03Oct

Programa de Estágio – Desenvolvedor de Software – Pesquisa at IBM – Multiple Cities


Introdução
O IBM Research assume a responsabilidade pela tecnologia e seu papel na sociedade. Trabalhar no IBM Research significa que você se juntará a uma equipe que inventa o que está por vir na computação, sempre escolhendo o trabalho grande, urgente e inovador que perdura e molda gerações. Nossa paixão pela descoberta e o entusiasmo em definir o futuro da tecnologia é o que constrói nossa forte cultura em torno da solução de problemas para os clientes e da percepção do impacto que você pode causar no mundo real.

O cenário de produtos e tecnologia da IBM inclui Pesquisa, Software e Infraestrutura. Ao entrar nesse domínio, você se posiciona no coração da IBM, onde o crescimento e a inovação prosperam.

Seu papel e responsabilidades
Você desempenhará uma função crucial no aprimoramento de nossa infraestrutura de aprendizado de máquina. O candidato ideal terá uma base sólida em práticas e ferramentas de DevOps, permitindo a integração e a implantação perfeitas de modelos de aprendizado de máquina. Você será responsável por automatizar fluxos de trabalho, gerenciar pipelines de CI/CD e garantir a confiabilidade e o dimensionamento de nossos aplicativos de ML.
Além de suas habilidades em DevOps, você deve ter um sólido conhecimento dos conceitos de aprendizado de máquina, incluindo técnicas de inferência e benchmarking de IA. Você colaborará estreitamente com pesquisadores e engenheiros de IA para otimizar o desempenho dos testes de modelos e simplificar os processos de implantação. Se você é apaixonado por preencher a lacuna entre o desenvolvimento e as operações no campo em rápida evolução da IA, gostaríamos de ouvir sua opinião.

Todas as vagas são elegíveis para pessoas com deficiência ou reabilitadas.

Profissional Requerido e Conhecimento Técnico
1 – Experiência em DevOps
Proficiência em ferramentas de CI/CD (por exemplo, Jenkins, GitLab CI)
Experiência com conteinerização (Docker, Podman, Kubernetes)
2-Conhecimento de aprendizado de máquina
Familiaridade com estruturas de aprendizado de máquina (por exemplo, TensorFlow, PyTorch)
Experiência com inferência de IA e implantação de modelos LLM
3-Scripting e programação
Proficiência em linguagens de script (por exemplo, Python, Bash)
Experiência com pelo menos uma linguagem de programação (por exemplo, Java, Go, C++)
4-Controle de versão
Proficiência em Git e GitHub para controle de versão e colaboração
5- Inglês Fluente

Profissional Preferencial e Conhecimento Técnico
1-Experiência em LLM (modelo de linguagem grande)
Entendimento das arquiteturas de LLM (por exemplo, GPT, BERT) e suas aplicações
Experiência em ajuste fino e implantação de LLMs na produção
2 – Arquitetura OpenShift
Compreensão dos componentes do OpenShift (por exemplo, nós, pods, serviços, rotas)
3 – Conhecimento do Kubernetes
Familiaridade com os conceitos e as APIs do Kubernetes, já que o OpenShift foi desenvolvido com base no Kubernetes
4-Monitoramento e registro de logs
Familiaridade com ferramentas de monitoramento (por exemplo, Prometheus, Grafana) e sistemas de registro (por exemplo, ELK Stack)
5 – Ferramentas de colaboração
Experiência com metodologias e ferramentas ágeis (por exemplo, Jira, Trello)
6-Habilidades sociais
Grande capacidade de comunicação e trabalho em equipe
Mentalidade de resolução de problemas com atenção aos detalhes

Key Job Details
Role:Programa de Estágio – Desenvolvedor de Software – Pesquisa Location: Multiple Locations See All Hortolândia Rio de Janeiro São Paulo Category:Software Engineering Employment Type:Tempo Integral ou Tempo Parcial Travel Required:Sem Viagem Contract Type:Estágio Company:(0022) IBM Brasil-Industria, Maquinas e Servicos Limitada Req ID:730103BR



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03Oct

Principal Software Engineer (Graph) at Narvar – Remote- Canada


Narvar is growing! We are hiring a Principal Data Engineer to build our graph based products and improve all aspects of the Narvar platform. Data is at the core of our competitive advantage so the work you do has a large impact across the company, our business partners, and the lives of our end users.

Day-to-day

  • Lead the architecture, development, and optimization of graph database systems using technologies such as Neo4j, TigerGraph, or similar.
  • Develop and maintain efficient, high-performance code in any one of the following languages: Python, Java, Golang, or Rust, with a focus on graph data processing.
  • Design and execute complex SQL queries for data extraction, transformation, and loading in support of graph data structures.
  • Own and drive projects from initial concept through production deployment, ensuring robustness and scalability of the data solutions.
  • Collaborate with cross-functional teams to understand business requirements and translate them into scalable data solutions.
  • Stay up-to-date with the latest advancements in graph database technologies and integrate best practices into our data infrastructure.
  • Mentor and provide technical leadership to junior engineers, fostering a culture of innovation and continuous improvement.

Qualifications:

  • Extensive experience and deep expertise in graph databases such as Neo4j, TigerGraph, or similar.
  • Proven track record of managing and processing large-scale data, particularly in graph database environments.
  • Proficiency in one of the following programming languages: Python, Java, Golang, or Rust, with a focus on graph data processing and optimization.
  • Demonstrated experience in a zero-to-one startup environment, with the ability to thrive in a fast-paced, entrepreneurial setting.
  • Previous experience in building data infrastructure from scratch in a startup environment.
  • Strong ownership mindset with a proactive approach to problem-solving and a commitment to delivering high-quality results.
  • Advanced knowledge of SQL with a deep understanding of database design, optimization, and performance tuning in the context of graph data.
  • Excellent communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to work effectively in a team-oriented environment.
  • 12+ years of relevant experience

Preferred Qualifications:

  • Experience with cloud platforms such as Google Cloud Platform (GCP) Familiarity with containerization technologies such as Docker and Kubernetes.
  • Understanding of data security and privacy best practices.
  • Experience in building APIs for serving machine learning models and frameworks in GCP.

Why Narvar?

We’re on a mission to simplify the everyday lives of consumers. Post-purchase is a critical phase of the customer journey. That’s why we created Narvar – a platform focused on driving customer loyalty through seamless post-purchase experiences that allow retailers to retain, engage, and delight customers. If you’ve ever bought something online, there’s a good chance you’ve used our platform!

