builderLabs

Hello, I'm Ozan Akcin.

Data Scientist & Software Engineer

Let's build something.

↓

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builderLabs

Let's build it.

Hello, I'm Ozan Akcin.

Data Scientist & Software Engineer

Let's build something.

↓

logo

builderLabs

Let's build it.

about blog projects contact

Hello and welcome to the personal website of Ozan Akcin.

Data Scientist and Software Engineer

Let's build something.

↓

about blog projects contact
About:
profile-picture

I started my career in Quantitative Finance and after working at several hedge funds and a large investment bank, I realized what I liked most about these positions was the actual process of software development.


Besides building quantitative trading models, my experience as a Data Scientist/Engineer has centered around:

  • designing and maintaining scalable relational databases
  • building infrastructure code to handle the data throughput process
  • developing sophisticated backtest engines for quantitative/statistical analysis
  • implementing numerous production operations utilities

Recently, I have been pursuing full stack development projects to complement my scientific computing/back-end coding background.


You can learn more about me from my resume, blog, and samples of projects I have worked on in the past.

I can be contacted here.

Professional Experience:: detailed resume

builderLabs

New York: Oct-2016 - Present

Full Stack Engineer

  • Monetize overlooked datasets of predictive value to be made available to subscribers via a feature-rich cloud platform.
  • Collect/parse/normalize publicly-sourced datasets of interest using proprietarily developed Perl/Python utilities and MySQL databases on AWS instances.
  • Web application development spanning server-side/back-end implementations to designing client-side interactions in the front-end.

OneMarketData

New York: Feb-2013 - Sep-2016

Senior Data Engineer

  • Developed enterprise-quality production code for products in the OneQuantData group, managing a small team of junior developers/analysts.
  • Designed/maintained MySQL databases and scripts with browser interfaces for the efficient storage/retrieval of financial timeseries data.
  • Coded data extraction, transformation, and loading processes and production scripts to handle various phases of the data ingest process.

Goldman Sachs

New York: Dec-2006 - Feb-2012

Vice President

  • Managed US equity portfolios using proprietarily-developed systematic trading strategies in the Quantitative Trading department.
  • Coded a comprehensive backtesting infrastructure and analytical tools to statistically assess the strength of models for strategy development.
  • Applied extensive financial, accounting, and statistical analysis to large datasets, requiring database-intensive programming.

Amaranth

Greenwich, CT: Mar-2005 - Dec-2006

Research Associate

  • Researched and developed trading strategies as part of the Statistical Arbitrage team, drawing upon a diverse array of factors.
  • Authored a research platform integrating SQL-based data management with MATLAB-based simulations to test strategy ideas.
  • Coded an automated protocol for generating trade orders for daily portfolio rebalancing in paper-trading of strategy.

Puglisi & Co.

New York: Apr-2003 - Mar-2005

Investment Strategist

  • Produced original investment strategy research incorporating asset allocation strategies and a systematic, bottom-up stock-picking approach.
  • Developed a rudimentary backtesting framework and stock selection strategy to run a sub-account of the PCP main fund.

builderLabs

New York: Oct-2016 - Present

Full Stack Engineer

  • Monetize overlooked datasets of predictive value to be made available to subscribers via a feature-rich cloud platform.
  • Collect/parse/normalize publicly-sourced datasets of interest using proprietarily developed Perl/Python utilities and MySQL databases on AWS instances.
  • Web application development spanning server-side/back-end implementations to designing client-side interactions in the front-end.

OneMarketData

New York: Feb-2013 - Sep-2016

Senior Data Engineer ( Software Developer )

  • Developed enterprise-quality production code for products in the OneQuantData group, managing a small team of junior developers/analysts.
  • Designed/maintained MySQL databases and scripts with browser interfaces for the efficient storage/retrieval of financial timeseries data.
  • Coded data extraction, transformation, and loading processes and production scripts to handle various phases of the data ingest process.

Goldman Sachs

New York: Dec-2006 - Feb-2012

Vice President ( Quantitative Portfolio Manager )

  • Managed US equity portfolios using proprietarily-developed systematic trading strategies in the Quantitative Trading department.
  • Coded a comprehensive backtesting infrastructure and analytical tools to statistically assess the strength of models for strategy development.
  • Applied extensive financial, accounting, and statistical analysis to large datasets, requiring database-intensive programming.

