Hi, I am Nic
Data Engineer with a past in Gravitational Wave Astronomy
Python, SQL, dbt, PySpark, AWS, Databricks · ETL/ELT Pipelines, Data Modeling, Cloud Infrastructure
About Me
🚀 Data Engineer working remotely from Italy, building end-to-end data pipelines and full-stack data products.
- energumeno.it — Energy comparison platform. Automated pipeline ingests 200+ regulated offers daily, runs real billing formulas, ranks by actual annual cost. Stack: Django, PostgreSQL, Selenium, Polars, Coolify and Hetzner.
- quantoprendo.io — Salary tax calculator and personal finance tools for Italian workers with thousands of unique visitors per month. Stack: NextJS, React, Cloudflare, FastAPI.
🌀 Previously: Gravitational-wave astronomer (LIGO/Virgo Collaboration). Led the analysis of GW200105 — the first-ever gravitational wave from a neutron star–black hole merger.
🌱 Learning: Machine Learning & AI Engineering
🧠 Forever curious: passionate about natural sciences, psychology, nutrition, biomechanics, sport science and personal finance.
💡 Core Skills
- • Data Pipelines & Orchestration
- • Cloud & Software Engineering
- • Data Analysis & Bayesian Inference
- • Numerical Simulations & Scientific Computing
- • Physics & Maths
- • Gravitational Waves & Multi-Messenger Astronomy
⚡ Fun Fact
I was the first lucky human to analyze GW200105, the first-ever gravitational wave from a neutron star–black hole system. I had the honor to lead the science case, contributing to one of the most exciting discoveries of our century.
🧰 Tech Stack
Languages
ELT & Orchestration
Databases
Cloud & Infra
Data Analysis
Versioning
🪐 Astro Stack
Experience
Data Engineer
Prima
Sep 2025 - Present
Remote
Designing and implementing data and software solutions serving data scientists, analysts and machine learning engineers across UK, Italy and Spanish teams. Delivering reliable and scalable data products enabling statistical and ML tools for loss ratio prediction, portfolio optimisation, quoting and antifraud detection.
- • Design, development, and implementation of the data lake platform expansion across multiple countries and products, with a strong focus on scalability and reliability
- • Established data guidelines, governance, technologies and practices as the only data engineer member of the newly formed antifraud team, in close collaboration with senior data scientists, ML and software engineers
- • Design and refactoring of ETL processes to enhance performance, scalability, and robustness for UK claims data pipeline managing interactions with data scientists, engineering and product managers across multiple teams
- • Definition of technical specifications and technology choices in close collaboration with IT, analytics, pricing, claims, and data teams
- • Engineering reusable and modular libraries and packaging to unify analytical workflows and methodologies
Data Engineer
Fitprime (now Wellhub)
Apr 2024 - Sep 2025
Remote, Italy
- • Spearheaded design and development of data warehouse using Dagster, dbt, Docker, and AWS ECS
- • Defined KPIs dictionary and delivered 20+ reports and analysis for various business units
- • Provided data governance for research on physical activity impact on productivity with University of Bicocca
Research Assistant & PhD Candidate
University of Glasgow
Sep 2018 - Mar 2023
Glasgow, Scotland
- • Led analysis on GW200105 — the first neutron star–black hole merger gravitational wave
- • Research focus on gravitational wave parameter estimation using Bayesian inference
- • Reviewed codes and papers as LIGO PhD representative
- • Analyzed 10+ real-time GW events during O3 run
- • Taught Python and Astronomy labs at graduate level
Research Intern
Università di Trento
Dec 2016 - Dec 2017
Trento, Italy
- • Conducted 3D relativistic magnetohydrodynamics simulations of merging neutron stars using Python and Whiskycode
- • Analyzed data to confirm magnetic field compatibility with gamma-ray burst progenitors
- • Developed skills in research, data analysis, and Python programming
Research Internship
University of Mississippi — LIGO Livingston
Jun 2016 - Oct 2016
Livingston, Louisiana, USA
- • Worked at the LIGO Livingston Gravitational Wave Detector as fully funded research intern
- • Designed and deployed a COMSOL model for elastic deformations of mirrors, reducing calibration error from 40% to less than 1%
- • Published scientific paper on Review of Sci. Instruments, serving as a roadmap for new detector design by KAGRA collaboration in Japan (DOI: 10.1063/1.4967303)
Research Internship
Cardiff University
Jun 2015 - Oct 2015
Cardiff, Wales, UK
- • Developed a groundbreaking data analysis method and toolkit for multi-messenger astronomy, combining GRB energy measurement with NS-BH gravitational wave signal
- • Published research in The Astrophysical Journal (DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/ab1b15)
- • Won a highly competitive scholarship to work under renowned researchers at Cardiff University
Projects
quantoprendo.io
Salary tax calculator and personal finance tools for Italian workers with thousands of unique visitors per month.
