Iván G. Pérez
AI Engineer and Data Scientist
Details
Online Presence
Skills
  • Backend Dev ⓘ
  • Machine Learning ⓘ
  • Data Platforms ⓘ
  • Cloud Devops ⓘ
  • Collaboration Process ⓘ
Languages
  • Spanish
  • English
  • Portuguese
Interests
  • Sports
  • Continuous learning & knowledge sharing
  • Open Source
  • Photography
  • Science Fiction
  • MTG
PROFILE

Data Scientist & AI Engineer with a broad software and systems background, focused on building production-oriented AI solutions that connect LLMs, APIs, and data platforms. I work primarily with Python and FastAPI to design backend services for retrieval, prompt orchestration, deterministic workflows, and real-time AI interactions. In recent roles at Nike, I developed services and prototypes integrating Databricks pipelines, LLM-driven personalization, conversational workflows, and observability-driven engineering practices. I enjoy translating ambiguous product ideas into reliable backend systems with evaluation, deployment, and operational quality in mind. My experience combines hands-on software engineering, enterprise delivery, and specialization in conversational AI, retrieval-augmented architectures, and tool-based workflows.

Employment History
  • AI Engineer
    WhatsApp Commerce Intelligent Agent ( - Present)
    • Built a multi-tenant FastAPI backend in Python that processes WhatsApp webhook events, resolves tenant context, and orchestrates conversational and commerce workflows.
    • Designed a bounded conversational pipeline using a finite-state approach, rules-first intent classification, and LLM fallback to improve latency, cost control, and behavioral predictability.
    • Implemented deterministic order-processing flows in PostgreSQL, including idempotent draft-order creation, structured data enrichment through WhatsApp Flows, and audited state transitions for payment and delivery.
    • Established production-oriented engineering practices including typed schemas, Alembic migrations, unit and integration tests, CI/CD, and Docker-based deployment workflows.
    • Added structured logging, metrics, traces, and append-only event logging to support observability, error diagnosis, and latency monitoring across tenants.
    • Contributed to a real-time conversational AI platform integrating Twilio telephony, streaming LLM sessions, Pinecone-based retrieval (RAG), and automation workflows through FastAPI and WebSocket services.
  • Applied AI Engineer
    Nike Valiant Labs & Athlete Innovation (via Launchpad.AI) (2024 - 2025)
    • Engineered Nike’s Cue Engine, a FastAPI service in Python orchestrating feature retrieval from Databricks and LLM prompt generation to produce personalized coaching cues at scale.
    • Built asynchronous Python prototypes integrating biometric data streams with LLM inference and text-to-speech for real-time coaching feedback.
    • Developed backend services and recommendation pipelines supporting personalized training suggestions using clustering and similarity-based retrieval.
    • Implemented PySpark/SQL pipelines on Databricks to support feature engineering and downstream service consumption.
    • Worked with FastAPI, Python, Databricks, PySpark, SQL, AWS ECS, and observability tooling in production-oriented AI systems.
  • Data Scientist
    Nike Global Marketing Sciences (via Launchpad.AI) (2022 - 2024)
    • Designed and productionized Nike’s universal holdout experimentation framework, automating daily Databricks pipelines that precalculated significance tests for millions of segment combinations powering real-time Tableau dashboards.
    • Built and optimized PySpark/SQL pipelines on Databricks, improving Delta Lake performance and reducing data retrieval time by 20x.
    • Analyzed 40M+ member interactions to identify promo engagement drivers and optimal communication frequency using PySpark, SQL, and XGBoost.
    • Developed time-series forecasting systems in Databricks and Python using Pandas and Statsmodels to predict next-fiscal-year engagement metrics.
    • Created consumer-focused KPIs and dashboards using PySpark, SparkSQL, Pandas, and Matplotlib to analyze engagement and fatigue across marketing channels.
  • ML Engineer
    Nike Sports Research Lab (via Launchpad.AI) (2022 - 2022)
    • Performed data wrangling, sanity checks, and exploratory analysis using SparkSQL, PySpark, and Seaborn in Databricks.
    • Built data-ingestion pipelines integrating geolocation, weather, and perception data through external APIs.
    • Developed predictive models with XGBoost on biomechanical, physiological, and perception datasets.
    • Worked with Python, PySpark, Databricks, external APIs, and applied machine learning workflows.
  • Machine Learning & NLP Fellow
    Launchpad.AI (2021 - 2021)
    • Explored task-oriented conversational-agent prototypes using seq2seq and Transformer models in PyTorch and TensorFlow.
    • Designed and curated datasets for NLP tasks in the fashion domain.