From the hottest new direct-to-consumer companies to retail’s most renowned brands, Narvar works with GameStop, Neiman Marcus, Sonos, Nike, and 1400+ + other brands. With hubs in San Francisco, Atlanta, London, and Bangalore, we’ve served over 125 million consumers worldwide across 10+ billion interactions, 38 countries, and 55 languages.

Pioneering the post-purchase movement means navigating into the unknown. Our team thrives on this sense of adventure while nurturing a mindset of innovation. We’re a home for big hearts and we leave our egos at the door. We work hard but we always make time to celebrate professional wins, baby showers, birthday parties, and everything in between.

#LI-Remote

Please read our Privacy Policy to learn what personal information we collect in connection with your job application, and how we may use and share it. 



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03Oct

Chain-Of-Symbol Prompting To Improve Spatial Reasoning | by Cobus Greyling | Oct, 2024


Redundant natural language and irrelevant information also can hamper the performance of LLMs.

Using symbols to represent spatial relationships in word sequences can provide a clearer and more understandable framework for large language models (LLMs).

This method potentially simplifies data processing for the models.

Researchers are exploring the use of symbols in prompting LLMs, highlighting its importance as it extends beyond traditional language comprehension. This under-explored area offers valuable insights into enhancing LLM capabilities and understanding.

Using a set of symbols to represent spatial relationships between objects in complex environments.

To examine the impact of symbolic representations in prompting, researchers focus on complex spatial understanding and planning tasks.

These tasks require large language models (LLMs) to interpret virtual spatial environments described in natural language, while also planning and achieving specific objectives within those settings.

This approach helps assess how effectively LLMs can navigate and manipulate spatial information.

The model is posed with the following question:

Answer this question: I have a chair, two potatoes, a cauliflower, a lettuce head, two tables, a cabbage, two onions, and three fridges. How many vegetables do I have?

Symbolic reasoning involves reasoning about objects, their relation to each-other and concepts.

And The Model Response:

The question lists several items, but only some of them are vegetables. Here’s the breakdown:

  • Potatoes: 2 (vegetable)
  • Cauliflower: 1 (vegetable)
  • Lettuce head: 1 (vegetable)
  • Cabbage: 1 (vegetable)
  • Onions: 2 (vegetable)

The other items (chair, tables, and fridges) are not vegetables.

Total number of vegetables: 2 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 2 = 7.

So, you have 7 vegetables.

Spatial reasoning in natural language processing focuses on understanding and processing spatial information within text. Some researchers have explored methods for training models on navigation tasks that require agents to reach specific locations based on textual descriptions.

Others have developed tasks where models generate instructions from “before” and “after” image pairs or created benchmarks for answering spatial questions about environments. Additionally, it has been observed that large language models struggle with text-based games that involve multi-step reasoning.



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02Oct

Senior Backend Software Engineer at S&P Global – US – MA – CAMBRIDGE 44-48 BRATTLE ST


About the Role:

Grade Level (for internal use):

03

Kensho’s Applications group develops the web apps and APIs that deliver Kensho’s AI capabilities to our customers.  Our teams are small, product-focused, and intent on shipping high-quality code that best leverages our efforts.  We’re collegial, humble, and inquisitive, and we delight in learning from teammates with backgrounds, skills, and interests different from our own.

As a Senior Backend Engineer, you will develop reliable, secure, and performant APIs that apply Kensho’s AI capabilities to specific customer workflows.  You will collaborate with colleagues from Product, Machine Learning, Infrastructure, and Design, as well as with other engineers within Applications.  You have a demonstrated capacity for depth, and are comfortable working with a broad range of technologies.  Your verbal and written communication is proactive, efficient, and inclusive of your geographically-distributed colleagues.  You are a thoughtful, deliberate technologist and share your knowledge generously.

At Kensho, we believe in flexibility-first, and give our employees the opportunity to work from where they feel most productive and engaged (must be in the United States).  We also value in-person collaboration, so there may be times when travel to one of our Kensho hubs (e.g., Cambridge, MA or NYC) will be required for team meetings or company events.

Kensho states that the anticipated base salary range for the position is 150k–225k.  In addition, this role is eligible for an annual incentive bonus and equity plans.  At Kensho, it is not typical for an individual to be hired at or near the top of the range for their role and compensation decisions are dependent on the facts and circumstances of each case.

What You’ll Do:

  • Design, develop, test, document, deploy, maintain, and improve software
  • Manage individual project priorities, deadlines, and deliverables
  • Work with key stakeholders to develop system architectures, API specifications, implementation requirements, and complexity estimates
  • Test assumptions through instrumentation and prototyping
  • Promote ongoing technical development through code reviews, knowledge sharing, and mentorship

What You’ll Need:

  • At least five years of direct experience developing customer-facing APIs within a team
  • Thoughtful and efficient communication skills (both verbal and written)
  • Experience developing RESTful APIs using a variety of tools
  • Experience turning abstract business requirements into concrete technical plans
  • Experience working across many stages of the software development lifecycle
  • Sound reasoning about the behavior and performance of loosely-coupled systems
  • Proficiency with algorithms (including time and space complexity analysis), data structures, and software architecture
  • At least one domain of demonstrable technical depth

Technologies & Tools We Use:

  • Python, Django, Flask, mypy, OpenAPI
  • Git, Jsonnet, Jenkins, Docker, Kubernetes

What’s In It For You?

Our Purpose:

Progress is not a self-starter. It requires a catalyst to be set in motion. Information, imagination, people, technology–the right combination can unlock possibility and change the world.

Our world is in transition and getting more complex by the day. We push past expected observations and seek out new levels of understanding so that we can help companies, governments and individuals make an impact on tomorrow. At S&P Global we transform data into Essential Intelligence®, pinpointing risks and opening possibilities. We Accelerate Progress.

Our People:

We’re more than 35,000 strong worldwide—so we’re able to understand nuances while having a broad perspective. Our team is driven by curiosity and a shared belief that Essential Intelligence can help build a more prosperous future for us all.

From finding new ways to measure sustainability to analyzing energy transition across the supply chain to building workflow solutions that make it easy to tap into insight and apply it. We are changing the way people see things and empowering them to make an impact on the world we live in. We’re committed to a more equitable future and to helping our customers find new, sustainable ways of doing business. We’re constantly seeking new solutions that have progress in mind. Join us and help create the critical insights that truly make a difference.

Our Values:
 

Integrity, Discovery, Partnership

At S&P Global, we focus on Powering Global Markets. Throughout our history, the world’s leading organizations have relied on us for the Essential Intelligence they need to make confident decisions about the road ahead. We start with a foundation of integrity in all we do, bring a spirit of discovery to our work, and collaborate in close partnership with each other and our customers to achieve shared goals.

