David Van Rooij Email & Phone Number

Vancouver, Bc, Ca

Signal simplifies the $15 billion US used vehicle import market, an industry long dependent on manual processes. Our advanced operating system enables dealers to buy, finance, process and sell vehicles more efficiently than ever before. Signal created its end-to-end platform after living the business – having imported tens of thousands of vehicles from Canada to the US, and now providing solutions such as flexible financing, payments and cross-border insurance.With Signal, Canadian dealers can easily export vehicles to the U.S., free up capital, add a profitable remarketing channel and turn inventory faster. Registered Importers use the platform to track vehicles, efficiently comply with regulations and simplify their admin. U.S. Dealers benefit from a steady supply of in-demand, late-model, low-mileage vehicles.- Lead the strategic data science vision across the company, initiating projects and being responsible for the outcome of data science initiatives, ensuring alignment with the company’s vision.- Ownership of the backlog and data product roadmap- Roughly 50% of my time is allocated to Data Scientist specific responsibilities

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

As a member of the Signal Technologies Data Science team, I utilized my expertise to drive impactful business outcomes:⁃ Architected and implemented an array of end-to-end machine learning models, live in production. Leveraging a stack including but not limited to LightGBM, Scikit-learn, BigQuery, Kubernetes, Kubeflow, and Django, streamlining our operations and increasing efficiency.- Took on the additional responsibility of product management of the data and ML-related initiatives, driving the long-term ML strategy, and taking ownership of the roadmap and backlog. Working closely with the other engineers, product, and business to build the best possible data products. - Identified the need for wholesale values in the space, subsequently found a data provider with the right data, build the prototype, and ultimately deployed it to production. These models underpin our vehicle financing products and are embedded in our customer-facing tools. ⁃ Devised predictive pricing models for vehicles, strategically balancing wholesale acquisitions and retail sales, resulting in a notable enhancement in profitability margins and vehicle allocation⁃ Constructed a demand forecasting model that optimized inventory management underpinning ML-driven ranking algorithms that amplified vehicle visibility on our platform, increasing the sell-through rate by at least 15%.⁃ Advocated for a data-centric organizational culture, adeptly bridging the gap between complex technical insights and non-technical stakeholders, thereby fostering informed company-wide decision-making.Honored to be part of the extraordinary team at Signal Technologies, harnessing the transformative potential of data science to effect significant business advancements.

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

At BranchUp, I stepped into a pivotal role within the engineering team, utilizing a technical stack that included Django, Django REST framework (DRF), Vue.js, and AWS:⁃ Played an instrumental role in the development and deployment of automated marketing strategies that harnessed different channels like Facebook and Email. This helped our travel advisors reach millions of customers globally.⁃ Spearheaded several initiatives aimed at migrating away from legacy systems, contributing to a significant modernization of our technological infrastructure.⁃ Lead the re-architecting of our platform, ensuring a seamless integration of modern technologies and enhancing overall performance and user experience.My time at BranchUp encapsulates a blend of leadership, technical expertise, and strategic innovation, leading to significant enhancements in both platform performance and reach.

London, United Kingdom

During my time at Judopay, a London-based FinTech firm, I amplified my technical skill set and gained a deep understanding of the finance sector:⁃ Conducted extensive research for my Master's thesis, delving into fraudulent card transaction data, using distributed machine learning methodologies and tools such as PySpark, PyTorch, and XGBoost.⁃ To further enhance the model's performance, I hand-crafted a cost-sensitive loss function that fine-tuned the trade-off between true positives and false positives, and the imbalanced cost associated with different erros, significantly boosting the model's precision in fraud detection.⁃ This project led to a remarkable estimated reduction of 93% in fraud-related costs, showcasing the tangible value of applying data-driven insights in real-world contexts.⁃ The experience granted me a deeper understanding of state-of-the-art machine learning techniques and an invaluable expertise in building infrastructure for distributed learning.⁃ It also provided comprehensive exposure to the FinTech sector, acquainting me with the industry-specific challenges and opportunities.My tenure at Judopay was a period of significant technical and professional growth, helping me refine my skills and apply them to deliver significant reductions in financial fraud.

In my role as a Freelance Software Engineer, I enjoyed the dynamic and diverse opportunities that came my way:⁃ Over a span of nearly six years, I had the privilege of working on a broad array of web development projects across various industries. This allowed me to continuously broaden my technical expertise and gain hands-on experience with a wide range of challenges and solutions.⁃ My projects ranged from simple WordPress websites in the early days to scalable web-based software solutions in sectors such as event planning, real estate management, and short-stay hosting services.⁃ As an independent contractor, I honed my skills in project management, client communication, and problem-solving while also expanding my knowledge of different business domains.⁃ This experience reinforced my entrepreneurial spirit and instilled in me a deep appreciation for the power of technology to address diverse business needs and contribute to growth and success.Working as a Freelance Software Engineer was a period of considerable growth and learning, enhancing both my technical skills and my understanding of the practical applications of software development in various business contexts. This was the launchpad for my career as Software Engineer and eventually Data Scientist.

Master Of Science (Msc), Data Science, Distinction, Gpa 4.0

An MSc program in Business Analytics (with specialization in Computer Science) focusing on the application of data science to business.

Bachelor Of Science (With Honours), Computer Science

Activities and Societies: Honours Award, Education committeeBSc in Computer and Information Sciences. Core modules: Governance, Business.

Exchange Programme, Computer And Information Sciences

Exchange program with the University of Melbourne.