    • Led a 13-member Conversational AI team under Agile methodology.
    • Conducted research combining vision and language features with Detic, VinVL, and CLIP.
    • This experience followed formal AI/NLP upskilling during the pandemic and helped transition my profile toward applied AI engineering.
  • Content & Digital Marketing Manager / Customer Success Manager
    Bespoken.io (2017 - 2020)
    • Led digital marketing initiatives across website, analytics, paid campaigns, tracking, and content strategy, supporting growth and lead-generation goals.
    • Defined and implemented customer-success processes and tooling using Intercom, improving onboarding and ongoing client engagement.
    • Contributed to product shaping through pilot projects and MVP-style validation, building internal tooling and experiments with JavaScript/Node.js and Python.
    • Gained first practical exposure to NLP and conversational-interface concepts through the voice-app ecosystem around platforms such as Amazon Alexa and Siri.
    • Worked with Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Mailchimp, Intercom, JavaScript/Node.js, and Python in a SaaS environment focused on automated testing for voice applications.
  • IT PMO Leader
    Telefónica (2014 - 2016)
    • Led PMO services for Telefónica del Perú, defining processes, service organization, and delivery standards for IT project and program management.
    • Improved the IT project lifecycle through governance, quality controls, reporting, and process simplification.
    • Customized HP PPM to support project-management workflows and portfolio visibility.
    • Prepared executive reporting for C-level stakeholders and trained project managers in MS Project, PMI, and COBIT good practices.
    • Contributed to early assessments on how to evolve from traditional software delivery toward SAFe agile practices.
  • Manager / IT Management Consulting
    KPMG (2006 - 2012)
    • Delivered more than 20 consulting and transformation projects on time and within budget, contributing approximately EUR 3M in revenue.
    • Led PMO initiatives, including support for the LATAM division of a major Spain-based energy company and the testing phase of KPMG Spain’s SAP rollout.
    • Advised private- and public-sector clients on IT strategy, business alignment, digitalization, outsourcing, and organizational design.
    • Performed IT governance assessments and implementation work using SAP-related enterprise contexts and frameworks such as ITIL, CMMI, COBIT, SCM, and ITGC.
    • Managed client and provider relationships while coordinating multidisciplinary teams across complex enterprise environments.
  • Software Engineer / Senior Consultant
    Accenture (2001 - 2006)
    • Designed and delivered large-scale enterprise software systems, including a people-directory portal with more than 120k users, multilingual content-management platforms for 75+ countries, and complex aeronautical systems.
    • Worked across the software-engineering lifecycle, including requirements gathering, functional analysis, technical design, data modeling, testing, and implementation planning.
    • Contributed hands-on to enterprise application development and systems delivery in full-stack environments using ASP.NET, MS SQL Server, Oracle, and PowerBuilder.
    • Served as the link between clients and technical teams, supporting stakeholder alignment, user training, and delivery coordination across international projects.
    • Promoted software quality and lifecycle discipline aligned with CMMI practices.
  • IVR / Voice Systems Engineer
    IntervoiceBrite (2001 - 2001)
    • Worked on IVR and voice-recognition systems, including definition, configuration, support, and updates for enterprise clients.
    • Supported customer implementations for Telefónica, Citibank, and Nextel.
    • Gained early hands-on experience with telephony and voice-based systems, later relevant to conversational AI and voice-agent contexts.
  • Software Engineer / Project Lead
    Zeta Gas (1999 - 2000)
    • Led the end-to-end design and implementation of an information system to manage LPG customers, sales, and distribution in Lima.
    • Built a solution that included demand-forecasting logic and route-planning algorithms for delivery optimization.
    • Worked with Visual Basic and MS SQL Server across analysis, development, testing, and deployment.
    • This project became my engineering thesis and received the highest academic qualification.

Please see other relevant work experiences in my LinkedIn profile.
Education
  • Computer Science Engineer (Top 25% — completed thesis to earn Engineer title)
    Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (PUCP)
  • Artificial Intelligence & NLP Coursework
    Columbia University (AI Program, 2020) | Stanford University (NLP with Deep Learning, 2021)

Please see the courses and certifications I have taken in my LinkedIn profile.
Publications