energumeno.it
Energy comparison platform. Automated pipeline ingests 200+ regulated offers daily, runs real billing formulas, ranks by actual annual cost.
casaninja.it
Co-founder. Italian real estate and housing platform.
dataskew
Contributor — writing articles, refining exercises and roadmaps, and web development.
Services
Available for consulting and freelance work on data engineering projects.
Data Engineering Consulting
ETL/ELT pipeline design, data modeling, warehouse architecture. From raw data to production-ready pipelines.
Databricks & dbt
Implementation, migration, and best practices. Databricks Asset Bundles, dbt project structure, testing, and CI/CD.
Data Infrastructure & Cloud
AWS, Docker, CI/CD for data teams. Infrastructure setup, monitoring with Datadog, and deployment automation.
Technical Writing
Blog posts, documentation, and technical content on data engineering, Python, and cloud infrastructure.
Beyond Code
Passionate about natural sciences, psychology, nutrition, biomechanics, sport science, personal finance, animals and the environment. Always happy to chat about any of these.
Publications
Observation of Gravitational Waves from Two Neutron Star–Black Hole Coalescences
LIGO Scientific Collaboration and Virgo Collaboration • The Astrophysical Journal Letters, 2021
First observation of gravitational waves from neutron star–black hole mergers (GW200105 and GW200115). Led the analysis on GW200105.
DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/ac082e ↗GWTC-3: Compact Binary Coalescences Observed by LIGO and Virgo During the Second Part of the Third Observing Run
LIGO Scientific Collaboration, Virgo Collaboration, and KAGRA Collaboration • Physical Review X, 2023
Third gravitational-wave transient catalog, including 35 new compact binary merger events from O3b.
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevX.13.041039 ↗GWTC-2: Compact Binary Coalescences Observed by LIGO and Virgo During the First Half of the Third Observing Run
LIGO Scientific Collaboration and Virgo Collaboration • Physical Review X, 2021
Second gravitational-wave transient catalog with 39 new events from the first half of O3.
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevX.11.021053 ↗GWTC-2.1: Deep Extended Catalog of Compact Binary Coalescences Observed by LIGO and Virgo During the First Half of the Third Observing Run
LIGO Scientific Collaboration, Virgo Collaboration, and KAGRA Collaboration • Physical Review D, 2024
Extended analysis of O3a data with improved search pipelines, adding 8 candidate events.
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.109.022001 ↗Full list on Google Scholar and INSPIRE-HEP.
Education
From physics fundamentals in the Italian Alps to gravitational wave research in Scotland.
University of Glasgow
Astronomy and Astrophysics
- ▹ Conducted research in gravitational wave data analysis within the LIGO Scientific Collaboration, focusing on searches for compact binary coalescences.
- ▹ Led the parameter estimation analysis of GW200105 — the first confirmed gravitational wave signal from a neutron star–black hole merger, published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
- ▹ Developed and maintained Bayesian inference pipelines using Python (PyCBC, LALSuite, Bilby) running on high-performance computing clusters.
- ▹ Contributed to the GWTC-2 and GWTC-3 gravitational wave transient catalogs.
- ▹ Presented results at international conferences and collaboration meetings.
Università di Trento
Physics
- ▹ Specialized in astrophysics and computational methods, with coursework in general relativity, quantum field theory, and statistical mechanics.
- ▹ Completed research internships abroad at Cardiff University and the University of Mississippi (LIGO), gaining hands-on experience in gravitational wave data analysis.
- ▹ Master's thesis on gravitational wave signal reconstruction from compact binary coalescences.
Università di Trento
Physics — Grade: 110/110
- ▹ Solid foundation in classical mechanics, electromagnetism, thermodynamics, quantum mechanics, and mathematical methods for physics.
- ▹ Graduated with top marks (110/110), demonstrating strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
Let's Work Together
Looking for a Data Engineer consultant or want to collaborate on a project? I'm available for freelance work and consulting opportunities.