Benefits:

We take care of you, so you can take care of business. We care about our people. That’s why we provide everything you—and your career—need to thrive at S&P Global.

Our benefits include: 

  • Health & Wellness: Health care coverage designed for the mind and body.

  • Flexible Downtime: Generous time off helps keep you energized for your time on.

  • Continuous Learning: Access a wealth of resources to grow your career and learn valuable new skills.

  • Invest in Your Future: Secure your financial future through competitive pay, retirement planning, a continuing education program with a company-matched student loan contribution, and financial wellness programs.

  • Family Friendly Perks: It’s not just about you. S&P Global has perks for your partners and little ones, too, with some best-in class benefits for families.

  • Beyond the Basics: From retail discounts to referral incentive awards—small perks can make a big difference.

For more information on benefits by country visit: https://spgbenefits.com/benefit-summaries

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at S&P Global:
At S&P Global, we believe diversity fuels creative insights, equity unlocks opportunity, and inclusion drives growth and innovation – Powering Global Markets. Our commitment centers on our global workforce, ensuring that our people are empowered to bring their whole selves to work. It doesn’t stop there, we strive to better reflect and serve the communities in which we live and work, and advocate for greater opportunity for all.

———————————————————–

Equal Opportunity Employer

S&P Global is an equal opportunity employer and all qualified candidates will receive consideration for employment without regard to race/ethnicity, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, marital status, military veteran status, unemployment status, or any other status protected by law.  Only electronic job submissions will be considered for employment.  

 

If you need an accommodation during the application process due to a disability, please send an email to: 

EE************@sp******.com











 and your request will be forwarded to the appropriate person.  
 
US Candidates Only:  The EEO is the Law Poster http://www.dol.gov/ofccp/regs/compliance/posters/pdf/eeopost.pdf describes discrimination protections under federal law. 

———————————————————–

20 – Professional (EEO-2 Job Categories-United States of America), BSMGMT203 – Entry Professional (EEO Job Group)



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02Oct

Senior Pricing Actuary at AXIS Capital – London – Scalpel


This is your opportunity to join AXIS Capital – a trusted global provider of specialty lines insurance and reinsurance.  We stand apart for our outstanding client service, intelligent risk taking and superior risk adjusted returns for our shareholders. We also proudly maintain an entrepreneurial, disciplined and ethical corporate culture.  As a member of AXIS, you join a team that is among the best in the industry.

At AXIS, we believe that we are only as strong as our people. We strive to create an inclusive and welcoming culture where employees of all backgrounds and from all walks of life feel comfortable and empowered to be themselves. This means that we bring our whole selves to work. 

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion or creed, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin or ancestry, citizenship, physical or mental disability, age, marital status, civil union status, family or parental status, or any other characteristic protected by law. Accommodation is available upon request for candidates taking part in the selection process.

Global Markets Property Senior Pricing Actuary/Analyst 

Actuarial  

Pricing 

  

  

How does this role contribute to our collective success? 

  

 The Pricing function supports underwriters and management in building robust and profitable portfolios by providing objective insights through deep product expertise and by utilizing state-of-the-art functional capabilities. 

The Property Pricing team is responsible for all pricing analytics for E&S, Inland Marine, Global Property, Delegated Property and Construction across the insurance division. Their focus is on applying common analytical standards across the products for case pricing, performance measurement, and portfolio steering. 

The Global Markets Property Senior Pricing Actuary/Analyst will be a leading contributor to the Global Market Lines pricing practice and will be embedded with underwriting functions for the business units. This leader will proactively engage with Reserving, Risk Management, Finance, and Claims colleagues to achieve desired business outcomes and implement business strategies. 

  

What will you do in this role? 

 

  • Assist with the development, validation, and maintenance of a suite of technical pricing models across the various Property products which enable:  

  • Lead the regular product monitoring analysis cycle for the allocated lines and lead the discussion with the Division and Business leaders to identify issues, discuss opportunities, assist in the development of actions plans, and develop measures to monitor their progress. 

  • Coordinate the selection of expected loss ratios for financial planning in consideration of business strategies, market conditions, mix of business, loss trend, loss costs and reinsurance structures – engaging with Reserving to corroborate planning assumptions for specific classes of business. 

  • Develop, support, and maintain key risk assumptions by class, and integrate risk-based pricing metrics into individual risk pricing and portfolio measurement for specific classes of business. 

 

You may also be required to take on additional duties, responsibilities and activities appropriate to the nature of this role. 

  

About You: 

  

We encourage you to bring your own experience and expertise to the table, so while there are some qualifications and experiences, we need you to have, we are open to discussing how your individual knowledge might lend itself to fulfilling this role and help us achieve our goals. 

 

What you need to have: 

 

  • Bachelor’s degree in actuarial science, Mathematics, Statistics, Risk Management, or a similar field which demonstrates an affinity and talent for quantitative analysis. 

  • Associate or Fellow of an accredited Actuarial Society, or commensurate experience. Intention to qualify as a fellow of the Institute & Faculty of Actuaries or equivalent professional body, strong track record of progress in actuarial examinations to date. 

 

What we prefer you to have: 

 

  • The ability to manipulate complex datasets using tools VBA, SQL, R, Python, or similar. 

 

Role Factors: 

  

In this role, you will typically be required to: 

 

 What we offer: 

  

You will be eligible for a comprehensive and competitive benefits package which includes medical plans for you and your family, health and wellness programs, retirement plans, tuition reimbursement, paid annual leave, and much more. 



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02Oct

Core Strats at Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation – New York, NY, US, 10172


 SMBC Group is a top-tier global financial group. Headquartered in Tokyo and with a 400-year history, SMBC Group offers a diverse range of financial services, including banking, leasing, securities, credit cards, and consumer finance. The Group has more than 130 offices and 80,000 employees worldwide in nearly 40 countries. Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, Inc. (SMFG) is the holding company of SMBC Group, which is one of the three largest banking groups in Japan. SMFG’s shares trade on the Tokyo, Nagoya, and New York (NYSE: SMFG) stock exchanges.

 

In the Americas, SMBC Group has a presence in the US, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Peru. Backed by the capital strength of SMBC Group and the value of its relationships in Asia, the Group offers a range of commercial and investment banking services to its corporate, institutional, and municipal clients. It connects a diverse client base to local markets and the organization’s extensive global network. The Group’s operating companies in the Americas include Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. (SMBC), SMBC Nikko Securities America, Inc., SMBC Capital Markets, Inc., SMBC MANUBANK, JRI America, Inc., SMBC Leasing and Finance, Inc., Banco Sumitomo Mitsui Brasileiro S.A., and Sumitomo Mitsui Finance and Leasing Co., Ltd.

