S
•••
smart coach • AI ASSISTANT
A little more clarity.
A lot more possibility.
A lot more possibility.
Let's work through your financial goals.
Save smarter ↗Understand my money ↗
Ask me anything...↗
PRODUCTION AI / SOUTH AFRICA
Hello, I'm Shivek Maharaj.
DATA SCIENTIST
I make data
useful for people.
I love taking complex ideas and turning them into something real. From machine learning in production to independent software, I build technology that makes a difference.
01 / SELECTED WORK
Proof, not promises.
From production AI to products built alone, every project starts with a problem worth solving.
EXPLAINABLE MATCH
Clarity for every candidate.
84%Technical fit
91%Experience fit
INDEPENDENT PLATFORM / XAI
fluff.EXPORT ↗
▶
your story, your canvas.
00:00:00 00:00:15 00:00:30
WEB VIDEO EDITOR / ZERO SIGN-UP
IRIS ●REAL-TIME INTELLIGENCE
R2.0M+YEARLY SAVINGS
LIVE OBSERVABILITYUPTIME • CONTINUOUS
OPERATIONAL INTELLIGENCE / PYTHON
A
AUTOMATED ROUTING & INTELLIGENT ASSISTANT
AI-POWERED OUTBOUND CONVERSATIONS
VOICE AI / OUTBOUND OPERATIONS
micdrop
9:41● ● ●
HUMAN
FREQUENCY.
FREQUENCY.
NOW PLAYINGThe way we sound.Audio stories that connect.
Ⅱ↗
AUDIO SOCIAL / SOLO BUILT
VOL. 02
CRITICAL BUT STABLE.
Some stories are
better told together.
AN ONLINE SPACE FOR FRIENDS & STORIESbetter told together.
STORYTELLING / COMMUNITY
CONCEPTUAL PROJECT VISUALS - NOT LIVE PRODUCT SCREENSHOTSEXPLORE EACH PROJECT FOR CONTEXT ↗
02 / MEASURABLE IMPACT
The numbers mean something.
Good engineering earns its value in the world beyond the codebase.
01 ↗
7M+People in the application ecosystem behind the financial wellness experiences I help build.
PLATFORM REACH02 ↗
R2M+Annual operational savings generated by the Python-based IRIS monitoring system.
REALIZED ANNUAL SAVINGS03 ↗
25+Freelance projects successfully delivered, with a 100% Upwork job success score.
INDEPENDENT DELIVERY04 ↗
R160M/yrProjected annual savings from Smart Coach by November 2027. A forecast, not a realized outcome.
FUTURE PROJECTION 03 / EXPERIENCE
Built in the real world.
A career spanning enterprise delivery, independent products, technical education, and the people behind them.
2026 - PRESENT
Data Scientist ↗
OLD MUTUAL · JOHANNESBURG
Working on production conversational AI, personalization, and the engineering required to turn intelligent experiences into useful capabilities at scale.
ENTERPRISE AI
2024 - 2026
Data Analyst ↗
OLD MUTUAL · CAPE TOWN
Developed operational intelligence, analytics and Python automation - including work that generated measurable business savings.
ANALYTICS & AUTOMATION
2020 - PRESENT
Independent builder ↗
FREELANCE · PERSONAL PRODUCTS
Designing and shipping my own software, collaborating with global teams, and delivering 25+ freelance projects with a 100% Upwork job success score and Top Rated recognition.
PRODUCT ENGINEERING
ONGOING
Mentor & technical educator ↗
EDX / 2U · COMMUNITY & LEARNING
Teaching technical concepts, facilitating practical learning, writing educational material and sharing what I learn with the next generation of builders.
KNOWLEDGE SHARING
04 / MY STORY
Curiosity was
the beginning.
EST.2020FEBRUARY
THE FIRST SPARK
THE FIRST SPARK
I first touched a computer in February 2020. I haven't stopped asking what I can build with one since.
