Meet the team!

A great team, an interesting problem and a practical solution. In short, that's what I love to work with. In a good team everyone feels welcome, valued and is enabled to add something unique to the project. Collaboration is how you get to answers you otherwise never would have thought of. By interacting, it’s often easier to get to the root of the problem and find creative solutions.

For me Data Science is a tool, not a goal on its own. What is often crucial, is to understand the reasoning behind a request. What is the underlying issue? What is the kink in the process this project is meant to solve? Usually there are many possible Data Science opportunities, many interesting avenues to take, but the actual needs are generally very simple. It’s most important to get to something that would actually work. In the end, what really motivates me is that we add something that is practical, does what it needs to do, and people will really use.

What makes BDR special, is the genuine interest everyone has in their field, their work and each other. You can have the most fascinating in-debt conversations on the newest techniques, but you can also always count on someone helping you out if you can’t figure it out yourself. This atmosphere of teamwork and positivity is what is so prominent for BDR and what never fails to bleed into any assignment I’ve been given.

As BigData Republic’s marketeer it’s my job to showcase the expertise of our consultants. Their knowledge is our most important asset. I sincerely think it has the potential to change the world, or at least the way we do business. It’s very exciting to be part of a company that has so much promise.

I wanted to become a marketeer because it’s a job with a lot of creativity. It’s (almost) never boring, which I really enjoy. Moreover, it’s a job that allows me to learn many different skills, ranging from technical understanding (HTML, CSS and APIs) to analyzing data, writing the right text or configuring various tools.

What I like about BigData Republic is the challenging environment. We’re a team that always wants to improve. It means that you need a good reason for almost everything you do. If you can’t explain why you’re making a certain choice, chances are that it’s not going to fly. It keeps me on my toes. At the same time, there’s a spirit of always wanting to help and support each other. To me, that combination creates a great company culture.

An important part of always wanting to improve is being open to feedback. Meaning, that if there’s anything I can do better in terms of our website, social media, or anything else I’d really like to hear it. Please email me (annieke.hoekman@bigdatarepublic.nl) or reach out on LinkedIn if there’s something you’d like to share!

The constant developing field of data science is where I thrive. As data maturity differs for each company, I see endless opportunities to create valuable data solutions. To make a lasting impact, I focus on the bigger picture. Are we improving an existing process, solving an actual problem, or just using fancy techniques?

In my day-to-day work, the technical and social combination is what excites me. I love working with people on challenging problems, because creating a solution together is always more fun.

After finishing the Vantage program, I had the opportunity to start working with the great minds of BigData Republic. This is the perfect place to keep learning and discuss interesting new subjects with like-minded people.

Feel free to reach out to me or take a look at my whitepaper “From Big Data to Big Value”!

I’m a seasoned, versatile machine learning engineer. My passion is developing useful and intuitive products that impact the lives of people. I use my analytical mindset and my curious drive to develop solutions that are simple, reliable and user-friendly. I love learning about challenging domains, building models to abstract their complexity and have a shared language between all involved stakeholders. I derive a tremendous sense of joy from the small moments of success of a working code. I believe code is like poetry where its power comes from compression and elegance, meticulously crafting a piece that’s efficient and well-organized.

I regard machine learning as an extension of software. It can benefit from all best practices of software engineering such as CI/CD and automation. I’m both driven and self-motivated, and I’m constantly experimenting with new technologies and techniques. Having an intellectual spirit, I like to read and learn about the world in my free time. I strive to better myself as an engineer and as a human. I’m very excited to work at Bigdata Republic and have the chance to fuse my background in software engineering with expertise in machine learning and data analytics.

I’m a software engineer by training with 15 years of experience in the software industry. I have been specializing in data science and engineering for the last 10 years. I built a variety of data products and machine learning platforms. I'm a craftsman with a passion for delivering value through high-quality software, aligning stakeholders, coaching team members, and foster a strong engineering culture.

I’m a polyglot, always interested in figuring out the best tool for the job given the context. These days I mainly work with JVM languages and Python, but if needed I’ll dive into Go or Rust as well. Designing data systems means working with a wide variety of technologies: real-time message busses, distributed compute clusters, search technology, and process isolation. I constantly challenge myself to think about how those pieces fit together in a coherent system, which meets the needs of the business.

What I love about my job is the combination of technical challenges and the complex contexts in which solutions need to be implemented. Solutions can look straightforward from a technological perspective. However, economical, social, or organizational challenges often require a lot of creativity to find solutions fit for purpose.

I’m always in for a chat about engineering challenges in your organization, feel free to reach out.

