Hernani (Dr.) Costa

AI CTO & Co-Founder

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London, United Kingdom

Experience

Jun 2024 - Present
1 year 7 months
Amsterdam, Netherlands

AI CTO & Co-Founder

INGENIUS

  • Collaborated with co-founders to define technical and business strategies, aligning product development with financial goals.
  • Built and mentored a high-performing technical team, overseeing recruitment, onboarding, and professional growth.
  • Designed a scalable, cost-effective microservices infrastructure on AWS, ensuring robust, secure, and high-performing platform capabilities while optimising operational costs.
  • Evaluated and implemented advanced AI tools to enhance platform capabilities, focusing on automation and intelligent agent incorporation.
  • Interfaced with investors and clients to refine product offerings and secure necessary resources.
  • Reduced course creation time from weeks to minutes through AI innovations and a robust, scalable, and cost-effective tech infrastructure.
  • Collaborated intensively with designers and educational specialists to deliver a feature-rich, user-centric platform, receiving positive feedback on its design and effectiveness.
  • Fostered a culture of adaptability and iterative progress, enabling the team to thrive in a fast-paced, ever-evolving technological landscape.
Jun 2023 - Present
2 years 7 months
Eindhoven, Netherlands

Chief Data and AI Architect Officer (CAIO) & Co-Founder

Tarucca

  • Designed and deployed a robust microservices-based infrastructure on AWS, enabling secure and efficient data processing across multiple Smart Data Acquisition Systems (SDAS).
  • Built seamless data pipelines to collect, transmit, and analyse large datasets from photonic sensors, transforming raw data into actionable insights for decision-making.
  • Applied advanced AI models to automate processes, enhance analytics, and optimise wind energy operations through predictive maintenance.
  • Recruited and led a multidisciplinary team of engineers and data scientists, fostering collaboration and delivering on Tarucca’s mission.
  • Improved efficiency by automating workflows and integrating IoT systems with scalable cloud infrastructure.
  • Successfully deployed multiple SDAS units, enabling reliable and scalable data capture for wind turbine monitoring.
  • Contributed to pivotal projects like AIRTuB-ROMI, ReliaBlade2-NL, and the MIT R&D, advancing renewable energy through software innovation and AI-driven insights.
  • Established an agile team culture, enabling adaptability to technological demands and achieving key milestones in data analytics and predictive maintenance.
Jul 2022 - Jun 2023
1 year
Rotterdam, Netherlands

Chief Information Officer

Bondify.com

  • Spearheaded the creation and refinement of the MVP for a contract automation platform, collaborating with cross-functional teams to implement iterative releases and gather valuable feedback from early adopters.
  • Led a team of designers, AI developers, and engineers, ensuring a collaborative environment that fostered agile methodologies, innovation, and problem-solving.
  • Actively engaged with early adopters to understand user needs and validate platform features while supporting investor conversations by articulating technical strategies and aligning them with business goals.
  • Designed and implemented a robust, microservices-based infrastructure on AWS, ensuring scalability, security, and integration readiness.
  • Automated workflows and optimised system architecture, improving the platform’s flexibility and adaptability for future growth.
  • Developed and launched the MVP of a next-generation contract automation platform, enabling iterative feature releases and facilitating adoption by early users.
  • Built a secure, scalable IT framework that supported multiple iterations and feedback loops during the platform’s development.
  • Fostered a team culture of collaboration, adaptability, and innovation, ensuring consistent progress and alignment with company goals.
Jan 2022 - Dec 2022
1 year
Amsterdam, Netherlands

CTO & Co-Founder

experdata

  • I built a scalable SaaS platform that connected massive datasets to actionable insights, empowering pharmaceutical experts to access critical information and make informed decisions.

  • I spearheaded the technical infrastructure from the ground up, designing and launching a robust, scalable data pipeline that allowed Pfizer experts to quickly access information, create targeted leads, and align the right people with critical projects. By bridging people and technology, I delivered a platform that simplified workflows, aligned with organisational goals and delivered insightful information.

  • Beyond the product, I built and led a cross-functional team of developers, fostering a culture of collaboration, innovation, and empowerment. From hiring and coaching to aligning processes with business objectives, I ensured the team excelled while focused on delivering impactful results.

Jan 2021 - Dec 2021
1 year
Amsterdam, Netherlands

Director of AI & Engineering

Lalaland.ai

  • Delivered an industry-disrupting platform capable of generating human-like digital models for the fashion and apparel industry.
  • Responsible for hiring, leading, coaching, managing and growing a multidisciplinary team of 10+ people in Machine Learning, Computer Vision, Cloud Software Engineering and QC.
  • Accountable for the design, management, delivery, quality, availability, and performance of the company’s technology backbone, encompassing digital fashion, data pipelines, cloud infrastructure, R&D, rapid PoCs & MVPs, and Software Development.
Jul 2019 - Dec 2020
1 year 6 months
Groningen, Netherlands

Tech Team Lead

Kaios.ai

  • Hired, coached and managed a multidisciplinary team of 10+ in Machine Learning, Computer Vision, Web Development and Cloud Software Engineers.
  • Translated customers' requests into technical requirements and prioritised them according to business needs.
  • Managed and led 10+ intelligent imagery solutions (e.g. video, mobile mapping, satellite imagery, LiDAR and drone imagery).
Nov 2017 - Jun 2019
1 year 8 months
Amsterdam, Netherlands