Technology still fascinates me. There isn't a dull day in this field - especially when you're moving between production AI, independent software, helping others learn, and solving problems that have real consequences.
I approach engineering with urgency and care: build, test, learn, iterate. Not until something merely looks finished, but until it actually works. I believe the best software serves a purpose beyond the gains it might generate.
“Success doesn't follow a blueprint,
It follows me.”
ORGANIZATIONS I HAVE WORKED WITHPROJECTS, TEAMS & COLLABORATIONS
Old MutualedX / 2UZillizAnalytics VidhyaDataLemurKatalonCoddyTutorialsPointMacgenceLearnFlyApplyRushApeabilityAriesNetMakanytechGreen Hat Web SolutionsConsultJCQuerifai
05 / COMMUNITY
Learning is better
when we share it.
I love teaching, writing, and connecting with people who are curious about technology. Here are a few ways I share what I learn.
↗
01 / TEACHINGLearn Microsoft
Fabric With Me.
Breaking down complex technology into approachable, practical lessons - on YouTube and in the community.
WATCH THE SERIES ↗
↗
02 / COMMUNITYHelping the
Fabric community.
Sharing practical answers and solutions across Microsoft Fabric, and learning with the community along the way.
VIEW MY FABRIC COMMUNITY PROFILE ↗
↗
03 / SPEAKING & MENTORSHIPLet's learn
together.
Speaking events, workshops, mentorship, and conversations about technology are always welcome.
LET'S CONNECT ↗
THE TECH I WORK WITH
A lot of curiosity.
A lot of tools.
From models and data pipelines to cloud platforms and production software, these are technologies I've worked with across my projects and career.
Data science & machine learning
18 TOOLS & METHODSPythonSQLMachine learningDeep learningscikit-learnpandasNumPyTensorFlowKerasK-MeansPCAFeature engineeringRecommendation systemsCustomer segmentationA/B testingStatistical modellingExploratory data analysisModel evaluation
Generative AI & NLP
16 TOOLS & METHODSAgentic AILarge language modelsNatural language processingConversational AIAmazon BedrockClaude SonnetAmazon Nova SonicPrompt engineeringLLM guardrailsIntent classificationEntity recognitionEmbeddingsSemantic similarityRetrievalConversational memoryAI orchestration
Cloud & AWS
15 TOOLS & METHODSAmazon ECSAmazon ECRAWS LambdaAmazon S3AWS GlueAmazon SageMakerAmazon AuroraAmazon RDSAmazon DynamoDBAmazon ElastiCacheAmazon CloudWatchAWS IAMElastic Load BalancingAWS CloudFormationAWS Managed Services
Engineering & MLOps
18 TOOLS & METHODSDockerGitGitHubAzure DevOpsCI/CDPull requestsCode reviewsUnit testingIntegration testingRegression testingPylintREST APIsFlaskDjangoStreamlitJenkinsPostmanRedis
Data engineering & databases
13 TOOLS & METHODSPostgreSQLOracleMariaDBMongoDBMicrosoft SQL ServerAlteryxETL pipelinesData modellingDatabase optimisationDatabricksMicrosoft FabricLakehouseApache Spark
Analytics & observability
09 TOOLS & METHODSTableauPower BIGrafanaDynatraceOpenTelemetryData visualisationExecutive reportingProduct analyticsCustomer analytics
Web & creative engineering
12 TOOLS & METHODSJavaScriptTypeScriptReactVitePHPHTMLCSSCanvas APIWebGLMediaPipeVideo processingAudio processing
Delivery & collaboration
09 TOOLS & METHODSJiraConfluenceMiroAgile deliveryStakeholder engagementTechnical mentorshipSolution designTechnical presentationsCross-functional delivery
No matching technologies. Try a different search.
07 / GET IN TOUCH
Let's make
something happen.
Want to talk about data science, a project, a speaking opportunity, or simply exchange ideas? I would love to hear from you.
Start a conversation ↗