Meet Andy Chiu, VP of Ads Engineering at Instacart

While he may only be a few months into his new role as VP of Ads Engineering at Instacart, Andy Chiu has hit the ground running, already empowering his team to reach a growing list of technical achievements. With a tenured past of software engineering at Google, Andy brings his expertise and innovation to ads at Instacart — focused on boosting ad quality, product engagement, and auction dynamics. 

We sat down with Andy to chat about leading the Ads Engineering team.

Tell us about your role and the Ads Engineering team at Instacart. 

At a high level, I believe my role consists of two related but distinct sides: first, as a people leader (the “VP” part), and second, as an engineering leader (the “Engineering” part).

On the people leadership side, my role is all about ensuring that the Ads Engineering organization is well-represented, well-positioned, and well-aligned with the company’s leadership team, other engineering teams, and our many cross-functional partners. Inwardly, I’m responsible for making sure that my teams are happy, productive, motivated, and have opportunities to grow in their careers.

On the engineering side, my role is all about decision-making and ensuring that the team’s engineering operations run as effectively and smoothly as possible. My responsibilities in this area can be quite diverse, ranging from establishing long-term strategic technical directions, to reviewing and approving launches, to dealing with day-to-day operations and escalations.

I’m fortunate that I don’t have to do any of it alone! I have an awesome team and bench of Directors, Engineering Managers, and Senior Individual Contributors who help me divide and conquer these responsibilities. In fact, I would say that the most important and fulfilling part of my role is helping develop and grow these leaders.

My goal for the Ads Engineering team is to grow and sustain Instacart’s ads business by delivering step-function engineering innovations – all while enjoying the work we do and the people we work with every day.

What did your career path look like and what led you to Instacart? 

I developed a passion for software engineering before I even knew what software engineering was! I remember writing my first programs in BASIC on a Commodore back in grade 4, and being absolutely mesmerized by the magic of turning ideas into code and action. Today –  35 years later and far from those BASIC days – that curiosity and fascination still motivate me. It’s what led me to develop and sell my first piece of “professional” software in high school (that, in hindsight, was anything but professional). I studied Computer Science through undergraduate to graduate programs, and explored different SWE opportunities with a handful of software companies. After a 16-year career at Google, where I worked my way from a junior IC to an org leader, my journey ultimately brought me to Instacart. The amazing power and complexity of software engineering, and the society-changing impact it has on modern life, is still at the heart of why I enjoy what I do everyday.

Leaving Google after a 16-years career was obviously not easy, but my decision to join Instacart really came down to just three things for me — the opportunity, the challenge, and the people.

I believed in Instacart’s mission and opportunity from the beginning, and that belief was only strengthened as I went through due diligence. Grocery delivery done right can have a tremendous positive impact on an essential part of daily living – and it also represents a huge business opportunity, one that is far from saturated.

Instacart is a four-sided marketplace, comprised of the consumers who place orders, the shoppers who shop for those orders, and the retailers and brands that form the backbone of the Instacart experience. Building for these unique audiences presents some truly fascinating and unique engineering challenges and opens up novel opportunities, especially in ads. As a growing company, there are also really interesting infrastructure and scaling challenges that I look forward to tackling.

During the interview process, I enjoyed my chat with everyone, from members of the C-suite to Instacart engineers. While they were all different, they all shared an excitement for Instacart and a passion for excellence. They truly felt like people I could see myself working with on a daily basis. A few months in, I’m happy to report that all these elements panned out the way I envisioned, and I’m even more excited about my role at Instacart than when I joined!

What are the most valuable lessons you have learned in your career and what advice would you have for budding engineers? 

Do what you love and love what you do. Software engineering, as a discipline and as an industry, is blessed with an incredibly diverse set of opportunities and possibilities. There is no shortage of interesting and meaningful problems to solve. At Instacart, this can be anything from building new tools for advertisers large and small to find audiences in the app, to developing cutting-edge search and browsing tools that help people get inspired by new food options. I’ve always strived to work on things I feel passionate about.

But the “love what you do” part is equally important! No role or project is perfect, and sometimes it’s up to us to figure out how to make the most of what we’re given. I’ve found that thinking deeply about whatever problems I have at hand, taking true ownership, and staying hungry and curious have served me well, and can often make even mundane tasks interesting.

What’s a recent technical achievement that your team has accomplished that you’re particularly proud of?

I have truly been amazed by the tenacity of the Ads Engineering team and the speed at which it can turn out technical innovations. Even in just a few short months since I joined, the team has already completed a long list of awesome technical achievements! I’m really proud of how we’re contributing to the success of the ads business by improving ad quality, ad load, product engagement, and auction dynamics. In my opinion, we’re able to deliver magic through smart engineering.

What would you say your “secret sauce” is that makes you successful at Instacart, and successful at leading your team?

I think I’m a well-rounded leader who is genuinely curious about and interested in just about everything. On the engineering front, I’m equally comfortable going deep into system architecturing, as I am auction theories. Beyond engineering, I’m also passionate about people and organizational challenges, especially Diversity, Equity and Belonging. I also enjoy chatting with all my cross-functional partners and thinking about problems in Product, Data Science, User Experience, Go-To-Market, and other areas. I truly value what everyone brings to the table, and can’t wait to see what my team can accomplish together at Instacart. 

Interested in working with Andy or on Instacart’s Engineering team? Check out opportunities on the team.

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Author

Instacart is the leading grocery technology company in North America, partnering with more than 1,400 national, regional, and local retail banners to deliver from more than 80,000 stores across more than 14,000 cities in North America. To read more Instacart posts, you can browse the company blog or search by keyword using the search bar at the top of the page.