E441 Shahmeer Mirza, Director of R&D and IT Strategy at 7-Eleven

Today's guest is Shahmeer Mirza, Director of R&D and IT Strategy at 7-Eleven in Irving, Texas. Founded in 1927 as the world’s first convenience store, 7‑Eleven now operates, franchises and licenses more than 13,000 stores in the U.S. and Canada. Their top priority has always been to give customers the most convenient experience possible to consistently meet their needs. 7‑Eleven aims to be a one-stop shop for consumers, a place people can always rely on to deliver what they want, when, where and how they want it.

Shahmeer joined 7-Eleven as their Director of R&D in December 2020 where he focuses on digital innovations that transform the future of convenience. He has a history of delivering customer-facing applied machine learning and computer vision solutions, and is experienced in growing large teams with deep subject matter expertise across a variety of engineering domains. Shahmeer is also a public speaker and inventor with a strong passion for shaping strategic roadmaps and delivering innovative products.

In the episode, Shahmeer will talk about:

An insight into the broader data organization at 7Eleven,

Day-to-day life of the R&D team,

How the team is structured for success,

Upcoming projects in ML and Computer Vision,

Why 7-Eleven is a great place to work, &

Career opportunities within the team