LLM Engineer & Data Scientist

Building end-to-end
AI solutions

Classical ML, deep learning, and LLMs—RAG, fine-tuning, and production systems from data pipelines to deployment

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About Me

I'm an LLM engineer and data scientist based in New York, with experience in large language models, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), fine-tuning, and production ML systems. I build and deploy AI-powered applications using Python, FastAPI, Docker, and cloud platforms. My ML background spans classical methods and modern deep learning—supervised and unsupervised models, time series and forecasting, NLP, and recommendation-style problems—alongside enterprise-scale data systems.

I've shipped models end-to-end in domains like fraud and transaction analytics (classification, anomaly scoring, behavioral signals), automated data pipelines with Python, SQL, and Spark, and I currently support graduate courses in LLMs, NLP, and applied ML—helping others ship RAG pipelines, fine-tune transformers, and deploy AI responsibly.

I hold an M.S. in Data Analytics & Visualization from Yeshiva University and a B.Sc. (Honors) in Business Studies & Computing Science from the University of Zimbabwe. I'm open to roles where data, ML, and LLMs drive real impact.

Career journey

Experience

From full-stack and applied ML—tabular, time series, and production modeling—into teaching and LLM engineering. Each role layered new tools on a broad ML foundation.

  1. TodayAug 2025 – Present

    AI Teaching Assistant

    Yeshiva University

    Supporting graduate-level courses in LLMs, NLP, and applied machine learning in New York City.

    • Support graduate-level courses in LLMs, NLP, and applied machine learning
    • Guide students in building LLM-powered applications including RAG pipelines
    • Assist with fine-tuning transformer models and deploying AI systems
    • Mentor students on FastAPI, Docker, and cloud-based ML deployment
  2. GrowthOct 2022 – Jul 2025

    Data Scientist | Software Developer

    NSSA

    Built and deployed ML systems across supervised, unsupervised, and real-time use cases—fraud, transactions, and production analytics—in Harare, Zimbabwe.

    • Built ML models for financial transactions and fraud detection, improving accuracy by 47%
    • Developed real-time models for anomaly scoring, spending behavior, and pattern detection across the transaction stack
    • Integrated diverse ML models (classification, regression, clustering-style signals) into production web applications
    • Automated data pipelines with Python, SQL, and Spark, reducing processing time by 60%
  3. FoundationApr 2022 – Sep 2022

    Full-Stack Software Developer

    JSC

    Predictive analytics, reporting automation, and dashboards for decision-makers in Harare, Zimbabwe.

    • Developed predictive analytics models reducing forecasting errors by 35%
    • Automated reporting workflows with Python and SQL, cutting manual effort by 40%
    • Built dashboards to visualize insights for decision-makers

Skills & Tools

Data & databases

PostgreSQLMySQLMongoDBSnowflakeApache SparkSQL

Machine learning

Scikit-learnTensorFlowPyTorchSupervised & unsupervised learningTime series & forecastingEnsemble & deep models

LLMs & GenAI

LLMsRAGPrompt engineeringFine-tuningEmbeddingsNLP

Programming, MLOps & frontend

PythonTypeScriptRFastAPIFlaskDockerMLflowAWSCI/CDNext.jsReactStreamlit

Let's build something

Open to new opportunities. Get in touch for collaborations or just to say hello.

© 2026 Shelton Simbi — New York, NY — Built with Next.js, TypeScript & Tailwind