Innovative Thinking

Training Pilots to Training Algorithms: A Tech Hero’s Journey

How do you get from the cockpit of a helicopter flight simulator to the top ranks of the global data science community? For Shir Meir Lador, the journey was fueled by twin passions for math and leadership. As a flight instructor in the Israeli Air Force, Shir loved teaching, coaching, and helping people grow into

Written by Intuit Blog team
Published Mar 5, 2021 - [Updated Nov 9, 2022]
2 min read

As a flight instructor in the Israeli Air Force, Shir loved teaching, coaching, and helping people grow into their full potential. When her data science career brought her to Intuit, she saw an opportunity to apply the same skills as a team leader while gaining a broader perspective on the business. “I wanted to develop other parts of my brain, and now I get to be a mentor here, as well,” she explained in a recent Tech Heroes Podcast, hosted by Intuit.

Her love of data science encompasses the work itself—in which a single week can range from analyzing business metrics and exploring algorithms to coding and presentation-building as a Data Science Group Manager—and the diverse skills and perspectives of the people she works with.

As an Ambassador for Women in Data Science (WiDS) Israel and co-founder of PyData Tel Aviv meetups, Shir embraces the technical, social and creative aspects of her career development. For a former singer and songwriter in a rock band at university (yet another stage of her hero’s journey), it’s only fitting.

You can learn more about Shir’s work at Intuit and her advice for prospective data scientists and team leaders in the Tech Heroes Podcast here.

And, be sure to join Intuit at the Women in Data Science (WiDS) 2021 virtual conference, where Shir will moderate an Ethics and Responsible Data Science panel during the EMEA portion of the 24-hour event, which is taking place from Sunday, March 7 through Monday, March 8 (Asia Pacific, EMEA, Americas).

We look forward to meeting you at our WiDS Expo Booth, where we’ll take a deep dive into how Intuit is unleashing the power of data to transform the world of consumer, self-employed, and small business finances.