 

The anticipated salary range for this role is between $162,000.00 and $225,000.00. The specific salary offered to an applicant will be based on their individual qualifications, experiences, and an analysis of the current compensation paid in their geography and the market for similar roles at the time of hire. The role may also be eligible for an annual discretionary incentive award. In addition to cash compensation, SMBC offers a competitive portfolio of benefits to its employees.

Role Description

Apply analytical expertise on structured and unstructured data sets to glean market insights. Create proprietary trading algorithms to inform security selection, market timing, portfolio construction and risk management. Produce written quantitative research and advise internal stakeholders in sales and trading on quant-driven investment strategies.

Role Objectives: Delivery

Apply deep analytical expertise on structured and unstructured data sets to glean market insights. Create proprietary trading algorithms to inform security selection, market timing, portfolio construction and risk management. Produce written quantitative research and engage in regular marketing activity to support clients’ investment decisions. Advise internal stakeholders in sales and trading on quant-driven investment strategies. Achieve recognition in external industry surveys.

Role Objectives: Interpersonal

Foster strong relationships with buy-side contacts at target accounts. Act as trusted advisor to internal colleagues in sales and trading; periodically brief senior management on quantitative strategies. Attend industry conferences to foster network across peers, clients and other industry stakeholders. Collaborate with research colleagues in other verticals (equity research, fixed income research, economics) and/or regions to identify and report on cross-asset and/or global investment themes.

Role Objectives: Expertise

Stay abreast of macroeconomic and sector / industry trends that might inform new or existing investment hypotheses. Hone skills in data science, statistical analysis and core programming languages (C++, Python, MATLAB, R, others) to identify patterns and trends in data sets and translate algorithms into code. Liaise with internal partners in sales and trading to improve understanding of client sentiment and investment strategies. Attend industry roundtables / forums to stay current on market themes and opportunities. Undertake regular compliance and conduct training to stay current on evolving regulatory requirements.

Qualifications and Skills

Recommended years of experience: 7

Additional Requirements

D&I Commitment

Responsible for fostering a culture of diversity and inclusion, holding leaders accountable for creating an inclusive environment through awareness and practice of equity in recruiting, developing, and promoting diverse talent.

SMBC’s employees participate in a Hybrid workforce model that provides employees with an opportunity to work from home, as well as, from an SMBC office. SMBC requires that employees live within a reasonable commuting distance of their office location. Prospective candidates will learn more about their specific hybrid work schedule during their interview process. Hybrid work may not be permitted for certain roles, including, for example, certain FINRA-registered roles for which in-office attendance for the entire workweek is required.

We are an equal employment opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status or any other characteristic protected by law. SMBC provides reasonable accommodations for employees and applicants with disabilities consistent with applicable law. If you need a reasonable accommodation during the application process, please let us know at

ac************@sm*******.com











.



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02Oct

Senior Analytics Engineer at Starship Technologies – Tallinn, Estonia


Starship Technologies is revolutionizing deliveries with autonomous robots. These robots are designed to deliver food, groceries, and packages across college campuses and neighborhoods in minutes. Starship has now completed millions of autonomous deliveries to date, traveled millions of miles, and is currently doing more than 140k road crossings each day. Our contribution to society includes reducing congestion, and pollution, providing zero-emissions deliveries, increasing the quality of life for residents, empowering seniors and disabled people, and enabling affordable delivery for local businesses.

We’re hitting records on an almost weekly basis. Now is an exciting time to join as we grow rapidly around the world!

We are looking for a Senior Analytics Engineer to join our Data team and play an essential part in our mission to provide the world with affordable and environment-friendly deliveries. 

As a Senior Analytics Engineer, you’ll play a pivotal role in refining and enhancing our data products. You’ll focus on refactoring and building data pipelines for revenue tracking, forecasting, and operational processes such as supply chain and servicing.

Additionally, you’ll elevate our dbt project by improving guidelines, ensuring consistency, and increasing test coverage. There is also a chance to occasionally contribute to dashboards and other data products.

This role offers an exciting opportunity to drive significant improvements in our data systems and practices.

This position can be based in Estonia or Finland.

Your main responsibilities are:

  • Designing and implementing data models in dbt (SQL), including testing
  • Debugging and tuning the performance of SQL queries
  • Contributing to best practice guidelines and assisting data platform users with their data-related tasks
  • Occasionally developing or improving dashboards, forecasting models, or other data products

What’s in it for you?

  • You will collaborate with people with a strong inner burning and motivation. We are self-aware and seek feedback and improvement. We take pride in our ability to make the most of limited resources to solve problems no one has ever encountered before
  • Starship’s Data team is praised for excellence in every aspect, offering ample learning opportunities. The team members are highly skilled, providing a great opportunity for personal development
  • We are a fast-growing startup, with great opportunities to grow within the company. Your contribution will matter. There are lots of ways you can make a difference and personally feel the impact
  • You’ll have endless opportunities to learn from our inspirational, talented team members across the globe

What we hope you’ll bring to the table:

  • Experience as an Analytics Engineer, Data Engineer or in a similar role
  • Very strong skills in SQL, data modeling, and building robust data pipelines
  • An active interest in analytics engineering
  • Enjoyment of SQL performance tuning and troubleshooting, with a determination to resolve tricky errors in queries or dbt configurations
  • A focus on quality and conceptual clarity
  • Good communication skills in both verbal and written English
  • Ability to achieve results independently as well as through teamwork

Beneficial:

  • Experience with dbt, Databricks, Spark, and Airflow
  • Experience with scripting, particularly in Python

Want to learn more about our robots and our people? Get in touch and let’s have a chat! Also, have a sneak peek to our blog and discover more about us!



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01Oct

Market Risk Reporting Lead Analyst at Citi – GRZYBOWSKA 60


The Global Market Risk Reporting group are responsible for the production of management and regulatory reporting for various stakeholders, including Global Market Risk and Legal Entities with IMA permission for Market Risk. The Warsaw Legal Entity reporting team provides these services for Citi’s European legal entities as well as execution of IMA governance activities.

As a Lead Analyst in market risk reporting team, you will be taking part in regional and global initiatives focused on risk transformation and dealing directly with senior stakeholders from various groups.

The position requires exceptional people with project management skills, a strong work ethic, solid market risk analytic skills, exceptional verbal and written communication skills, and the ability to troubleshoot and follow up on problems while working under a very tight daily production cycle.  

