About Valentin
I'm a combination of Software Developer, Data Scientist, and UX Designer.
I am interested in Climate Change, Data Analysis and Display, Software Engineering, Machine Learning and Intelligent Systems Design, Web Development, Design, and Typography.
Experience
- Chief Technology OfficerJan 2024 - Aug 2025 · 1 yr 8 mosRemote
Lead Paloma's engineering team from creating the initial technical prototypes to scaling the team's headcount, processes, and product offerings. Owned engineering standards, processes of the organization. Hired, supervised, and mentored a mix of contractors, full-time staff, and co-op students. Invented a novel method and algorithm for romantic matchmaking using a proprietary combination of domain-specific heuristics, LLMs, ML feature embeddings, scoring, and graph algorithms. Resulted in an estimated 20-100x increase in people going on dates compared to the industry standard. Made strategic engineering decisions to deliver high quality, highly polished user experiences while minimizing engineering development time. Main choices were Temporal IO, Supabase, Vue+Nuxt, Resend, Tailwind Plus, OpenAI. Responsible for designing, building, and shipping polished member experiences and internal tooling: • Onboarding with auto-save, photo upload, multiple choice & long form answer entry. • Member account management. • Internal user and match management tools. • Profile comparison tools for human and automated assessment of romantic compatibility. Created a product development feedback loop between users and the company to monitor success and identify product and technical issues using PostHog. Lead projects to automate company's human operations with a blend of traditional and ML/AI techniques. Responsible for initial research, prototyping, and validation followed by productionizing and monitoring: • Automating user communications via email and SMS using Temporal, Twilio, and OpenAI. • Automated matchmaking maximizing romantic compatibility whilst minimizing the number of romantic choices for members. Ensured members receive the right number of high-quality matches in a timely manner. • Automated personalized introductions between members using heuristics, pre-processing, and LLM-based generations (OpenAI).
- Software Development and ConsultingJun 2022 - Dec 2023 · 1 yr 7 mosToronto, Ontario, Canada · Remote
Freelance software development and consulting for various companies: • Designed interface and API for delivering ER patient deterioration predictions from ML models to hospital clinical staff. • Analyzed processes and personnel of engineering organization for improving efficiencies and achieving company profitability. • Lead engineering team and product development of mobile and web apps in the mental health therapy space.
Layer 6 AI · Permanent Full-time
- Senior Machine Learning EngineeringJun 2020 - May 2022 · 2 yrsToronto, Ontario, Canada · Hybrid
• Developed tools for state of the art machine learning explainability used for core bank use cases in Java, Elm, and TypeScript. • Designed and implemented data visualizations and UIs for large datasets (100s millions records) using ChartJS, VegaLite, and Figma. • Planned and supervised projects for 4 co-op students while providing training, mentorship, and career guidance. • Awarded TD’s 2021 Patent Visionary Award for designing and implementing a novel ML explainability tool and algorithm for uncovering feature-predicition relationships using React, Python, and Scikit-Learn (CCE-Vis, patent-pending).
- Senior Software EngineeringMay 2018 - May 2020 · 2 yrs 1 moToronto, Canada Area
• Integrated computer vision machine learning models for vehicle cabin monitoring. • Built a remote vehicle monitoring frontend and backend using TypeScript, React, and WebRTC. • Streamlined setup and deployment of Nvidia Jetson platform using Docker.
- Software Consultant and DeveloperDec 2017 - Feb 2018 · 3 mosRemote
• Built out a custom realtime chat system for caregivers of people who are facing addiction to speak to therapists and other support networks. • Implemented system in React and TypeScript while leveraging the Twilio Chat API and GraphCool GraphQL back-end framework.
- Co-Founder & Technical LeadNov 2017 - Jan 2018 · 3 mosToronto, Canada Area
• Co-founded a startup to drive more customers into high-end restaurants through marketing 2-for-1 food deals. • Lead the technical effort to launch an iOS and Android app, GraphQL backend API, and website for the product. • Architected system to have type safety across all components and their boundaries utilizing Flow, GraphCool, and Apollo.
- FounderApr 2017 - Nov 2017 · 8 mosWaterloo, Ontario
• Founded company to prevent pressure injuries in wheelchair using seniors through technological and process improvements in long-term care facilities. • Created an IoT pressure distribution sensing wheelchair cushion with offline caching capabilities streamed to an iOS and Anroid app. • Developed a machine learning algorithm to detect users performing pressure relieving exercises while sitting on the wheelchair cushion
- Data Scientist InternMay 2016 - Aug 2016 · 4 mosMenlo Park
• Analyzed usage and growth opportunties of an experimental version of the Newsfeed deployed to millions of users. • Identified product opporunitites for increasing user retention through flow analysis. • Analyzed impact of product on target high level metrics leading to conclusion of not to ship product. • Conducted a hierarchical clustering analysis of topics users are interested using R Shiny.
- Machine Learning Research Co-opSep 2015 - Dec 2015 · 4 mosToronto, Canada Area
• Researched and developed a real-time calibration-free gaze tracking system for large interactive displays in Python and C++. • Trained and analyzed the model utilizing OpenCV, scikit-learn. • Worked with speech diarization and three.js for 3D visualization of collaboration in rooms.
- User Experience DesignerJan 2014 - Aug 2014 · 8 mosSan Francisco Bay Area
- Co-FounderOct 2013 - Sep 2015 · 2 yrsWaterloo, Ontario
• Kickstarted Canada’s largest hackathon for 1000+ hackers from 100 schools in 10 countries. • Defined hackathon’s vision and values. • Led website engineering and design team to create application page for 1000s of applicants.
- Gesture Controls Software DeveloperApr 2013 - Aug 2013 · 5 mosKitchener, Canada Area
- FounderNov 2012 - Dec 2012 · 2 mosWaterloo
We're showcasing all of the companies in Waterloo and capturing the entrepreneurial and innovative spirit the region has to offer.
- Software DeveloperSep 2012 - Dec 2012 · 4 mosKitchener, Canada Area
University of Waterloo Mobile Developers Club
- Co-founder & VP of EducationMay 2012 - Aug 2012 · 4 mosWaterloo, ON
- Ruby on Rails Web DeveloperJan 2012 - Apr 2012 · 4 mosToronto, Canada Area
- Web DeveloperFeb 2011 - Aug 2011 · 7 mos
Education
- University of WaterlooBASc, Systems Design Engineering2011 - 2017
Skills
Backend
Ruby on RailsC#.NETC++
Data Science
NumPy
Database
MySQLMongoDBCouchDB
Frontend
ReactjQueryJavaScript
At a glance
Experience12 years
Currently atPaloma · Permanent Full-time
Based inCanada
Studied atUniversity of Waterloo
Roles17
Skills31
LanguagesRussian · English
LinkedInView profile
