Novica Nakov

Curious and analytically minded self-starter with 5+ years of experience collaborating with different stakeholders in delivering production grade data solutions, ensuring the accuracy and integrity of data products, and providing actionable insights to leadership. Skilled in programming, data wrangling, analytics, visualization, and bridging the gap between technical and non-technical people. Formerly, finance professional with management experience in a career spanning 18 years.

WORK EXPERIENCE

Norwegian Veterinary Institute - Senior Data Engineer

September 2023 - Present, Oslo, Norway

• Participated in development of a data platform based on Azure Databricks, using Terraform and Azure DevOps;
• Built ELT pipelines on Databricks using PySpark and Unity Catalog;
• Led Posit Team on-boarding for 15-20 people;
• Migrated dashboards and reports to new infrastructure;
• Partnered with communications department to build a data pipeline for presenting data on the web;
• Communicated with project managers regarding project planning, development and execution on data related tasks;
• Provided training for the the team of researchers and updated documentation frequently.

Freelance Data Consultancy - Data Analyst/Engineer January 2019 - August 2023, Skopje, North Macedonia

• Developed custom Python and R packages for scientific analysis, modeling energy efficiency, and medical research;
• Advised local government on open data management;
• Built analytics dashboards for tracking KPIs using Google Analytics data;
• Built ELT pipelines for large legacy datasets stored in MS Word documents;
• A detailed list of projects is available upon request.

Trgotekstil ZS AD - Skopje - Finance and operations manager / CEO
November 2005 - November 2022, Skopje, North Macedonia

• Responsible for all things finance and negotiation of contracts with clients;
• Managed a team of 4-7 people. Responsible for training new staff;
• Expanded the company business to accounting services, adding an additional revenue stream.

IBORN.NET DOO - Skopje - Finance and business development adviser - Part time
January 2013 - August 2023

• Implemented accounting and finance software. Migrated data and accounts to new system;
• Trained staff to work in new system, wrote documentation and provided ongoing support;
• Advise on finance and operations matters. Help compile VAT and end of year statements.

EDUCATION

University of Glasgow - Master of Research Human Rights and International Politics, (Chevening Award)
September 2015 - October 2016, Glasgow, UK

Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje - B.Sc. in Economics
October 1999 - September 2005, Skopje, North Macedonia

SKILLS

Python: Pandas, NumPy, Matplotlib, Seaborn, dlt. R: Tidyverse, Tidymodels, Shiny, golem, data.table. SQL: PostegreSQL, duckdb, dbt, SQLMesh. Databricks: SQL, PySpark, ELT, Delta Lake, Unity Catalog. Linux, Bash, Git, GitHub Actions, Docker, Terraform, AWS EC2, AWS S3, AWS Glue.

CERTIFICATES

• AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate
• Databricks Certified Data Engineer Associate
• Microsoft Certified: Azure Fundamentals
• dbt Fundamentals
• Carpentries Certified Instructor