After a masters in AI robotics, I was confronted with an AI job market focusing on either research or automated killing machines in the army. Neither appealed to me, so I decided to nerd up and follow the IT consultancy path.

After many projects I find myself finally being able to combine my enthusiasm for IT development with the joy I get from seeing self learning systems deal with the real world.

The currently maturing ML market allows me to apply the lessons learnt from building scalable, robust systems to new technologies like machine learning models and big data. For me, BigData Republic is a perfect pool of experts to really nerd up and face the challenge of putting the newest technology to good use for our customers.

If you have a challenge that allows new technology to shine and are willing to fail fast and learn faster, contact our sales team.

From an early age I discovered the wonderful world of computers. From programming Snake on my TI-83 calculator during math class, to studying Computer Science in Delft, and now working as a Data Engineer for BigData Republic.

After having worked some years as a Software Engineer, mainly focusing on backend development, my interests started to shift towards the world of data. In personal projects, I applied Machine Learning and Computer Vision to create game agents. I also learned more about Big Data, and technologies that enable data processing on a large scale. These interests led me to my current position as a Data Engineer at BDR.

I always try to position myself in a place where I can learn a lot, and BDR is a great place for that. I learn so much from my talented colleagues, during knowledge sessions, and working on projects together. I am interested in projects related to sustainability and the energy and climate transition, which I am currently bringing to practice at Eneco.

When not working, I like to stay active and go running, (kite) surfing and do calisthenics. I am interested in philosophy, and play the piano. Oh, and I love programming puzzles… Can’t wait for next year’s Advent of Code!

My name is Daphne Hensbergen and I’m an office manager at BigData Republic. For me BigData Republic feels like a family and I’m proud to be a part of the team. What I like about my job is the interaction between me and my colleagues.

They’re working very hard to satisfy our customers, so I want to support them as much as I can. For example by arranging their equipment but also by listening to them when they need some feedback. Sometimes they visit an international conference. As I used to work in the tourism industry for many years, one of my favorite things is making their travel arrangements and organizing events.

What I do appreciate about BigData Republic is the warm atmosphere and openness. It’s a company that pays a lot of attention to every single employee. A good example are the handwritten postcards I’m sending on birthdays. Not only to our colleagues but also to their partners as they are a part of our success as well. To me it feels great to be able to work in an environment like this, and make the difference by giving everybody just that extra bit of attention.

Data is changing and improving companies and processes rapidly. Data engineering, artificial intelligence and business intelligence are crucial for a company to work effectively and stay in front of their competitors. I like to work in this interesting field and help companies to get the most out of their data. Data has endless possibilities, and every business problem has different challenges.

In the past, I delivered value to companies by building a variety of data products. With a background in mathematics and working experience in machine learning, dashboarding, data engineering and operations research, I can determine the best way possible to solve a problem. I’ve been working in different fields, like finance, advertising, and retail. Besides data scientist, I have been a mathematics teacher for four years. This helps me explaining complex subjects to stakeholders effectively.

Words that describe me are curious, thoughtful, analytical, and creative. In many cases, a business request has underlying aspects, and I want to discover the true question that’s hidden behind it to maximize the value I can deliver.

For me, BigData Republic is a great place to work. It is a network of data experts with a large knowledge base and I can develop myself quickly. Besides this, I can work on difficult projects at interesting clients.

Are you curious to discover data opportunities for your company? Don’t hesitate to contact me!

In my role as commercial manager at BigData Republic, I continuously strive to keep the satisfaction of all parties involved as high as possible. Maintaining a continuous dialogue with our clients about their challenges and ambitions is my top priority. Combining that with accompanying conversations with our consultants about their personal development, plans and the opportunities they see in the market is what makes my job exciting.

I believe in commerce from the heart. Personal, transparent contact with the aim of creating a triangle that benefits everyone involved, including society and our world.

After my first acquaintance with BDR it became clear that we share a lot of our core values. In the meantime, it has only become clearer that our ambition, company vision and outlook on life are a perfect match.

In all my colleagues I find a wonderful combination of knowledge, passion and creativity where there is room for diversity in personalities. This, combined with a great customer portfolio, a wide spectrum of assignments and enough room for solid growth and development, is exactly the environment where I feel completely at home!

I rolled into data engineering from a Physics background. I like to find out how everything works, but nature is very tricky. Software engineering can be interesting in the same way, but because it works according to our rules, we can create much more complicated structures with very little effort. But this complexity soon became a problem as well.

How to then engineer in a way that makes sense and is relatively easy to understand? As a consultant, I am not going to work on a project very long. Luckily there are a lot of tools around nowadays that make data engineering more understandable, whether for machine learning pipelines or infrastructure as code.

