Senior Data & ML Platform Engineer | dutchengineer.substack.com | Host of Ask A Data Mentor Podcast

Built real-time ML systems delivering millions of daily inferences. Integrated LLMs that saved over 1,000 hours per week across the company. Designed scalable MLOps platforms that took model deployment from months to days.

I have spent the last 8+ years driving AI and ML engineering efforts across startups and high-growth companies. My work spans productionizing models, leading company-wide ML initiatives, and building systems that work. 

Highlights:
Led LLM integration at Equipmentshare, embedding OpenAI into internal tooling to save 1,080+ hours weekly
Deployed Zwift’s real-time racing score model, handling 8.6 million inferences per day
Cut ML deployment times from months to 3 days with standardized CI/CD and packaging
Rolled out Databricks company-wide, reducing deployment cycles by 4x
Built ML pipelines for pricing $3B+ in fleet assets, churn risk, and invoice automation

I write often on machine learning systems and infrastructure on dutchengineer.substack.com, and I enjoy helping teams ship fast, reliable ML in production.

Keywords: Airflow, AWS (Cloudwatch,  ECS, EKS, Fargate, Glue, Redshift, Kinesis, Databricks, Postgresql, S3), Azure (Azure Functions, Azure ML Studio, Databricks), BentoML, C++, Datadog, Docker, ElasticSearch, Flink, Kafka, Keras, Kubernetes, Hive, High Performance Computing, Github Actions, Gitlab CICD,  Pagerduty, Prefect, Python (DBT, Numpy, Pydantic, Sklearn,Scipy), Pyspark, Neural Networks, Natural Language Processing, MLFlow, MongoDB, Recommendations, Sagemaker, Scala, SparkML, SQL, Tableau, Terraform, Pytorch, GPU

Sarah Floris, MS

Lloyds Banking Group

Designing an AI-powered decisioning engine that integrates well with customer and colleague digital journeys to drastically reduce false-positives and increase straight-through-processing in economic crime investigation. 

Creating a world-class unified case management system, powered by AI and driven by data, to investigate financial crime and fraud

Engineering Lead, Economic Crime Prevention Platform

NatWest Group

✅Led a strategy team to embed a data culture for effective balance sheet management in the Commercial business of the Bank.
✅ Devise and execute a strategy to leverage data capabilities to provide accurate, timely, and joined-up insights on Customer Lifetime Value (CLV).
✅Maintain complex models for the valuation of balance sheet assets to meet regulatory requirements and commercial needs.
✅Enable strategic executive decision-making through insights derived from vast swathes of data.

Director, Data Strategy and Transformation

✅ Ran Proof-of-Concept for the integration of knowledge graphs with Microsoft Azure OpenAI platform to enable business users to query the vast dataset (with over 100K nodes) using plain English (instead of Cypher queries). 

✅ Delivered a contextual monitoring and network analysis solution (based on Quantexa) for transaction monitoring to prevent, detect and disrupt financial crime (money laundering and terrorist financing) ; Reduced false positive alerts by 50% and increased risk typology coverage by 100%; Delivered this solution on AWS so that the solution is fully scalable, fast and can meet the transaction growth forecast over the next 3 years.
      
✅ Delivered an enterprise solution on AWS that provided a reliable, highly available Data-as-a-Service to detect unusual financial activity for further investigation; Saved £1m of infrastructure costs every year besides ensuring data quality and lineage to enable new tenants to come on board and go-to-market quickly.

✅ Delivered a Graph platform (based on Neo4J and Linkurious), to enable faster investigation of suspicious financial transactions for First Party Fraud (FPF); Over £1m of High Value Scams (HVS) prevented in 2023.
✅ Delivered a Graph platform (based on Neo4J and Linkurious), to enable faster investigation of suspicious financial transactions for First Party Fraud (FPF); Over £1m of High Value Scams (HVS) prevented in 2023.

Director, Customer Data and Knowledge Graph Platform 

✅ Created a Unique Identifier for every customer of the bank (across franchises and products) to enable the personalization strategy of the Bank. Ingested data from 12 different customer masters using Informatica MDM to create the unique identifier. Enabled cross-sell and up-sell opportunities between franchises systematically for the first time. 

✅ Embedded an engineering mindset and DevSecOps practices within the team, that recognises and rewards collaboration, knowledge sharing, automation, and innovation; Fostered a culture of psychological safety within the team, through continuous effort, finely balancing individual accountability and team solidarity.

✅ Enabled 20x growth of APIs across the Bank, within 18 months, by winning "hearts and minds" with Strategy, Business, and Technology stakeholders in 5 franchises; Grew daily API call volume from 100,000 to 4 million, servicing 2m mobile banking customers, processing over £1B of payments; Owned and ran the Google Apigee gateway platform; Enabled straight-through-processing in key customer journeys to reduce mortgage product switching times from an average of 30 to 3 days.