Amaranth

Greenwich, CT: Mar-2005 - Dec-2006

Research Associate ( Quantitative Strategist )

  • Researched and developed trading strategies as part of the Statistical Arbitrage team, drawing upon a diverse array of factors.
  • Authored a research platform integrating SQL-based data management with MATLAB-based simulations to test strategy ideas.
  • Coded an automated protocol for generating trade orders for daily portfolio rebalancing in paper-trading of strategy.

Puglisi & Co.

New York: Apr-2003 - Mar-2005

Investment Strategist

  • Produced original investment strategy research incorporating asset allocation strategies and a systematic, bottom-up stock-picking approach.
  • Developed a rudimentary backtesting framework and stock selection strategy to run a sub-account of the PCP main fund.
Early Experience/Internships:
Early Experience

    Thomson Financial ( Reuters ) - Product Specialist

    US Naval Research Laboratory - Apprentice Engineer

    US Department of the Treasury - Assistant Economist

Technical Skills:

Programming

  • Core development: Perl, Python, MATLAB, (prior experience: C, SASS, some R)
  • Unix/Linux shell scripting: bash, awk, sed
  • Web-development: JavaScript, jQuery, HTML5, CSS3, PHP
  • Databases - relational: MySQL (extensive), SQL Server, Sybase, SQLite, PostgreSQL
  • Databases - other: NoSQL (Google Cloud Datastore), JSON/RESTful APIs, SQLAlchemy & Object Relational Mapping (ORM)
  • Frameworks/libraries: Flask, Jinja2, webapp2, Knockout.js, Bootstrap
  • Early experience: VBA, Pascal, Fortran, some C++

Software Development

  • Experience with GIT version control and agile development practices
  • Familiar with containerization/virtual environments
  • Application deployment experience in AWS and Google Cloud Platform
  • Web development experience with mobile-first/responsive design, optimization & cross-browser compatibility

Natural Languages

  • Fluent in English, French, and Turkish
  • Conversational German
  • Knowledge of Spanish and Russian
  • (Citizenship: US)
Affiliations:

Professional Qualifications & Memberships

  • Full Stack Developer Nanodegree (Udacity)
  • Institute for Electrical & Electronic Engineers (IEEE)
  • Member, CFA Institute & New York Society of Security Analysts (NYSSA)
  • Securities Industry (past): Series 3, 7, 24, 55, 63, 86 & 87 registrations
Education:
  • CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) charterholder
    • Post-graduate qualification in Finance
  • George Washington University
    • B.B.A. International Business & Finance
    • Secondary Fields of Study: Economics & Electrical Engineering
  • Georgetown University
    • Pre-degree honors program with Computer Science focus
Projects:
Full Stack Development:
Vegan Path

Vegan Path

vegan travellers web app

The Instrument Garage

The Instrument Garage

online store/catalog

Responsive Portfolio

Responsive Design

mobile-first approach

The Sextant Blog

The Sextant Blog

multi-user-blog

Data Science / Engineering:
QuantResearchTools
Quant Research Tools
Databases
Scalable Databases
devops
Backend & DevOps
Blog:

In Defense of Perl

Predictions of its death are greatly exaggerated.

31 OCT 2017

Yelp Fusion API

A front-end approach to querying the Yelp v3 API.

22 JUN 2017

Web Server Setup

A Descriptive Guide to Apache & Nginx

14 APR 2017

Permutor

A back-of-the-envelope permutations generator written in Perl.

05 FEB 2017

Image Source Sets

A note-to-self on image optimization in web-based responsive design.

07 JAN 2017

AWS EC2 Connection Manager

(Linux: Bash/Perl): A utility to connect to Amazon EC2 instances.

12 DEC 2016

Basic Linux Server Provision

Basic steps for securing a linux server when provisioned from scratch from VPS providers.

17 OCT 2016
Perl & Python logo

In Defense of Perl

Why predictions of its death are greatly exaggerated.

31 OCT 2017
Yelp Logo

Yelp Fusion API

A front-end approach to querying the Yelp v3 API.

22 JUN 2017
Web Servers

Web Server Setup: A Descriptive Guide

A verbose synopsis on setting up Apache & Nginx webservers in lieu of a rote list of steps.

14 APR 2017
Permutor Algorithm

Permutor

A back-of-the-envelope permutations generator written in Perl.

05 FEB 2017
Various Image Sizes

Image Source Sets

A note-to-self on image optimization in web-based responsive design.

07 JAN 2017
AWS logo

AWS EC2 Connection Manager

(Linux: Bash/Perl): A utility to connect to Amazon EC2 instances.

12 DEC 2016
Servers

Basic Linux Server Provision

Basic steps for securing a linux server when provisioned from scratch from VPS providers.

17 OCT 2016