The Architecture of Growth
Over two decades, Sachin Malik's work at Uber, Walmart, and now Block has helped global brands find order in the chaos of digital transformation, turning fragmented systems into finely tuned growth engines. At Uber, he turned an emerging advertising business into a billion-dollar operation in less than two years. At Walmart, he built the foundation for one of the largest retail media networks in North America. Now at Block, he's redefining how advertising, payments, and commerce intersect in what analysts call the next frontier of media. "Sustainable growth isn't about doing more," Malik said. "It's about doing better - connecting vision, execution, and accountability."
Uber's Breakout Moment
When Malik joined Uber Ads in 2022, the business generated roughly $250 million in annual recurring revenue. Two years later, that number had jumped to $1.4 billion - a transformation few in Silicon Valley saw coming.According to Business Insider, Uber Ads crossed the $1 billion revenue run rate by mid-2024, outpacing competitors such as DoorDash and Lyft. (Reuters estimates Lyft will not reach that figure until 2027.) Malik described the challenge as a familiar one: "Uber's advertising potential was enormous, but the system was fragmented. Teams were working with different data, disconnected tools, and manual workflows. Scaling under those conditions was like driving with the parking brake on."
To fix it, he led the creation of a unified ad-sales platform on Salesforce Media Cloud, automating more than a hundred processes and launching over 75 real-time dashboards. The results were measurable - sales intake accelerated by 50 percent, deal cycles shortened by 70 percent, and the business hit its billion-dollar mark well ahead of schedule."The technology mattered," Malik said. "But the real transformation came from visibility, from everyone seeing the same truth at the same time."
Reinventing Retail Media at Walmart
"Impact in media isn't defined by budget - it's defined by strategy," Malik said. "Even startups can build powerful ecosystems if they focus on the fundamentals." At Walmart, that meant launching self-serve ad tools and API integrations, which opened the platform to thousands of advertisers and agencies. A key partnership with Criteo enabled smarter targeting and real-time shopper insights, "turning relevance into revenue," as Malik puts it.
"When your product, audience, and platform align, growth stops being expensive."
The efforts made by Malik helped Walmart Connect grow from a traditional ad-sales division into a major retail media network. Over three years, advertising revenues increased fivefold, cementing Walmart's position alongside Amazon and Kroger as leaders in the space. In 2024, eMarketer reported Walmart's ad revenue had reached $4.4 billion, up 27 percent year over year, with further growth of 31 percent projected for FY2026. The broader U.S. retail media market, according to Nielsen, is expected to exceed $100 billion annually by 2028. "When your product, audience, and platform align," he said, "growth stops being expensive. It becomes inevitable."
At Block, Building the Future of Commerce Media
Now at Block, the parent company of Cash App and Afterpay, Malik oversees global revenue strategy and operations for the advertising and commerce media business. The work, he says, is about connecting disparate ecosystems - advertising, offers, and payments - into one seamless network.
His team has introduced a suite of frameworks, including an Ads Book-to-Bill model and a Salesforce Media Cloud integration that standardizes forecasting and reporting. These systems allow Block's teams in North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific to operate with the same clarity and pace."Structure doesn't limit creativity," Malik said. "It creates the conditions where creativity can scale."
Consulting firm Boston Consulting Group (BCG) calls this convergence of media, retail, and payments "commerce media," predicting it will generate tens of billions in new value as brands seek direct connections between ad spend and consumer outcomes. Malik's role places him squarely at the forefront of that shift.
A Framework for Predictable Growth
Malik's philosophy of scaling is rooted in a disciplined framework - one that he's applied across every company he's touched.
1. Build Scalable Teams. At Uber, he created a 300-person global organization with clear mandates for enterprise and regional markets.
2. Integrate Product and Operations. At Walmart, he merged technology and sales into a single function, accelerating advertiser adoption.
3. Think Globally, Act Locally. At Block, he tailors global systems to fit regional market realities while preserving a shared structure.
"Without alignment between product, sales, and operations," he said, "scaling becomes guesswork."
A Quiet Architect of Scale
The impact of Malik's work is unmistakable. Industry analysts point to his ability to bring both operational rigor and cultural insight to businesses expanding across continents.
"Scaling globally isn't just a numbers game," one senior analyst noted. "It requires someone who can turn process into culture - and culture into performance." Across three Fortune 100 companies, Malik's systems have helped capture a meaningful slice of the $60 billion U.S. retail media market - a figure projected to reach $100 billion by 2028. Yet, when asked about recognition, he deflects."The companies that win aren't the ones with the biggest budgets," Malik said. "They're the ones that make complexity invisible, that turn structure into something human."
"Sustainable growth isn't about doing more — it's about doing better."
The Measure of a Visionary
For Sachin Malik, growth has never been about the size of the number but the strength of the foundation beneath it. His career - built quietly across some of the world's most demanding organizations -suggests that the next era of advertising will belong to those who can see both the forest and the code behind it.
"The future of media isn't about more screens. It's about smarter systems, and stories that connect people to possibility," says Sachin Malik.