✅Trained over 2000 colleagues (across business and technology) on APIs, consistently winning excellent feedback (rated amongst the top 2% of all training courses run within the bank).

Director, Data Management, Data Engineering and APIs

Cognizant

✅ Led the Sales team and exceeded revenue and margin targets for 2019 by 15%. 
✅ Won 3 new client logos within 6 months. 
✅ Presented to CIOs in RFP responses, bid defence and pro-active strategy formulation. 
✅ Worked with key clients in Financial Services, Insurance and Life Sciences to shape their Application agenda addressing their strategic business and IT priorities through consultative solution co-creation. 
✅ Advised clients on Application modernization and transformation.

METHODOLOGIES
Agile SCRUM, Kanban, SAFe, ITIL, PRINCE2, MSP, TDD, BDD

TECHNOLOGIES AND PLATFORMS
AWS, Azure, GCP, Microservices, Docker, Kubernetes, DevOps CI/CD, Jira, SaaS, PaaS,  API, Full-Stack, Maven, JUNIT, ElasticSearch, Redis, Microservices, NoSQL, LINUX, Google Cloud, MySQL, MongoDB, SOA, Serverless, CRM, ServiceNow.

Head of  Application Modernization Practice, UK & Ireland

✅ Engaged with CxOs as a "Thought Leader" on Digital transformation. 
✅ Coached over 100 Client Partners & Delivery Leaders on the new "digital" mindset.
✅ Built a Digital platform (using Agile PODs) or the laboratory testing system of a Diagnostics Leader. 
✅Won new customer logos and delivered multi-million Digital revenue in 2018 and 2019. 
✅ Built a Product Delivery Practice from scratch for the Life Sciences Business Unit. 
✅ Enabled the $1.5 billion Life Sciences Business Unit to "think", "act" and "be" Digital. 
✅ Acted as the Disruptive Change Agent to drive non-linear revenue growth for the Business Unit.  
✅ Demonstrated the ability to do digital at scale translating "Capabilities and Assets" into "Offerings and Solutions" to create transformational outcomes for the customers.

METHODOLOGIES
Agile SCRUM, Kanban, SAFe, ITIL, PRINCE2, MSP, TDD, BDD

TECHNOLOGIES AND PLATFORMS
AWS, Azure, GCP, Java, Javascript, NodeJS, C++, C#, .Net, ASP.NET, HTML, CSS,  Microservices, Docker, Kubernetes, DevOps CI/CD, Jira, SaaS, PaaS, Web UI, Mobile development, .Net, ASP.NET, SOLID, OOP, DDD, Event-driven architecture, Jenkins, Jira, React, GitLab, PHP, Python, Scaled Agile, SRE, Full Stack, Android SDK, iOS development, API, Full-Stack, Maven, JUNIT, ElasticSearch, Redis, Microservices, NoSQL, LINUX, Google Cloud, MySQL, MongoDB, SOA, Serverless, Angular 7, REST API, CRM, ServiceNow.

Head of Product Engineering Practice

Envestnet | Yodlee India

✅ Engineering Leader, Product Owner and Agile Coach. Transformed a 50-member Engineering team to a high performance unit that delivered high-quality releases every 8 weeks to customers worldwide. 

✅ Worked with stakeholders across the business to ensure that the next generation RESTful API platform gets adopted as the standard across the organisation managing stakeholder expectations. 

✅ Delivered strategic platform enhancements and increased revenue by 25%. Ensured teams focused on customer experience rather than just delivering software. Turned around "Code Red" situations.

METHODOLOGIES
Agile SCRUM, Kanban, SAFe, ITIL, PRINCE2, MSP, TDD, BDD

TECHNOLOGIES AND PLATFORMS
Openshift, Openstack, RedHat, Java, Javascript, NodeJS, C++, C#, .Net, ASP.NET, HTML, CSS,  Microservices, Docker, Kubernetes, DevOps CI/CD, Jira, SaaS, PaaS, Web UI, Mobile development, .Net, ASP.NET, SOLID, OOP, DDD, Event-driven architecture, Jenkins, Jira, React, GitLab, PHP, Python, Scaled Agile, SRE, Full Stack, Android SDK, iOS development, API, Full-Stack, Maven, JUNIT, ElasticSearch, Redis, Microservices, NoSQL, LINUX, Google Cloud, MySQL, MongoDB, SOA, Serverless, Angular 7, REST API, CRM, ServiceNow, CAST, Loadrunner, Nagios, Splunk, Dynatrace, GindBugs, Jococo.

Senior Director, Data and API Platforms

Altisource Business Solutions

Delivered enhancements to a collaboration platform to streamline mortgage closing by improving the speed, accuracy and efficiency of collaboration between different parties while meeting robust audit and compliance requirements. This was achieved while maintaining easy and intuitive user experience.

Created a 25-strong Product Delivery team from scratch in India and turned around product delivery into a high quality delivery engine with quarterly product releases; Developed product road map with business stakeholders and delivered the road map over 3 quarters. 

