Catherine Varas
Building AI-Powered Solutions
AI & Data Engineer with 5+ years of experience designing and implementing scalable data pipelines, cloud infrastructure, software solutions and intelligent automation, along with 2+ years focused on AI systems.
// about
The Journey
AI & Data Engineer with 5+ years of experience designing and implementing scalable data pipelines, cloud infrastructure, software solutions and intelligent automation, along with 2+ years focused on AI systems.
Having worked across data engineering, software architecture, and applied AI helps me to design systems that are robust and hold up in production. I bring a research-driven approach to every problem, I learn the domain, understand the data, and deliver solutions that work reliably at scale.
"Ready to create innovative solutions and use the latest technology to help solve problems."
Tech Stack
Engineering
Python R 
Java SQL Bash C# JavaScript Cloud
Azure Azure ML Azure Functions Azure AI Search Azure Data Factory 
AWS GCP HPC GPU Streaming AI & ML
scikit-learn Deep Learning Computer Vision Agentic AI LangChain n8n Tools
Power BI 
Streamlit matplotlib 
Git CI/CD Databases
Oracle SQL Server 
PostgreSQL 
MySQL Elasticsearch // experience
Career Timeline
AIBN — University of Queensland
Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology
Software Engineer — Research Data Pipelines
Mar 2026 – Present
Brisbane, Australia
- â–¹ Developed a full-stack data analysis pipeline for fermentation research: volume reconstruction, mass balances, growth rate estimation, and automated phase detection
- â–¹ Built an interactive Dash/Plotly dashboard for researchers to explore data and compare replicates
- â–¹ Documented every formula, assumption, and design decision for reproducibility standards
UQ Queensland Brain Institute
Research Experience
Research Volunteer — Computer Vision
Nov 2025 – Present
Brisbane, Australia
- â–¹ Built a multi-model pipeline (YOLO + SAM2) for automated animal tracking
- â–¹ Engineered chunked GPU streaming and HPC parallel execution for long video processing
- â–¹ Designed a geometric classifier detecting 6 social interaction types from spatial coordinates
- â–¹ Reconstructed neural network architectures from raw checkpoint weights
One51
Data & Analytics Consultancy
Data & AI Consultant
Jul 2025 – Mar 2026
Sydney, Australia
- â–¹ Designed AI orchestration workflows using Azure ML, Durable Functions, Azure AI Search, and HuggingFace
- â–¹ Developed AI RAG systems to automate analytics platform migrations
- â–¹ Constructed an AI-based accounting automation pipeline on Databricks integrating OCR and LLM-assisted semantic resolution
- â–¹ Built interactive applications for metadata visualization and dependency tracking
One of Latin America's Largest Banks
Associate Software & Data Architect
Jul 2024 – Jan 2025
Lima, Peru
- â–¹ Led migration of millions of contractual records from IBM Mainframe to cloud infrastructure using Apache Spark
- â–¹ Designed frameworks for data quality, scalability, and compliance with banking regulatory standards
- â–¹ Developed Java backend routines dynamically querying Mainframe or Oracle systems
- â–¹ Managed centralized contracts module exposing data across banking systems
Software Architect
Oct 2022 – Jul 2024
Lima, Peru
- â–¹ Engineered scalable batch pipelines using Apache Spark and Java for multi-product Mainframe-to-cloud migration
- â–¹ Developed reusable Spark routines for data transformation, validation, and reconciliation in Parquet format
- â–¹ Automated business-rule validations and anomaly detection across millions of contract records
- â–¹ Deployed and maintained 70+ reusable components (Java backend, Spark batch, database scripts)
Vida Software
BI & Data Analyst
Jul 2021 – Feb 2022
Lima, Peru
- â–¹ Built Big Data pipelines for performance reporting; automated daily processing of 200+ SFTP files
- â–¹ Designed dashboards for inventory and sales forecasting for multinational retail clients
- â–¹ Built integration pipelines between Hasura GraphQL and SQL Server
// projects
Featured Work
Databricks RAG Migration Tool
AI-powered system that transforms legacy T-SQL into modern Databricks SQL using RAG, LLM reasoning, and deterministic validators for safe, reliable migration.
Predictive Maintenance Lakehouse
Predictive Maintenance Pipeline for Industrial IoT using lakehouse architecture.
Traffic Analysis Spark HDFS
Big data pipeline built with Spark using HDFS files to analyze traffic and identify causes of it in Sydney.
Cloud-Native Healthcare Platform
End-to-end cloud architecture for a healthcare startup, covering infrastructure, CI/CD, and role-based access control. Demo note: the live site runs in demo mode and may take ~2 min to load (cold start). Test credentials — operador@cmep.local / operador123 (OPERADOR), gestor@cmep.local / gestor123 (GESTOR), medico@cmep.local / medico123 (MÉDICO).
MineOps Dispatch
Agentic AI system that automates mining field operations via WhatsApp. An AI agent receives operator reports, classifies incidents, updates the control room database, and sends real-time confirmations — fully autonomous, end to end.
// certifications
Credentials
Fabric Data Engineer Associate
DP-700
Microsoft
Fabric Analytics Engineer Associate
DP-600
Microsoft
Power BI Data Analyst Associate
PL-300
Microsoft
Cloud Practitioner
CLF-C02
AWS
Azure Fundamentals
AZ-900
Microsoft
Generative AI Fundamentals
Databricks
// education
Academic Path
Master in Data Science
2025 – Jun 2026
Brisbane, Australia
University of La Rioja (UNIR)
Master of Artificial Intelligence
2024 – 2025
Spain
Peruvian University of Applied Sciences (UPC)
Bachelor of Industrial Engineering
2019 – 2023
Lima, Peru
Institute Cibertec
Associate's in Computer Science
2019 – 2022
Lima, Peru
// contact
Let's Build Something Together
Open to AI engineer roles. Available for full-time work under a postgraduate visa from July 2026. Let's connect.
Get in Touch