At Bigdata Republic I have met a lot of like minded people with whom we can exchange ideas to figure not just the best solution, but one that will keep you going forward long after we are gone!

Like many of us, I am truly blown away by the recent achievements of machine learning. It’s almost magical how technologies that were once considered science fiction, have now become reality due to open source computer algorithms.

Despite the beauty of these innovations, implementing them comes with challenges. A well developed model is actually just one piece of the puzzle. Among others, business goals, team members and processes have to be aligned in order to create a successful data solution. It's this challenge that drives me to complete the puzzle.

I joined BigData Republic through the Vantage AI program, so immediately I felt right at home. This network of data specialists really challenges me to push my boundaries and helps me to broaden my perspective.

Feel free to reach out!

I found my interest in Data Science through Physics and Operations Research. I’m convinced there is always room for improvement and that is what I like about the field. The use of ingenuity and mathematics to solve real-life problems in companies. Because the role of data in day-to-day business keeps growing, it becomes more and more important to know how to best use it and avoid pitfalls. I enjoy diving into the needs of our clients and their people. In this way I ensure my work has the most impact.

At BigData Republic I have found a tight-knit company full of like-minded individuals, who are highly skilled at what they do. There is a large emphasis on knowledge sharing, encouraging us to stay at the top of our field. Consulting allows me to apply my knowledge to unique problems in organizations, continuously learning in the process.

Please feel free to contact me if you want to know more.

As a person I tend to keep pushing my boundaries and explore the unknown. At BigData Republic I get plenty of that opportunity. For example, I use my background in econometrics to delve even further into the technical details of algorithms, discuss the subject matter with colleagues and consider different approaches for implementation.

In addition, I like to develop in a strategic area by giving webinars, talks or training courses. Finally, the atmosphere at work is also extremely important to me and with the ambitious and diverse club we have I feel definitely in the right place.

After my masters in Applied mathematics I was a bit puzzled by what direction to take my career in. I wanted to keep working with models and statistics, but not be glued to a computer without talking to people. A friend of mine recommended a career as Data Scientist; this turned out to be a great fit. Data Science was the perfect way to keep the analytical problem solving part of my brain in shape, while working on solutions that have value in the real world. Along the way I discovered that it’s very satisfying to get a machine learning application to function from end-to-end. This is why I started to further develop my Data Engineering and cloud development skills. I’m very happy to be able to apply both the science and engineering part in my role as Machine Learning Engineer at BigData Republic.

In my experience the people you work with are just as important as the actual work that you do. Fortunately I felt very much at home at BigData Republic right from the beginning. It’s a group of smart people that are specialized in data and want to stay up to date with the latest techs. Besides being very tech savvy, we are very outgoing and always up for a board game or beer or two; the perfect combination.

With a lot of passion I am leading BigData Republic and our incredible team of talented, critical and conscious individuals. I am proud of our company culture and atmosphere, which I would define more as a friendship than as a business relationship. I also greatly appreciate our particular mix of technical expertise and soft skills. This combination is what drew me to BigData Republic in the first place, and it keeps defining our company throughout the years.

Coming from a technical background myself, I have worked on hands-on data science and big data projects for many years. My biggest fascination lies with problems that can not be solved by standard technologies and principles. These problems require the sophisticated techniques that have been developed in the fields of parallel processing, machine learning and scalable infrastructure over the past decades. It is great to have talented people around me that share this passion for technology and to keep on learning and growing together.

In the end, it always comes down to human beings obtaining value from technology. This value lies not only in the future, when solutions are brought into production and organizations reap the benefits. It also lies in the here and now where people have fun in creating these solutions and feel satisfied about contributing to the world. This is what I always aim to facilitate in my role as managing partner. My days are busier than they have ever been, but looking at my team, it is worth every second.

For me, data science represents the best of the things I like to do at work: solving challenging and interesting problems, having an impact in the world and working with smart and capable people. After doing a PhD and working for a few years, I discovered this exciting upcoming field. I decided to go for it and I never looked back.

Having gained experience in several different companies and industries, I ended up here at BigData Republic. The atmosphere of sharing and getting better together is what convinced me to join, and I have no regrets.

In my work for clients I try to bring the combined experience of myself and all my colleagues, to deliver the best possible value. The goal is to deliver work that is of good quality and solves the business needs. More importantly, the results need to be sustainable for the client’s organisation. This means working closely with the people there, and making communication with stakeholders a priority. In the end, I consider myself successful if I have made myself unnecessary to the client.

