Media and publishing
10 Instagram engineering leaders
These ten current and former Instagram engineering leaders have held engineering roles at Instagram, across areas such as relevance and recommendations, Reels, ads, Threads, growth, and privacy and security. A reader can learn how engineering leaders work at Instagram from people who have held the role.
Professionals to explore
01—10Aakarsha Agarwal
LinkedInExperience: Director of Engineering, Instagram · Meta
Director of Engineering, Instagram at Meta since July 2025; the profile describes Aakarsha as an engineering leader in Instagram Growth, responsible for driving incremental growth, engagement and revenue through notifications. The profile also lists Director of Engineering at Meta (2024–2025) and Senior Engineering Manager, Amazon Pay (Site Lead) at Amazon (2018–2022).
Abhishek Kumar
LinkedInExperience: Director of Engineering, Instagram Relevance · Instagram
Director of Engineering, Instagram Relevance at Instagram since June 2021, a role the profile tags at director level in Engineering and Technical. The profile also lists Senior Engineering Manager, Feed and Stories (2018–2021) and Staff Engineer / Engineering Manager, Facebook Search (2013–2016) at Facebook.
Guangdeng Liao
LinkedInExperience: Director of Engineering · Instagram
Director of Engineering at Instagram since July 2025, a role the profile describes as leading IG relevance foundation for reels/feeds/stories/explore. The profile also lists Director of Engineering at Meta since 2014, Senior Staff software engineer/Team Lead (Distributed Deep Learning Infra.) at Samsung Cloud Lab (2013–2014) and Research Scientist at Intel Labs (2011–2013).
Haotian Wu
LinkedInExperience: Former VP of Engineering · Instagram
Former VP of Engineering at Instagram (2017–2026), a role in which the profile says Haotian led Instagram Relevance, a 450-engineer organization responsible for AI/ML across Instagram, including Feed, Stories, Reels, Explore, Creators, and ML Infrastructure. The profile also lists Staff Software Engineer at Facebook (2012–2016) and Member of Technical Staff at OpenAI since October 2026.
Kiro Risk
LinkedInExperience: Director of Engineering, Threads · Instagram
Director of Engineering, Threads at Instagram since April 2025, a role the profile describes as leading Product Engineering for Threads, covering both the user-facing experience and the underlying platform. The profile also lists Director of Engineering, Messenger at Meta (2022–2025), Senior Engineering Manager, Reels at Instagram (2018–2022) and Director of Engineering at Deloitte Digital (2016–2018).
Lee Bierman
LinkedInExperience: Director of Engineering, Instagram · Meta
Director of Engineering, Instagram at Meta since March 2017, a role the profile describes as leading engineering for Instagram's Trust product group, which is responsible for all things Privacy and Security on the platform. The profile also lists VP Engineering at Extole (2014–2017) and VP Engineering at Sojern (2012–2014).
Sagar Chordia
LinkedInExperience: Senior Director of Engineering, Instagram Ads · Instagram
Senior Director of Engineering, Instagram Ads at Instagram since January 2018; the profile describes Sagar as responsible for selecting the perfect ad among millions, at the right time, in right format and the right place. The profile also lists Engineering Lead at Instagram (2015–2017), Software Engineer at Facebook (2013–2015) and Professional Researcher at Microsoft (2012–2013).
Sanketh Shetty
LinkedInExperience: Senior Director of Engineering · Instagram
Senior Director of Engineering at Instagram since February 2024, a role the profile describes as supporting all of the Ads Ranking, Delivery, Supply, and Quality Engineering teams at Instagram and Threads. The profile also lists Director Of Engineering (2022–2024), Senior Engineering Manager (2020–2022) and Engineering Manager (2018–2020) at Instagram.
Tomer Bar
LinkedInExperience: VP of Engineering · Instagram
VP of Engineering at Instagram since July 2024 and VP of Engineering at Threads since September 2024. The profile also lists Director Of Engineering at Instagram since January 2019, a role it describes as a team helping creators be successful, plus Engineering Director (since 2018) and Engineering Manager (since 2014) at Facebook.
Zhengyu Su
LinkedInExperience: Director of Engineering · Instagram
Director of Engineering at Instagram since February 2024; the profile headline reads Director, Head of Instagram Reels, and the profile says Zhengyu built the Instagram Reels Recommendation system from scratch from 2019. The profile also lists Senior Engineering Manager (2021–2024), Engineering Manager, Machine Learning (2019–2021) and Staff Research Scientist (2017–2019) at Instagram.
Choose the right perspective
Match the person to the engineering area behind your question, since ranking, ads delivery, consumer apps and privacy work involve different systems and tradeoffs. Check whether the relevant role is current or past before asking how things work at Instagram today.
Questions to take into the conversation
- 01How do you build and grow a recommendation system for a new content format inside a large app?
- 02What does it take to run ads ranking and delivery engineering for a very large consumer platform?
- 03How do engineering teams handle privacy and security work across many product teams?
Reaching Instagram engineering leaders
How can I contact one of these Instagram engineering leaders?
Pick one of the 10 people on this page and choose "Book a paid call", or describe your project to find others. You offer a fee for a 15-minute call or a written answer, Instant Expert finds the person's work email and sends the invitation, and they decide whether to accept. The list covers 2 companies: Meta and Instagram, based on profile data retrieved on October 13, 2026. Being listed here doesn't mean someone has agreed to take calls.
How much does it cost to reach Instagram engineering leaders?
You choose the offer, starting at $5 per person. It includes Instant Expert's 20% fee, so an offer that pays the person $100 costs you $125. You're charged only when the person books the call or sends the answer.
What if they don't reply?
You pay nothing. Instant Expert sends follow-up reminders, and if the person hasn't booked or answered within 7 days, the request expires and any hold on your card is released. You can invite several of the 10 people on this list at once and cap your total spend, so you pay only for the ones who accept.
Can an AI agent ask one of these Instagram engineering leaders a question?
Yes. An agent with a USDC wallet on Base can ask one question without an Instant Expert account. It names the person, for example by the LinkedIn URL on this page, and pays per ask over x402 (HTTP 402). The person answers in writing or by voice note, and if nobody answers within 7 days, the payment goes back to the wallet automatically. x402 docs
About this directory
This is a professional research starting point based on business profile data retrieved on . Titles and companies reflect that source snapshot; roles marked former had ended by then. Check the linked profiles for current details. Inclusion does not imply Instant Expert membership or availability.
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