NLP Data Scientist

Elsevier

  • Worked on software requirements, system architecture, infrastructure maintenance, development, testing, evaluation, deployment, and serverless applications.
  • Used natural language processing (NLP), information extraction (IE), information retrieval (IR), and text & data mining.
  • Developed in Python, DynamoDB, Lambdas, API Gateway, SQS, and other AWS services.
Jul 2017 - Present
8 years 6 months
Canada

Tech Advisor

CalendHer Technologies Corp

Jul 2017 - Oct 2017
4 months
Delft, Netherlands

Data Engineer

GeoPhy

  • Set up low-maintenance, high-quality and efficient data pipelines and collected and prepared datasets for ingestion and gold standards for system performance.
  • Worked on development, testing, and optimization using Python.
Oct 2016 - Jun 2017
9 months
Amsterdam, Netherlands

NLP/ML Data Scientist

StartMonday

  • Led a large scale NLP system that recommends products to relevant users, working on customer journey, software requirements, product design, development, testing, deployment, and optimization.
  • Used NLP (information extraction, information retrieval, text & data mining) and machine learning (ML).
  • Developed in Python and Java.
Oct 2015 - Dec 2015
3 months
Rome, Italy

Early Stage Researcher (Secondment)

Translated s.r.l.

  • Visiting Translated s.r.l. on a secondment via the European funded project EXPERT.
Sep 2014 - Dec 2014
4 months
Wolverhampton, United Kingdom

Early Stage Researcher (Secondment)

University of Wolverhampton

  • Visiting the University of Wolverhampton on a secondment via the European funded project EXPERT.
Sep 2013 - Sep 2016
3 years 1 month
Málaga, Spain

Early Stage Researcher

University of Malaga

  • Researched and developed various modules to collect and prepare multilingual data for translators and machine translation systems, covering research, software requirements, software design, development, testing, deployment, optimization, and scientific publications.
  • Deployed publicly available software: iCompileCorpora (a web application to create multilingual web corpora), PreProcessor (processes and annotates raw textual data), STSModule (computes the semantic similarity between sentences and documents), DSMModule (measures and ranks sentences and documents based on their degree of similarity).
  • Used NLP (information extraction, information retrieval), statistics, machine learning (ML), and machine translation (MT).
  • Developed in Java, R, and Python.
Sep 2011 - Dec 2011
4 months
Portugal

Researcher

FCCN - Linguateca

  • Worked at Linguateca, a distributed language resource center for Portuguese, launched from the Computational Processing of Portuguese project, expanding its mission and aims.
Sep 2010 - Jan 2013
2 years 5 months
Coimbra, Portugal

Teacher

Coimbra Institute of Engineering

  • Taught programming and algorithms.
Sep 2010 - Jul 2012
1 year 11 months
Coimbra, Portugal

Teacher

Escola Profissional da Lousã

  • Taught operating systems, communication networks, and computer architecture.
Sep 2009 - Oct 2013
4 years 2 months
Coimbra, Portugal

Researcher

Centre for Informatics and Systems of the University of Coimbra

Summary

With over two decades of experience at the intersection of technology, people, and processes, I thrive on designing solutions that create meaningful impact. My passion for AI, education, and product development fuels my mission to empower organisations and individuals to harness technology for real-world success.

Here’s what I do best:

  • Building Products: Designed and launched dozens of tools that simplify work, align with organisational goals, and deliver seamless customer experiences.
  • Developing Teams and Coaching Individuals: Led cross-functional teams to success by bridging skill gaps, fostering collaboration, and empowering individuals to excel.
  • Aligning Processes: Transformed fragmented operations into cohesive systems that connect people, processes, and business objectives.
  • Advancing Technology: Spearheaded digital innovation by identifying, implementing, and scaling cutting-edge tools to address complex challenges and create lasting impact.
  • Engaging Stakeholders: Partnered with stakeholders across all levels to ensure strategic alignment, clarity, and successful project outcomes.

What sets me apart:

  • Empowering Informed Decisions: I provide clear frameworks and actionable insights to help people and organisations make confident, well-informed choices.
  • Bridging People and Technology: I see technology as a bridge to connect creativity, strategy, and results, enabling businesses to unlock new possibilities.
  • Delivering Results: Whether launching AI-driven initiatives or mentoring the next wave of talent, my work focuses on tangible outcomes and real-world impact.
  • Leadership with Empathy: As a Sailor, Mentor, and Builder of Bridges, I navigate challenges with adaptability, guide others with care, and connect ideas with solutions to drive transformation.

Looking ahead:

I’m building a vibrant AI community for learners, experts, and innovators—a space to collaborate, share ideas, and tackle real-world challenges. Together, we’ll foster mentorship, innovation, and business growth in the AI landscape.

Whether you’re navigating digital transformation, exploring AI’s potential, or building scalable solutions, I’m here to help. Let’s create a smarter, more connected future—one step at a time.

Skills

  • Operations Management
  • Devops
  • Technological Literacy

Languages

English
Native
Portuguese
Native
Spanish
Advanced

Education

Oct 2013 - Jun 2019

University of Málaga

PhD (Marie Curie Fellow) · Computational Linguistics · Málaga, Spain

Oct 2007 - Jun 2010

University of Coimbra

MSc, Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science · Coimbra, Portugal

Oct 2007 - Jun 2008

University of Vigo

Computer Science · Vigo, Spain

...and 1 more

Certifications & licenses

Interpersonal Communication Communicating In The Language Of Leadership

Interview Master Class

Research Scholarship Award Of Scientific Excellence

Strategic Thinking

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