AUSTIN, Texas – February 9, 2021 – uShip, the logistics technology platform for large and bulky goods, today announced 27-year tech veteran Parimala (Pari) Rao has joined the company as its Chief Technology Officer.
Rao comes to uShip at a pivotal time in the company’s 17-year history. Over the past several years, the company’s online freight platform has expanded its support of business shippers, especially those in large and bulky e-commerce, giving them the ability to digitally book, manage and track their shipments. This has helped uShip add key partners and achieve recent record growth.
As CTO, Rao will supercharge uShip’s products and scale to meet the increasingly sophisticated needs of high-volume business shippers and retailers, and to fortify its technology and infrastructure to advance uShip’s advantage in the market.
“uShip sits on an amazing opportunity and I’m thrilled to hold the technical keys that will take us to the next level and beyond,” says Rao. “The company has been a pioneer in freight digitization. As it continues leading the market and solving real-world shipping problems, especially in large and bulky e-commerce, there’s so much we can do at scale with data science, cloud, APIs, and more, while maintaining a safe and secure marketplace.”
Since 2004, uShip’s platform has digitally processed more than 11 million shipments and amassed a network of 35,000 active and independent transportation providers. eBay, Etsy, Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers, and RumbleOn are among uShip’s partners.
Tale of Two Decades
Rao’s career journey in software innovation is largely a tale of two decades and two coasts: the first decade defined by technology on the west coast where she built complex high caliber software technology at companies such as IBM, Google and Microsoft; the second decade on the east coast defined by the technology and innovation she directly applied at companies such as The New York Times and most recently Sparkfund, where she was their CTO. LinkedIn: Parimala Rao
Today she is a thought leader in Big Data, the Internet of Things, data science, cloud platform, cybersecurity, development, scalable infrastructure, APIs, and more. In her past roles, she’s also led initiatives on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) and mentoring, while running grouplets for companies focused on Agile development and innovation. She is the winner of the prestigious “Publisher Award” for driving innovation in technology at The New York Times, where she focused her energy on re-digitization of the entire platform for web and mobile, while driving new product development.
“Digital advancement and a digital-first culture have been at the heart of Pari’s career, whether that’s been early days at Google or the digital evolution of The New York Times,” says Kris Lamb, CEO of uShip. “We couldn’t be more excited for her to drive forward the technical evolution of uShip’s digital freight platform as we continue to see shipping and logistics play such a key role for many companies.”
Rao, who is working remotely from the New York area, fills the CTO role previously held by Lamb, who moved to CEO in June 2019. She has a Master of Science in Software Engineering from the University of Liverpool, UK, where she topped the University and completed her dissertation in Artificial Intelligence.
About uShip
uShip makes it quick, easy, and affordable to ship large or bulky items. From cars to cranes and furniture to freight, our straightforward and transparent platform helps people, businesses, e-commerce sellers, and multinational logistics companies ship with incredible speed and efficiency. Launched in 2004, uShip is based in Austin, Texas. Find out more at uship.com or follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn for the latest updates.
