Alessandro Pirrotta

Copenhagen, Denmark · alessandro@pirrotta.xyz

As Squad Lead, AI Platform Engineer at PFA, I drive the development and maintenance of a cutting-edge AI Platform, combining scientific rigor from my PhD in Computational Chemistry with deep technical expertise in cloud and infrastructure engineering. My work spans both on-premises and Azure Cloud environments, ensuring high performance, scalability, and reliability. I thrive in Agile environments, with responsibilities spanning backlog management, stakeholder collaboration, and strategic deployment of data science technologies.

Experience

Squad Lead, AI Platform

PFA Pension - Copenhagen, Denmark

Leading a team of AI Platform Engineers, acting as Scrum Master and Product Owner: backlog refinement, prioritization, and agile ceremonies. Leading development and operations of the PFA AI Platform (RHEL, incident handling, Posit Team) and establishing a new AI Platform in Azure using AKS, IaC, Bicep, and ArgoCD. Mentoring and coaching engineers while supporting Developer Experience for the AI Platform users.

December 2021 - Present

AI Platform Engineer

PFA Pension - Copenhagen, Denmark

Developing Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment pipelines for the PFA AI Platform, a platform for data scientists and machine learning engineers, and building tools to help data scientists in their daily tasks.

February 2020 - December 2021 (1 year and 11 months)

Senior Consultant

Capgemini Danmark - Copenhagen, Denmark

Working as a data scientist and data engineer on Google Cloud Platform: building data pipelines using Cloud Functions, Pub/Sub, and BigQuery, and developing deep learning models with TensorFlow/Keras for time series analysis.

September 2019 - January 2020 (5 months)

Data Scientist

DFDS - Copenhagen, Denmark

Applied machine learning and data mining to optimize business operations, spanning both front- and back-end development: front-end in Flask, Blueprints, HTML/CSS, MVC, and Bootstrap; ML modelling and optimization in back-end API frameworks; and dockerized REST APIs on Kubernetes/AWS with SQL job scheduling, backups, and ETL in Alteryx.

January 2018 - August 2019 (1 year and 8 months)

Education

University of Copenhagen

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Subject: Computational Chemistry
Thesis: Modulating Pathways for Electron and Energy Transfer Through Molecules.
PhD student under the supervision of Assoc Prof Gemma C. Solomon. Full end-to-end ownership of several scientific projects, analyzing large-scale data and computational simulations on a shared Linux compute cluster, with visiting research stays at the University of Warwick and University of Rochester.
2013 - 2017

University of Copenhagen

Master of Science (M.Sc)
Subject: Chemistry
Thesis: Simulated Force-Conductance Spectroscopy of Bimolecular Hydrogen-Bonded Complexes.
Cum. GPA: 11.2/12
2012 - 2015

University of Glasgow

Bachelor of Science (B.Sc)
Subject: Chemistry
Thesis: Cu-catalysed enantioselective amination/oxidation of allylic and benzylic C-H bonds.
First-Class Honours
2010 - 2012

Skills

Programming Languages & Tools
  • Python • R • Bicep • Bash • LaTeX
  • SQL • JavaScript • PowerShell
Cloud Services - Azure
  • Azure Functions • AI Services
  • AKS • Bicep • Key Vault
Certifications
Languages
  • Italian - Mother tongue
  • English - Fluent
  • Danish - Fluent
Principles
  • Literate programming
  • Test driven development
  • Agile Development

Interests

I like to code and tinker also in my free time. I have previously developed small applications for smartwatches in C and JavaScript.

Apart from coding, I enjoy cooking and transforming raw ingredients into delicious meals to be enjoyed with good company.

I also enjoy reading, watching sci-fi movies and series, but most of all I enjoy spending time with my daughters and my wife. I spend a lot of my free time reading about the latest advancement in electronics, IT, and technology.

Awards & Certifications

  • Best Poster Presentation Award - Bachelor Project - School of Chemistry - University of Glasgow - May 2012
  • Lang Scholarship for the Best Student in Chemistry - University of Glasgow - School of Chemistry - June 2011
  • Award for Excellence issued by Italian Ministry of Education - August 2008
  • International Chemistry Olympiads - Palermo and Sicily selection - May 2008