Managed multiple product lines across a wide breadth of technologies (System Builder, .NET, AngularJS, ExpressJS, Node.js, MEAN stack). Developed experience on AngularJS, NodeJS, ExpressJS, MySQL framework using BDD (Behavior Driven Development) approach and tools including Karma (Client side testing), Mocha (Server side testing), Jasmine/Protractor (E2E testing) and Jenkins (Build manager).

METHODOLOGIES
Agile SCRUM, Kanban, SAFe, ITIL, PRINCE2, MSP, TDD, BDD

TECHNOLOGIES AND PLATFORMS
AWS, Azure, GCP, Java, Javascript, NodeJS, C++, C#, .Net, ASP.NET, HTML, CSS,  Microservices, Docker, Kubernetes, DevOps CI/CD, Jira, SaaS, PaaS, Web UI, Mobile development, .Net, ASP.NET, SOLID, OOP, DDD, Event-driven architecture, Jenkins, Jira, React, GitLab, PHP, Python, Scaled Agile, SRE, Full Stack, Android SDK, iOS development, API, Full-Stack, Maven, JUNIT, ElasticSearch, Redis, Microservices, NoSQL, LINUX, Google Cloud, MySQL, MongoDB, SOA, Serverless, Angular 7, REST API, CRM, ServiceNow.

Director, Mortgage Products

Delivered high impact, large scope Strategic Programs on Iaas (Infrastructure-as-a-Service) and PaaS (Platform-as-a-Service) that span organizational boundaries, multiple continents and different cultures. Demonstrated expertise in building relationships with multiple stakeholders across different lines of businesses to deliver path-breaking business results on time. 

Engaged with bid, architecture, delivery, deployment and service communities (500 strong team based in UK, Malaysia and India) to deliver winning customer propositions. Drove inter-departmental collaboration to deliver win-win synergy across conflicting agendas and priorities. Built excellent track record in Business risk management, designing & implementing effective Program Governance and Business Controls. Managed 24*7 service operations for over 200 Complex MNC Contracts (each exceeding 100m annual revenue). Built competency to turn around CODE RED programs,

Head of Program Delivery

Drove Digital transformation of OSS systems in BT through rationalisation, simplification and migration to the Cloud.  Trail blazed insourcing of IP (Intellectual Property) in Software Product Design and Delivery. Drove the insourcing strategy in BT's Technology Division until it became BAU in the Bangalore GDC (Global Delivery Centre) of BT India.

Built expertise in driving multi-dimensional Change in complex, political organizational structures with multiple agendas. Proven ability in influencing multiple stakeholders across cultures to change mindsets and overcome obstacles. Demonstrated expertise in transforming the ecosystem so that the new mindset becomes the new standard.   

Built a high performance team of over 100 software design, delivery and test professionals from scratch in Bangalore and Kuala Lumpur to design, deliver, test, deploy and support over 25 business critical OSS applications serving customers across the globe. Provided 24*7 L2 and L3 infrastructure and application support with teams spread across multiple time zones. 

Led a combined BT and vendor team of over 400 professionals spread across multiple delivery centres. Demonstrated excellence in turning vendors into partners and building win-win contractual relationships. Developed Leaders (through coaching) who went onto champion other engagements in the business.  Demonstrated expertise in people development and leadership coaching.    

Facilitated rapid growth of BT Bangalore Captive centre (Global in-house captive GIC) from 200 employees in 2012 to 800 employees in 2015 through implementation of effective on-boarding, induction and mentoring. Demonstrated expertise in effective people management and in developing managers into leaders.

Head of Product Delivery and Operations

Product delivery within tight deadlines adopting Agile methodology and Multi-cultural leadership across time zones and continents.

Product Delivery Manager

Imbibed skills in Contract negotiation, Client expectation management, Delivery management and 24*7 Operations. Performed Leadership roles in multiple contracts including HMRC and Royal Mail.

Service Delivery Manager, Managed Services Contracts

Introduced a comprehensive framework in BT for IT Global Sourcing Supplier evaluation, selection and engagement. Embedded a culture of managing outcomes within BT. Led a two year transformation program where Global Sourcing became the standard. Introduced a process of continuous learning and fine tuning in supplier engagement.

Process Transformation and Global Sourcing Champion

Data and AI Leader | Data Strategy Advisor | Uncover insights to power foresight

•	Passionate about leveraging technology, data and AI to make a difference to people's lives.
•	Believe that valuable insights are available to us all in our personal and professional lives, if only  
         we know where and how to look for them in the data we have.
•	Engineering and Product Leader who can inspire and create teams that take pride in what they  
         deliver. Teams that stick together, look out for each other, and create magic.
•	Obsessed with continuous learning and upskilling - the only constant in a world of variables.
•	Track record of building leaders in every organisation I have been part of.

taplio

The Battle

Sarah Floris, MS

Bala Viswanath

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