This position will give the individual exposure to:

  • Understanding of market risk factors that affect VaR, SVAR, IRC, CRM, Securitization, and Standard Specific Model Risk.
  • Deal with regulators and auditors to ensure compliance with policies and procedures
  • Participate in risk committees about internal controls supporting Citi EMEA entities
  • Contribution to Risk transformation (Automation and enhancement of Risk & Control framework)
  • Understanding the relationship between VaR and the risk factors, volatilities, and correlations that go into the statistical calculation to the point where the VaR can be broken down, analyzed, and potentially corrected.
  • Develop, leverage, and maintain relationships across varying levels of management and function to ensure a high degree of accuracy in Citi VaR & global market risk
  • Manage and escalate the follow-ups to reconciliation discrepancies with feed support in a timely manner.

Job Responsibilities

  • Utilize the appropriate tools and modern techniques to appropriately visualize the firms market risk exposure
  • Deliver high quality management reporting to market risk senior management using tools to visualize risk within the entities and provide meaningful insights on the firms risk exposure
  • Participate in the preparation of market risk inputs to EU & UK regulatory reporting e.g. COREP, Pillar disclosures and daily backtesting processes
  • Develop an understanding of legal entity/portfolio risk management, financial products and their market risk exposure profiles
  • Document evolving market risk reporting requirements and work with Risk IT to deliver data and content changes
  • Identify data quality issues, record them in the firms data quality inventory and ensure they are resolved by collaborating with the central data quality remediation teams.

Required Qualifications:

  • 5+ years experience working in Risk or Finance.
  • The ideal candidate will have a BS or BA in a related science discipline with a master or relevant financial qualification (FRM/CFA) being an advantage.
  • Good knowledge of market risk metrics and financial products.
  • Superior project management & communication skills
  • An appreciation of market risk regulatory risk based capital rules for the ECB, FED or PRA.
  • Knowledge of a suitable data science tools, big data platforms and/or Python is required.
  • A good understanding of data manipulation techniques using industry standard data pipeline tools will be advantageous.
  • Experience with visualization tools such as Power BI, Tableau etc. will be highly desirable.

We offer:

  • Work in a challenging area of the financial industry with one of the world’s leading companies with exposure to variety of products, processes and controls.
  • Cooperation with a high quality, international, multicultural and global team.
  • Work in a friendly and diversified environment, appreciating differences in style and perspective and using them to add value to decisions leading to organizational success.
  • Management supporting balanced and agile work (flexible working hours, home office).
  • Attractive benefits package (Benefit System, medical care, pension plan etc.).
  • A chance to make a difference with various affinity networks and charity initiatives.

#LI-MM1

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Job Family Group:

Risk Management

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Job Family:

Risk Reporting

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Time Type:

Full time

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Citi is an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer.

Qualified applicants will receive consideration without regard to their race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or status as a protected veteran.

Citigroup Inc. and its subsidiaries (“Citi”) invite all qualified interested applicants to apply for career opportunities. If you are a person with a disability and need a reasonable accommodation to use our search tools and/or apply for a career opportunity review Accessibility at Citi.

View the “EEO is the Law” poster. View the EEO is the Law Supplement.

View the EEO Policy Statement.

View the Pay Transparency Posting



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01Oct

Ricercatori/ Ricercatrici – Digital Twin at Leonardo – IT – Genova – Fiumara


Job Description:

Leonardo è un gruppo industriale internazionale che realizza capacità tecnologiche multidominio in ambito Aerospazio, Difesa & Sicurezza. Con oltre 51.000 dipendenti nel mondo, l’azienda ha una significativa presenza industriale in Italia, Regno Unito, Polonia e Stati Uniti, e opera in 150 paesi anche attraverso aziende controllate, joint venture e partecipazioni. Protagonista dei principali programmi strategici internazionali è partner tecnologico e industriale di Governi, Amministrazioni della Difesa, Istituzioni e imprese. Innovazione, ricerca continua, industria digitale e sostenibilità sono i pilastri del suo business nel mondo.

All’interno dei Leonardo Labs, stiamo ricercando ricercatori/ ricercatrici, nell’Area Tecnologica Digital Twin, per le nostra sedi di Genova o Roma.

La persona si occuperà delle seguenti attività:

  • Design computazionali basati su multiphysics and multi-scale framework;

  • Sviluppi PyFR , Calculix e OpenFOAM;

  • Approcci data driven (e. g, physics informed neural networks);

  • Algebra lineare per deep learning, ottimizzazioni con GPU e benchmark su HPC;

  • Phisical Neural Networks.

  • Intraprendere un lavoro di ricerca innovativo incentrato principalmente su basso TRL

  • Sviluppare una ricerca indipendente su sperimentazione e modellazione computazionale.

  • Supervisionare progetti di Dottorato di Ricerca con le Università.

  • Allestimento di attrezzature di laboratorio ed area sperimentale, se necessario.

  • Preparazione di proposte per progetti di ricerca esterni ed esecuzione di programmi a finanziamento statale.

  • Individuare le esigenze e le opportunità di crescita sia all’interno, sia all’esterno dell’azienda e studiare le varie possibili applicazioni del proprio tema di ricerca.

  • Partecipare allo sviluppo di strategia tecnologica e all’implementazione di programmi di ricerca di futura generazione.

  • Documentare e comunicare i risultati con relazioni e presentazioni ai partner e ai clienti.

Titolo di studio:

  • Laurea magistrale/specialistica in Ingegneria Elettronica, Meccanica, Meccatronica, Computer Science. Preferibilmente un master e/o un PHD.

Seniority:

Competenze e conoscenze tecniche:

  • Background di modellazione e simulazione in ingegneria aerospaziale o meccanica;

  • Conoscenza del software di simulazione multi-dominio commerciale (ad esempio Matlab-Simulink/Simscape, Simcenter Amesim, Dymola ecc.);

  • Esperienza con il framework di integrazione dei modelli (per esempio FMU standard e simili);

  • Conoscenza della tecnica MBSE per il monitoraggio dei requisiti e la modellazione logico-funzionale;

  • Background di programmazione con conoscenza di Python e altri framework di programmazione di alto livello;

  • Background di programmazione degli strumenti di sviluppo del software (es. Git, Docker e interfacce front-end);

  • Conoscenza degli strumenti di gestione dei dati (ad esempio Pandas, SQL, No-SQL ecc.);

  • Esperienza con Linux;

  • Esperienza con la programmazione parallela su infrastrutture HPC;

  • Esperienza con la suite Phoenix ModelCenter.

