data and analytics, and now it’s generative AI, she says.

But Liran is always up for the challenge. She got into technology because she was looking for a way to use her love of problem solving and data. 

“There are challenges with having so much data,” Liran says. “I like to get the insights and make decisions with data and see how things we’re doing are reflected in data,” Liran says. “I was looking for something that used my problem solving ambition and skill and allowed me to go through the data. Showing data to users isn’t sufficient — you need to provide them with ways to act on their data.”

Now, Liran manages a team of six, so her problem solving skills are used in different ways. 

“I work with the product manager and my team to create roadmaps and priorities,” Liran says. “I help my team with any challenges or blockers and make sure everyone knows what’s going on, since we work in a distributed environment.” 

Elastic’s distributed environment and flexibility changed her life, Liran says. “I can’t remember the days where I didn’t have the flexibility. Every day I appreciate that.”

As a mom of four kids, the flexibility allows her to take breaks in the afternoon or have mornings with her kids and work later, she says. 

She sets the example for the rest of her team, two of whom are also women.

We asked Liran her advice for women who want to get into the tech industry. Here’s what she said:

“Don’t be intimidated by the job description. Even if it says you need three years of experience, don’t be afraid. Go to the interview and talk about your experience and how it’s relevant and what value you can add to the team."

"I try to avoid adding specific experience requirements into job descriptions because that’s where I see the issue. We have less women in the pipeline for jobs — we’re working to increase the number of diverse candidates. So, just apply and make your experience shine.”

And once you’ve landed a job in tech, don’t be afraid to ask questions, Liran says. 

“You get more value when you ask in the open. You get more responses and help others understand. So, don’t be shy. Ask questions. And bring your ideas. Start brainstorming and come to your team with a small proof of concept to get traction for your idea. 

As a manager, you want to help individuals shine in their roles and see the bigger picture come together.” 

Ready to use your problem solving skills? Browse open tech roles. 

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