---
title: "Vijay Velpula - Lead Data Scientist in Hyderabad | Tal"
description: "Meet Vijay Velpula, Lead Data Scientist | Bayesian Marketing Mix Modeling (MMM), Causal Inference & Incrementality | $100M+ Ad Spend Optimized | Ex - Neustar based in Hyderabad. AI stack includes codex and cursor."
image: "https://tal.club/meet/vijay-velpula/share-image"
---

# Vijay Velpula on Tal

## Headline

Lead Data Scientist \| Bayesian Marketing Mix Modeling \(MMM\), Causal Inference & Incrementality \| $100M\+ Ad Spend Optimized \| Ex \- Neustar

## About

\*\*\* Most organizations don’t struggle because they lack data\. \*\*\* \*\*\* They struggle because they lack confidence in decisions\. \*\*\* I help brands answer the question every marketer actually cares about: what did my marketing truly cause? My career has climbed the full marketing\-measurement stack\. I started building the BI products that make data usable, then the identity\-resolution and multi\-touch\-attribution \(MTA\) systems that connect omnichannel touchpoints into unified customer journeys, and today I lead the Bayesian MMM and incrementality experimentation that establish causal impact and direct spend\. That end\-to\-end path is what lets me implement measurement — designing studies, calibrating models with experiments, and reconciling MMM, MTA, and incrementality into one source of truth\. Today I lead a team of six data scientists at LiftLab building Bayesian MMM and geo\-experimentation for enterprise clients, optimizing over $100M in annual media spend across 30\+ brands\. Marketers have three sources of truth — MMM, platform attribution, and experiments — and they rarely agree\. I build the systems that reconcile them\. My proudest proof point: a full\-media go\-dark experiment where our model's predicted ROAS landed within 1% of the experiment's causal ground truth\. I care less about elegant models than about models that change a budget decision on Monday morning\.

## Location

Hyderabad

## AI stack

codex

cursor

## Work experience

Lead Data Scientist at LiftLab, Sep 2023 \- Present · 3 yrs, I lead marketing\-measurement R&D at LiftLab, building Bayesian MMM systems that guide budget decisions for global consumer brands\. • I manage a team of 6 data scientists\. We design and roll out Bayesian MMM and geo\-experimentation solutions for over 30 enterprise brands, actively optimizing more than $100M in annual media spend\. • Drive R&D on LiftLab's next\-generation Bayesian MMM platform — adopted across 20\+ client engagements\. • I designed our next\-generation Bayesian engine from the ground up using custom Stan and NumPyro\. By better capturing adstock, saturation, and cross\-channel effects, we cut our out\-of\-sample forecast error by 12%\. • I built workflows that use actual incrementality experiment results to calibrate our MMM priors\. This ensures our clients are shifting budgets based on proven, causal lift rather than just statistical estimates\. • Set modeling standards and review practices for the team — model diagnostics, priors documentation, and uncertainty communication for non\-technical stakeholders\.

Senior Data Scientist at LiftLab, Nov 2022 \- Aug 2023 · 10 mos, • Built and shipped Bayesian Media Mix Models end\-to\-end for 20 client engagements, owning everything from data validation to executive readout\. • Promoted to Lead Data Scientist within 10 months, taking over team leadership and platform R&D\.

Data Scientist \(Full Stack\) at Neustar, Inc\., Oct 2020 \- Nov 2022 · 2 yrs 2 mos, Hyderabad, Telangana, India, • Built the customer identity graph and identity\-resolution systems \(Spark/PySpark, deterministic \+ probabilistic linkage\) behind Neustar's marketing identity and measurement products \(OneID, TruAudience\) — the connective layer unifying online, offline, and cross\-device touchpoints into the person\-level foundation multi\-touch attribution and measurement depend on\. • Improved identity match accuracy by \~15% and match confidence across channels through data\-quality and entity\-resolution frameworks, strengthening downstream attribution and audience measurement\. • Solved offline–online identity stitching under noisy, incomplete data; laid the deterministic \+ probabilistic foundation reused across analytics and activation\. • Bridged data engineering, ML, and business stakeholders\. Recognized with the 2022 SQUAD Award for technical excellence and ownership\.

Data Science Coach & Mentor at Great Learning, Apr 2019 \- Jan 2020 · 10 mos, Greater Hyderabad Area, • Mentored working professionals in statistics, ML, and applied analytics\. • Known for simplifying complex concepts and building industry\-relevant intuition\.

Data Scientist at Neustar, Inc\., Nov 2018 \- Sep 2020 · 1 yr 11 mos, Greater Hyderabad Area, Project: OneID \( Unified Identity Platform\) • Built large\-scale ML models using Spark / PySpark for identity resolution and cross\-device linkage\. • Solved complex offline–online identity stitching problems under noisy, incomplete data\. • Improved attribute quality and model precision, resulting in \~15% lift in matching accuracy\. • Laid the foundation for deterministic \+ probabilistic identity systems used downstream in analytics and activation\.

Software Engineer at Neustar, Inc\., Mar 2018 \- Oct 2018 · 8 mos, Hyderabad, Telangana, India, • Engineered scalable ETL pipelines \(\~2 TB/day\) for marketing and identity data\. • Productionized ML\-ready datasets feeding the identity and attribution stack\.

Software Engineer \( Business Analytics \) at GGK Tech, Jul 2015 \- Feb 2018 · 2 yrs 8 mos, Hyderabad Area, India, Project: Explora BI \(Analytics Platform\) Co\-built an end\-to\-end BI product from scratch and eventually became Subject Matter Expert on the tool\. • Core engineer on the founding team of Explora\-BI, a self\-service BI product built from scratch; designed a dynamic query engine enabling drag\-and\-drop modeling across multiple RDBMS\. • Built a Tableau\-like visualization layer; implemented report scheduling, PDF/image exports, and enterprise integrations\.

Trainee Software Engineer at GGK Tech, Jan 2015 \- Jun 2015 · 6 mos, Greater Hyderabad Area, Project: HCSC \(Health Care Services Corporation\) • Built RESTful services for health insurance enrollment systems\. • Automated reporting and controls for operational analytics\.

Engineering Intern \(R&D\) at OpenText, Jul 2014 \- Dec 2014 · 6 mos, Greater Hyderabad Area, Project: InfoFusion \(Unified Information Management\) • Built data connectors integrating Box, Gmail, Google Drive, and Dropbox\. • Implemented versioning systems for documents, media, and structured content\.

## Education

Post Graduate Program, Business Analytics, Illinois Tech Stuart School of Business

Post Graduate Program, Business Analytics, Great Lakes Institute of Management

[View the original profile](https://tal.club/meet/vijay-velpula)

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