Competenze comportamentali:

Conoscenze linguistiche:

Altro (es. Disponibilità a trasferte/Certificazioni specifiche richieste….):

Aspettiamo la tua candidatura: inviaci subito il tuo CV.

Come funziona il processo di selezione?

A seguito della raccolta delle candidature, vengono valutati e identificati i CV maggiormente in linea con i requisiti richiesti.

Le/i candidate/i selezionate/i sostengono un colloquio conoscitivo con il team delle Risorse Umane, motivazionale e attitudinale, seguito da un’intervista di approfondimento tecnico con il Business.

Al termine del processo, alla persona viene restituito un feedback, sia in caso di esito positivo che negativo.

Coinvolgimento, valorizzazione delle competenze, cura del benessere e della sicurezza delle persone sono i cardini della nostra cultura aziendale.

Ci impegniamo ogni giorno a favorire un ambiente di lavoro inclusivo e stimolante, promuovendo attivamente i principi di inclusione, equità e valorizzazione delle diversità.

Cosa offriamo?

• Retribuzione fissa commisurata all’esperienza e al livello della persona selezionata, accompagnata da premialità legate ai risultati di business;

• Opportunità di formazione e aggiornamento continuo delle competenze professionali e delle soft skill;

• Work-Life Balance: promuoviamo il giusto equilibrio tra vita privata e vita professionale a partire da formule di lavoro ibride e flessibili;

• Benessere: mettiamo al primo posto il benessere economico, fisico, sociale e psicologico delle nostre persone, offrendo molteplici soluzioni vicine alle loro esigenze.

Il nostro contratto collettivo nazionale del lavoro di riferimento è il CCNL per l’Industria Metalmeccanica Privata e della Installazione di Impianti. Lavorando con noi avrai modo di confrontarti costantemente con le sfide dell’alta tecnologia, di accrescere le tue competenze e costruire un percorso professionale di eccellenza.

Seniority:

Expert

Primary Location:

IT – Genova – Fiumara

Additional Locations:

IT – Roma – Via Tiburtina KM12,400, IT – Torino – C.so Francia, IT – Torino – Caselle Nord

Contract Type:

Fixed term

Hybrid Working:

Hybrid



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01Oct

What I Learned in my First 9 Months as a Freelance Data Scientist | by CJ Sullivan | Oct, 2024


Photo by Persnickety Prints on Unsplash

I can’t believe it has already been 9 months since I have been working as a freelance data scientist! I originally wrote about making the leap after I was 3 months in. Getting started my husband and I agreed that we would try it for 3 months and that we would know after 3 months if it was going to work. I am very pleased (and fortunate) to say that we knew after about a month that it looked like freelancing was going to work for us.

My original post garnered a lot of public and private questions from people facing layoffs, return-to-office mandates (which are typically layoffs in disguise), and burn out. I also have learned a lot more in the past 6 months about how to make this work. I also made some key mistakes and have learned from them on some things not to do. So I thought it was time to post an update to the original post.

I do recommend that you read my original post first because there are some important things in there that I will not cover here. Like last time, I would also like to give a shout out to Brett Trainor who has created on online community (it is mostly Gen X-ers, but applicable to most people) called The Corporate Escapees dedicated to helping people free themselves from corporate work. He also has a great presence on TikTok. Brett and the “Escapees” have been great to bounce ideas off of and provide a wealth of information on getting started and flourishing while working as a freelancer, fractional, consultant, or solopreneur.

In my original post I had laid out several things I love about having gone out on my own. These things included stuff like working on what I work on when I want to work on it and making my own rules for my company. In the past 6 months I have discovered some new ones and learned more about the ones I already knew. So I thought I would briefly describe them here.

First, I (still) get to work from home. I have been working from home since 2017, which has given me the freedom to live where I want. I am a mountain creature and so the idea of moving to some random city away from all of the outdoor activities I love is not at all appealing to me. (In fact, I left the field of my PhD so that I could take a remote job…something that was not possible in that field.) More importantly, we are seeing many companies that went remote with the pandemic issue return to office (RTO) mandates. It is well documented that many of these are layoffs in disguise. So in reality, I have more job stability as a freelancer! And those companies that are laying off still have work that needs to be done. They just don’t have the positions to do it because they have laid people off. This means that freelancing is actually going to be more stable over the long run, because these companies will need to bring in someone to do the work!

Next — and this is no small one — is that I no longer am subjected to the huge waste of time that is a performance review. I have watched coworkers turn themselves inside out writing their self assessments fretting over every single punctuation mark only to have them essentially ignored. I have written many self assessments that included jokes and laughable things that managers have never commented on or noticed because they never read them! The process of performance reviews is broken. And what is the point when the majority of the time “meets expectations” lands you a so-called raise that is less than the increase in the cost of living?

This is not to say that as a freelancer your performance doesn’t matter. It is just that you don’t have to get all anxious and waste your time listening to your boss rattle back to you some list of accomplishments, tell you that you are doing a good job, and not give you too much reward for it. Instead, the reward for a freelancer (or the management of a poorly-performing one) is done through repeat business. Does a client choose to renew or extend your contract? Are they giving your name out to their friends as a referral? If so, job well done!

One that should not be overlooked is the fact that I have control over how my company-of-one runs. This has a lot of different impacts. First, I do not have to go ask numerous managers permission to work on a thing. If I want to work on something, I work on it. Ideally, there are others who need that type of work done that I can help. Second, I determine the finances of the company and don’t need to ask permission to attend a conference, take a class, travel to meet with a prospective client, or buy a new software tool. While it might sound silly, I actually am giddy (in a geeky kind of way) that I get to pick my own computer. I greatly dislike being forced to use Windows or Mac (Pop_OS FTW!!!) or being tied into a particular type of hardware. If I think it would benefit my business by me attending or speaking at a particular conference, I go and don’t need to play “Mother May I?” to get permission to go. If I decide I need to buy a particular book for my continuing education, I don’t need to ask someone. There is great freedom in this! (And, by the way, these things are tax deductible as well!)

Networking (Image created by author using DALL-E)

Definitely the most common questions I have received since writing my initial post 6 months ago have to do with networking. When you are working as a freelancer, the old saying goes: “your network is your net worth.” There are a lot of implications to this statement and not all of them are pretty. So I am going to share some hard truths here.

First, networks are established over time. Good networks include people who tend fall into one of a few categories:

  • People you have worked with in the past and are familiar with your work
  • Other people in your field who know of your experience, skills, and interests
  • People who work for companies that have problems that you can solve

(Note that this is not an exhaustive list, but you get the point.)

