Sultan Orazbayev
Verified Expert in Engineering
Data Scientist and Developer
Almaty, Almaty Region, Kazakhstan
Toptal member since May 10, 2022
Sultan is a data scientist with training in social sciences. He is experienced in describing key trends and patterns in data (structured/unstructured) and answering questions related to international economics, social networks, migration, and innovation. Sultan uses Python (especially Pandas, NumPy, and Dask) to deliver practical, real-world tools for government, finance, R&D, and education clients.
Portfolio
Experience
- STATA - 15 years
- Dask - 6 years
- Scikit-learn - 6 years
- Pandas - 6 years
- Data Science - 6 years
- Python - 6 years
- Machine Learning - 5 years
- NetworkX - 4 years
Availability
Preferred Environment
MacOS, Python, Conda, Linux, Jupyter, Jupyter Notebook
The most amazing...
...project I’ve worked on was record linkage and analysis of hundreds of millions of individuals that lived in the United States in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Work Experience
Freelancer
Self-employed
- Developed custom computational workflows with interactive visualization using Python and scientific computing libraries for clients in manufacturing and B2B sales.
- Optimized an existing Python-based computation to achieve 100x faster computation speed and allow the work to be distributed across multiple computers.
- Performed extensive data cleaning on a terabyte-scale unstructured dataset.
Postdoctoral Fellow (Center for International Development)
Harvard University
- Contributed to the ongoing academic research projects at the center, primarily in terms of data engineering and data analysis.
- Developed and taught advanced data processing techniques to peers and junior colleagues (workshops, guest lectures, and seminars).
- Developed custom Python-based workflows (Snakemake) for reproducible analysis and processing of large-scale dumps of unstructured information (images, text).
Economist
Private Endowment Fund
- Contributed to developing an analytical framework for asset allocation at a new private endowment fund.
- Produced weekly and monthly economic analyses for the investment committee.
- Analyzed financial and economic data to monitor macroeconomic trends in the domestic and international economy.
Teaching Fellow
University College London
- Taught a year-long introductory economics sequence (micro/macro) to a small class of pre-undergraduate students (25-30 students per year).
- Contributed to course management and administration, including student assessment.
- Supported the subsequent placement of students at leading undergraduate programs in Economics.
Economist
Applied Research Center
- Published applied economic research jointly with international collaborators (Ifo Institute, Germany).
- Produced weekly and monthly analytical notes on macroeconomics and finance for senior policymakers.
- Developed economic models for forecasting and nowcasting of the domestic economy.
Experience
Large-scale Record Linkage of Noisy Data
Custom Astronomical Observation Planning Tool
Classifying Sequences of Events
Education
PhD in Economics
University College London - London, UK
Master's Degree in Economics
London School of Economics and Political Science - London, UK
Bachelor's Degree in Economics
Simon Fraser University - Burnaby, BC, Canada
Certifications
NVIDIA DLI Certificate: Accelerating End-to-End Data Science Workflows
NVIDIA Deep Learning Institute
Skills
Libraries/APIs
Dask, Pandas, NumPy, SciPy, Scikit-learn, NetworkX, XGBoost, Joblib, Graph API, Matplotlib, HoloViews, Astropy
Tools
Snakemake, Jupyter, STATA, Microsoft Excel, Git, GitHub, Apache Airflow, Bloomberg, EViews, MATLAB, Prefect, GIS
Platforms
Jupyter Notebook, MacOS, Linux, Bloomberg Terminal, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Docker
Languages
Python, Bash, Python 3, SQL
Paradigms
ETL
Storage
Data Pipelines, JSON, Databases, Neo4j, SQLite
Other
Record Linkage, Economics, Data Visualization, Data Matching, Pattern Matching, Deduplication, Data, Large-scale Projects, Conda, Data Science, Machine Learning, Econometrics, Data Analysis, Data Analytics, Big Data, Data Engineering, Macroeconomic Forecasting, Microeconomics, Economic Analysis, Computational Economics, Jupiter, Networks, Statistical Analysis, Maps, Algorithms, Statistical Modeling, Applied Mathematics, Data Modeling, Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI), Regression Modeling, Large Language Models (LLMs), Statistics, Macroeconomics, Web Scraping, Natural Language Processing (NLP), Forecasting, GPU Computing, Graphs, DataFrames, Bokeh, GeoPandas, Tabulator, Astroplan, Snorkel, Generative Pre-trained Transformers (GPT)
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