I am always open to talk about machine learning and related topics, please feel free to reach out on Linkedin.

As a data scientist I like to be challenged and use my creativity in finding solutions. After graduating from medical school, a career in data science wasn't the first choice. However, after finishing my PhD I took the leap and I'm really passionate about improving healthcare via this direction or work on projects with societal impact.

The background of the people working at BDR is really diverse, but we find common ground in our curiousity and desire to learn new things. For me, this environment is the best part of BDR; a nice group of people, diverse and cool projects, a constant steep learning curve and more than enough social activities including my personal favorite - the yearly ski trip.

I am a data scientist, driven by passion, and delighted by the great culture at BigData Republic.

Combining my Engineering curiosity and my data-driven mindset, I enjoy helping companies solve their challenges, and I'm all for embracing innovation along the way. I believe in doing good with data, and I'm a big fan of improvements. Feel free to reach out and let's team up to investigate some data-flows!

I enjoy working with and thinking about data problems. This combined with my background in Software Engineering led me to discover Data Engineering. With the amount of data generated and stored increasing every year I believe this field will only become more relevant as time goes on.

My ambition to work on more big data related problems led me, naturally, to BigData Republic. Here I have the opportunity to learn from experienced colleagues and work with well-established and generally sizable companies.

Besides Software Engineering I also have a background in Artificial Intelligence which has been a big topic in recent years as well. Before joining BigData Republic I worked at a small Machine Learning startup. Here I was able to work on almost all aspects that go into making a Machine Learning platform from scratch. This was a very valuable experience through which I discovered my interest in Data Engineering and improved my engineering skills considerably.

In the future I aim to not only expand my Data Engineering skills but also transition to more ML Ops oriented roles.
I see ML Ops as the overarching profession incorporating Data Engineering, ML Engineering and DevOps which appeals to me very much. At BigData Republic I will have ample opportunities to develop into this direction which is, of course, an exciting prospect.

Since young age I took nothing for granted and started questioning everything surrounding me. Nature is so fascinating! The more I looked around me, the more I wanted to know how everything works. My interest in human-made systems grew during my PhD, and it has resulted in my engineering career.

My Physics background gives me the ability to look at problems from a systemic perspective, with data revealing the interactions between its parts. I combine in-depth critical thinking with system thinking to come up with my own problem-solving approach for any kind of situation. I love making an impact in every organization by tackling modern scalability and cross-platform challenges for data transport and availability.

I’m a passionately curious person continuously seeking for new things to learn. I like to be challenged to expand the limits of my expertise, for which BigData Republic is the perfect place to be. My greatest satisfaction is to put my skills and competencies at the service of the client. I am a creative person and a proud father, enrolling in new tasks with full commitment and a strong sense of responsibility.

I strive for a deep understanding of the problem to let the team deliver a robust long-term solution. Don’t hesitate to get in touch, I never say no to a chat.

For me the beauty of data is that it helps solving practical problems. Societal problems as well as business problems. As a data scientist I treat these problems as a puzzle. Finding the right analytical solution is obviously an important piece of that puzzle. I believe it takes more to embed an analytical solution successfully in an organisation. Taking time to understand what business owners and end users really need. Investing in a smooth collaboration with data engineers to turn the solutions of my team into true data products. It is this combination of technical problem solving and working with people that motivates me. It is also why BigData Republic is such a great environment to work in. Contact me if you need our help in solving your puzzle.

I'm a recruiter because I enjoy helping people with the next step in their career. It’s why I love my job!

As a recruiter, I believe that it’s important to understand the candidate’s goals. With my curiosity and sincere interest in candidates I’m able to determine if our job openings are a good fit for them. If not, I’ll give them advice for the future. My background in hospitality helps to create a positive atmosphere where everyone feels comfortable.

I like working at BigData Republic because of the atmosphere and the team. Everyone appreciates each other. I also like the flat hierarchy and the freedom in my work. It helps me achieve results quicker. Most importantly I learn from others and I like the freedom in my work.

When I’m not working I like spending time with my daughters. I’m married and I live in Culemborg. I love to play tennis and because of my personal interest in data science and programming, I recently finished my first course ever in Python. And I read about data science.

I’m always open to share knowledge or have a conversation about data science, recruitment or tennis.

Isn't it exciting to solve a problem by investigating the relevant data on a computer? Can computers help us and learn something from the data?

The whole spectrum of understanding the problem in its purest & simplest form, gathering relevant data, and using mathematics and logic to make an impact, is a fantastic journey. The mix of creativity in tools & methods, people & techniques, never stops to surprise me!