When you are freelancer you are selling a brand and that brand is you. Think about it like buying a car. You are not going to buy a car that is a brand you have never heard of. Further, you are not going to buy a brand that has not made a car before just because they have an assortment of parts. People buy things they trust.

What this means is that it is really hard to be a successful freelancer — in data science or otherwise — if you have not already been working as a data scientist for some period of time. When clients hire freelancers they are trying to solve a problem. They want to know that the freelancer they are hiring knows how to solve it and has experience in doing so. This means that it is very difficult to be a successful data science freelancer as your first job out of school. Even graduate school. Real-world experience is highly valued by those who look to hire freelancers.

The good news is that the act of getting that so-called real-world experience is already a key step in developing your network (i.e. the group in the first bullet point above). Many freelancers I know have their previous employers as some of their first clients. This is also why it is really important to avoid burning bridges with those you have worked with in the past, because you never know could be your client in the future!

In my previous post I suggested things like conference attendance and speaking as ways to grow your network further. I still hold to that. However, it is also important to recognize that not everyone does well at conferences. There are some neurodivergent people who find conferences to be difficult. And that is OK! There are ways to build your network beyond conferences, especially including things like blogging here and elsewhere! What you are looking to do, whether at conferences or blogging, is to grow your brand and brand awareness. When people think of you as a data scientist, what types of things do you want them to think of? Maybe you are a whiz at forecasting. Blog about it! Maybe you really enjoy writing code to solve a certain type of problem. Create a YouTube video about it!

Increasing your brand awareness (and network) through a good portfolio

The important thing here is about creating that brand awareness of the brand that is you. This, of course, means that people need to be able to find your brand and learn about it. Particularly if your network is not large, this means that people need to be able to see your work. Here is where creating a really awesome portfolio can help. Getting your portfolio in front of people in the last category above can help you grow your network and land jobs.

There is a ton of content out there about how to create a good data science portfolio. I will just summarize some key points here.

First, your portfolio should use an interesting data set. Do not use any data set from educational forums such as the Titanic data set, MNIST, cat versus dog via imagery, etc. Kaggle, while a great learning tool, does not always reflect the real work. You want the data to be as realistic as possible. It should be noisy and messy because this is how real-world data is. It should answer an interesting question (bonus points if it is an interesting question that could make a company money or solve a big problem). And it should also be data on a subject you are interested in and knowledgeable about so you can personally identify if the answers make sense and talk people through it like a subject matter expert.

Second, you need to tell a complete story for each project in your portfolio. Do not just put up a bunch of code with no explanation for how to use it. Do not provide results from some model without an explanation of what is going on with the model and the data and what conclusions should be drawn. A good portfolio project is as much about the explanations of your work as it is about the code. Your explanations should be extensive. You need to demonstrate that you not only know how to code, but know how to walk the reader through the full start-to-finish story of problem to solution.

Your portfolio projects, when possible, should be interactive. You want people to be able to see that the code runs. I personally am a big fan of setting up an inexpensive virtual machine somewhere and running Streamlit dashboards for interactivity.

Because your portfolio is about brand awareness, think about what your brand is. For example, if you are wanting to advertise yourself as being really good with recommendation engines, don’t waste time demonstrating solutions in image analysis. You are going to be showing your future clients the types of problems you can solve for them. The more obvious you make that, the better.

Finally, whenever you make an update to your portfolio, you need to get the word out there. Make a blog post or YouTube video to go with it. Make the code publicly available on GitHub or GitLab. Post on LinkedIn links to the portfolio and point out the new content. Post another link once the blog post is published.

Image created by author with DALL-E

I love being a specialist. Many people do. I have some pretty deep knowledge in some pretty specific domains. However, being a freelancer is about solving a problem. Frequently (and especially with startups that don’t have many employees) you will be expected to know how to do more than create the small, superb solution to the problem. You will need to know how to solve the problem from beginning to end. This means that you will need to work beyond that small, niche skill.

For me, this has meant that I have been learning (an ongoing process) many skills that go beyond my favorite areas of graphs, NLP, LLMs, etc. I have had to learn a fair bit more about data engineering, MLOps/LLMOps, and cloud architecture. I am paying to take classes and go to conferences on these subjects (see above…my management approved it 😉 ). These are investments in me, which means they are investments in my business. The more I can offer clients, the more clients whose problems I can solve. It is important as a freelancer that you be able to offer as much as possible!

Image created by author with DALL-E

Early on in my freelancing I was thinking about who my dream client is. Those who know me know that work culture really matters to me. The places I have seen with the work culture that most closely resembles my values tend to be startups. I also know the types of data science problems I like to work on (graphs, natural languages processing, generative AI, geospatial). So I initially figured that I would look just for startups with those types of problems.

I was then exposed to a great book called “The Freelancer’s Bible: Everything You Need to Know to Have the Career of Your Dreams―On Your Terms” by Sara Horowitz. This opened my eyes to a different way of looking at clients with an eye towards creating a diverse pool of current and prospective clients.

If you get into this book, you will learn that the best financial stability while freelancing comes from having a variety of types of clients ranging from major clients who are steady and consistent to those who might be profitable after some work with them to those who might be long shots. It is worth noting in my case that startups, by the very fact that they are startups and especially true of early-stage startups, might not necessarily be considered “steady and consistent.” If you rely only on them then you need to be prepared for your work to be cancelled or your hours cut due to fluctuations in the cash flow and budget. And it is a bad idea to compensate for that by taking on a lot of startups (see below on taking on too much work). This also means that you need to have a good financial cushion such that if hours dry up a bit for a period of time you can still pay your bills.

In practice, it is better to have an even mix of clients from companies that have been around for some time to startups and those in between. This will make your freelancing business more resilient to when contracts end or clients have to cut back your hours. Remember the goal: steady, predictable income.

Photo by Junseong Lee on Unsplash

If you came here looking to talk about health insurance in the United States as freelancer, I would direct you to the “Mistakes I have made so far section below.” Don’t worry, I will cover that topic. But let’s hit a few other insurance topics first.

By far, one of the biggest changes in going solo has been the fact that I no longer have company-provided benefits. This has a few implications that you need to factor in as you are determining your finances for going solo. This section might be fairly US-centric since other countries offer different benefits. But it is definitely something to educate yourself on, regardless of where you live.

First, when you are working for a company it is unlikely that they are going to sue you if you do a bad job (with a few exceptions, of course). However, when you are working as a solopreneur that is not a guarantee. When I was just getting started, I didn’t really think about these things. I just figured that my clients and I would have a contract with a solid statement of work, good communication, and clear deliverables and that would take care of that. I have not been sued (and hope that I never am!), but it is naive to think that it couldn’t happen at some point in the future.

This is what professional liability insurance is for. It covers both businesses and individuals for claims that might arise out of allegations of mistakes, missed deliveries, or breach of contract. In fact, some larger organizations that you might contract with actually require that you carry it. So best to plan for this in advance. It is really easy to get online and reasonable plans cost less than $200/month.

Another insurance I had not initially considered was long-term disability insurance. Many people have disability insurance, both short- and long-term, as part of their corporate benefits package and don’t even think about it. In my specific case, I am the sole bread winner for my family for a big portion of the year (my spouse works a seasonal job). If something were to happen to me and I couldn’t work, this would be a devastating blow to my family, one we could not afford. Therefore, getting disability insurance is something you should really think about.

Generally speaking “long term” means beyond 3 months. If you sit down and price it out, you will find that the price of short-term and long-term is about the same. Therefore, we decided not to get short-term disability insurance since it is so expensive, which implies that we will make sure that we are financially able to cover 3 months of living without an income should something happen to me.

Another big benefit that corporate employers offer (at least in the United States) is that they contribute something to your retirement. Typically, this is in the form of a 401k matching contribution. As a freelancer, you can still contribute to your retirement, but you need to make the conscious decision to do so since you will no longer have an employer automatically deducting it from your paycheck. Here is where I strongly recommend you talk with a financial advisor on the best ways to save for retirement.

Image created by author with DALL-E

I have likely made the idea of working freelance sound a bit like rainbows, puppies, and unicorns. In a way, that is how I feel. But I also have made some pretty big mistakes. So please learn from me and my mistakes and go into your decision-making process with better information than I had!

Health insurance

At least in the United States this is the 800 pound gorilla in the room that keeps people tied to corporate work. There is no reasonably-priced way to get health insurance when you are working for yourself. Yes, there is the open market (AKA Obamacare), so at least that option exists (a brief moment of tribute to the freelancers who went out there before Obamacare).

As I previously said, my spouse works seasonally but is offered health insurance during the season. So it made sense that we would go on is health insurance when I left corporate. This left us trying to figure out what we would do when the season was over. We had the option of COBRA (the ability to keep your health insurance through your existing, corporate plan while paying the full monthly premiums) or to go on the open market. Because I was having surgery while he was still working, we decided to do COBRA since I would be reaching my maximum out-of-pocket (OOP) and we could then take advantage of not having to pay anything for the rest of the year.

This. Was. A. Mistake.

The problem was that we didn’t fully realize how much COBRA costs. We knew it was expensive, but we completely underestimated. For our family of 3, it came out to $3000/month. Yes, really. Yet I now know that I can get comparable packages on the open market for half that. It is still not cheap and it is tax deductible either way. If I sat down and really calculated out how much we were saving by reaching max OOP, it still would have been cheaper to go on the open market. A lesson we will not repeat next year.

Taking on too much work

I will admit that I frequently worry that I will not have enough billable hours. In the beginning of the freelancing journey, you worry that you will not make enough money, so you take on a ton of work to make sure you do. Later in the journey, you will have a contract come to and end (sometimes prematurely) or a client throttle back your hours.

My anxiety sometimes gets the better of me. In an effort to make sure that I never dip below what I made in my corporate work, I have a tendency to overcompensate and take on too many clients or too many hours. I am very fortunate to be in the situation where I can do so. Some have suggested taht I bring on additional employees into my company so I can accommodate this work load. However, this is a double-edged sword. The moment you take on additional employees you are responsible for getting them work. If I am constantly nervous one month to the next about whether I will meet my income requirements, adding additional employees to that mix is only going to make that feeling worse.

One final note on that anxiety has to do with your financial planning. In my original article I talked a fair bit about this. However, I would like to add that you can help alleviate some of that anxiety by having a good amount of savings before going into freelancing. That way, should work be light for a particular month you know that you are not going to be immediately in trouble. One bit of advice I was given was to be able to support yourself without any paying work at all for 6 months. This might sound rather extreme, but having set aside money for when the work is light is very, very important.

On the complexities of working with larger organizations

It is great to be able to work with client organizations of all sizes. As I have previous stated, I really enjoy working with smaller startups. However, like I said before, diversity of clients is also important. Thus, it is a good idea to have some larger companies that you are supporting.

This is not without its complexities though. The larger the organization, the larger the bureaucracy. What this means for the freelancer is that it takes much more time and is much harder to get them under contract. They frequently have requirements for things like proof of liability insurance (see above), registration as an entity in complicated systems, and even drug and background tests. Sometimes they expect that you will pay for those things out of pocket before they can work with you.

It is important to keep all of this in mind should you wish to work with them. Not only will your time assembling these things not be compensated (and, in fact, will cost you money since it is taking time away from other paying clients), but you might also have to spend money in the form of fees for drug and background tests, signing up for liability insurance, etc. It is up to you to decide if it is worth it. Again, I refer you to the points about diversity of clients.

Photo by Duy Pham on Unsplash

The importance of a support network when you go out on your own cannot be overstated. When you work in a corporate setting, you can always meet up (in person or virtually) with a coworker for a gripe session, to bounce ideas off of, or just for general socialization. As a freelancer, you do not have that as easily and it can get lonely.

I have been able to make my freelancing work so far due to the support of a group of people. First and foremost, without the support of my husband this would not have been possible. In fact, I think going solo without the support of your significant other if you have one is a supremely bad idea. There is nothing certain or guaranteed about freelancing and that can be challenging on a family.

Similarly, it is important to have people to bounce ideas off of who are not your clients. There are many groups of solopreneurs available online, such as The Corporate Escapees I referred to before, who are like-situated individuals. Many are not data scientists themselves, but they possess a wealth of information on the business side of things. I strongly recommend finding a group that you resonate with.

Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash

I am very fortunate that 9 months in things are going strong! In my original post I talked about feeling much more secure not being in the corporate world. That is even more true today. With all of the layoffs in the tech world, I hear from friends and former colleagues all the time about how hard of a time they are having at finding a new job. This is really, really sad and I truly feel for them.

I also stated in the original article that my definition of success is whether I can sustain this model long term. I have experienced having my hours throttled and clients coming and going, but each time it seems that things have worked out since I have other work that comes up to take its place. So that seems very positive to me.

My next steps, which I hope to report back on 6 months from now, involve creating diversity of income streams. Working on an hourly basis as a freelancer is nice, but now I am looking to create other types of work, whether through retainers or creation of sellable products, that will generate revenue beyond simply billing hours. Stay tuned!





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