Aurimas Griciūnas

Senior Solutions Architect

SwirlAI

Driving MLOps, Data Engineering and Machine Learning industry forward by helping professionals Level Up in these disciplines.

Founder & CEO

neptune.ai

Chief Product Officer

Head of Product

Driving MLOps industry forward by helping Neptune customers succeed in adopting MLOps best practices.

Transactie Monitoring Nederland (TMNL)

- Contributed to the development of end-to-end Machine Learning platform capabilities in a highly secure environment.
 - Focused on leveraging AWS SageMaker and supporting AWS services to enable scalable experimentation and model deployment.
 - Collaborated with the team to build reusable template libraries, streamlining the process of running ML experiments and deploying models efficiently and securely.

Senior MLOps Engineer

HomeToGo

- Led cross-functional teams of Cloud Engineers and Data Platform Engineers, driving key infrastructure and data initiatives.
 - Spearheaded a company-wide Cloud-Native Transformation initiative to modernize applications and infrastructure.
 - Championed the migration to Infrastructure as Code (IaC), standardizing infrastructure provisioning using Terraform for improved scalability, consistency, and automation.

Data Architect / Data Platform & Cloud Engineering Lead

- Led a Team of Data Engineers.
- Led a Team of Data Platform Engineers.
- Initiated and led a successful company wide Cloud Native Transformation.
- Migrated entire Data Platform Stack to Kubernetes. This included:

        - Airflow.
        - Superset.
        - Spark.
        - MLFlow.
        - Flink.
        - Airbyte.
        - DataHub.

- Introduced first Stream Processing applications that moved some of the Data Warehouse Processing stages upstream the pipeline.

Senior Data Engineer / Data Platform Team Lead

- Led a team of Data Engineers.
- Initiated and led a Data Warehouse migration from Redshift to Snowflake effort. It also included a refactoring of the Data Model.
- Oversaw Data migration from a Druid cluster to Redshift and later Snowflake.
- Introduced and rolled out Machine Learning Experiment Tracking System.
- Deployed and maintained first on-prem Kubernetes Clusters in the company.

Senior Data Engineer / Team Lead

- Led a successful implementation and optimisation of a custom Website Activity Tracking Ingestion Pipeline.
- Deployed and rolled out a company-wide Airflow Cluster.
- Led a full migration from Jenkins to Airflow for Data Engineering Pipelines.

Senior Data Engineer

Tesonet

Responsible for end-to-end development of ML-based products and big data solutions:

 - Identified business use cases suitable for machine learning and translated them into technical solutions.
 - Designed and implemented the full ML lifecycle, including data extraction, cleaning, validation, model training, packaging, and deployment.
 - Contributed to the architecture and development of scalable big data ingestion pipelines.
 - Set up and configured Kafka topics; developed real-time processing applications using Kafka Streams and Spark.

Senior Data Scientist/Engineer

Danske Bank

Projects I worked on:

-Affordability model enhancement using transaction data.
-Bringing transaction data into Balance Sheet stress-testing.
-Unlocking potential of transaction data throughout Risk Management function.
-Stress-testing of REA components and dynamic analysis on different credit portfolio levels.
-Process optimization and automation. Preparing models for production placement.

Senior Data Scientist/Analyst

Projects I worked on:

-Retail customer affordability project in Big Data analytics team.
-IFRS9 Life-time probability of default (LTPD) model development.
-IFRS9 Prepayment model development.
-IFRS9 impact on P&L analysis.
-IFRS9 and pre-IFRS9 ECL stress-testing and reporting.
-REA stress-testing and dynamic analysis on different credit portfolio levels.
-Process optimization by both improving old approaches and introducing new technologies.

Analyst

ADB Gjensidige

Was responsible for implementation of Solvency2 regulatory standards and providing required reports.

Actuary

Was responsible for generating business analysis reports for management.

Was responsible for calculation of Technical Reserves for Non-Life insurance products by applying different triangulation methods.

Junior Actuary

Follow me to learn about Data Engineering and ML Systems | Author of SwirlAI Newsletter | Public Speaker

Tired of all the noise surrounding AI space in recent years? Having a hard time keeping up with all of the news in the field and distinguishing what is really important? Follow me and subscribe to my newsletter to get actionable insights on building production ready AI Systems and keep track of only the important signal of what is happening in the AI world.

With over a decade of experience in Data Science, AI/ML Engineering, and MLOps, I’m also dedicated to helping practitioners level up their skills in MLOps, Data Engineering, Machine Learning, and related fields. I share my knowledge in a clear and accessible way to make learning straightforward and actionable.

If you want to partner with SwirlAI and get your product in front of 40K+ AI/ML/Data Engineers and Leaders via our Newsletter or 135K+ AI/ML/Data Engineers and Leaders via LinkedIn, contact me directly.

Leading Product Strategy.

TOON (Token-Oriented Object Notation) is out for some days now and it aims to make communication with LLMs more accurate and token-efficient.

The TOON topic is now one of the hottest news on the LLM market and it might actually matter.

𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝗜 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝘀𝗼:

I was initially hesitant to cover this, potentially being another hype to quickly fade, but:

✅ The format has been shown to increase the accuracy of models while decreasing the token count. I was not sure if there were any accuracy retention studies made, it seems there were.
✅ Token efficiency is extremely important when working with Agentic Systems that require a lot of structured context inside of their reasoning chains. And we are moving towards a post-PoC world where there is a lot of emphasis placed on optimisation of the workflows.

𝗔 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝗿𝘁 𝘀𝘂𝗺𝗺𝗮𝗿𝘆:

- Token-efficient: typically 30-60% fewer tokens on large uniform arrays vs formatted JSON.
- LLM-friendly guardrails: explicit lengths and fields enable validation.
- Minimal syntax: removes redundant punctuation (braces, brackets, most quotes).
- Indentation-based structure: like YAML, uses whitespace instead of braces.
- Tabular arrays: declare keys once, stream data as rows.

An example:

𝘑𝘚𝘖𝘕 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘢𝘵:

"shopping_cart": [
    { "id": "GDKVEG984", "name": "iPhone 15 Pro Max", "quantity": 2, "price": 1499.99, "category": "Electronics" },
    { "id": "GDKVEG985", "name": "Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra", "quantity": 1, "price": 1299.99, "category": "Electronics" },
    { "id": "GDKVEG986", "name": "Apple Watch Series 9", "quantity": 1, "price": 199.99, "category": "Electronics" },
    { "id": "GDKVEG987", "name": "MacBook Pro 16-inch", "quantity": 1, "price": 2499.99, "category": "Electronics" }
  ]
}

𝘞𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘰𝘥𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘛𝘖𝘖𝘕 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘢𝘵:

shopping_cart: items[4]{id,name,quantity,price,category}:
    GDKVEG984,iPhone 15 Pro Max,2,1499.99,Electronics
    GDKVEG985,Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra,1,1299.99,Electronics
    GDKVEG986,Apple Watch Series 9,1,199.99,Electronics
    GDKVEG987,MacBook Pro 16-inch,1,2499.99,Electronics

𝗥𝗲𝘀𝘂𝗹𝘁:

✅ 43% savings in token amount.
✅ Directly translates to 43% savings in token cost for this LLM input.

❗️ Be sure to know when NOT to use the format (and always test it for your application specifically):

- Deeply nested or non-uniform structures.
- Semi-uniform arrays.
- Pure tabular data.

ℹ️ I will be testing it in the upcoming weeks.

Let me know if you have already tested TOON and what are your takeaways! 👇

Founder @ SwirlAI • UpSkilling the Next Generation of AI Talent • Author of SwirlAI Newsletter • Public Speaker

𝗠𝗖𝗣 plus 𝗔𝟮𝗔, here is how they complement each other 👇

Protocol wars continue to rage, let's understand how Googles A2A (Agent2Agent) protocol is different from MCP and how they complement each other (read till the end).

𝘔𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘱𝘪𝘦𝘤𝘦𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘔𝘊𝘗:

𝟭. MCP Host - Programs using LLMs at the core that want to access data through MCP.

❗️ When combined with A2A, an Agent becomes MCP Host.

𝟮. MCP Client - Clients that maintain 1:1 connections with servers.
𝟯. MCP Server - Lightweight programs that each expose specific capabilities through the standardised Model Context Protocol.
𝟰. Local Data Sources - Your computer’s files, databases, and services that MCP servers can securely access.
𝟱. Remote Data Sources - External systems available over the internet (e.g., through APIs) that MCP servers can connect to.

𝘌𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘈2𝘈:

Where MCP falls short, A2A tries to help. In multi-Agent applications where state is not necessarily shared

𝟲. Agents (MCP Hosts) would implement and communicate via A2A protocol, that enables:

➡️ Secure Collaboration.
➡️ Task and State Management.
➡️ User Experience Negotiation.
➡️ Capability discovery - similar to MCP tools.

𝗛𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀:

❗️ Open protocols for Agent communication are important but they are just a piece of the picture, there will be a need for standards that govern all of the existing protocols and other missing pieces. E.g.

❓ How do we standardise tracing and Observability in multi-agent IOA systems?
❓ How do we retain the identity of the running job of an AI Agent instance if the communication standard is not unified in different parts of the pipeline?
❓ ... 

✅ More on this in my future posts, stay tuned!

Let me know your thoughts in the comments. 👇

Wavicle Data Solutions

Lead Data Engineer

LinkedIn

LinkedIn Learning Instructor

Globant

CRISIL Limited

Senior Analyst - Data Engineer

Quantiphi

Data Engineer

Tata Consultancy Services

System Engineer

Assistant System Engineer

Assistant System Engineer - Trainee

InsideSherpa

KPMG Data Analytics Consulting Virtual Internship

Monisha Enterprises

•	Data mining and Extraction Transformation Loading using R programming.
•	Data cleaning and processing for Data analysis done using Python using NumPy, pandas, SciPy, Scikit. Data modelling and prediction was done using algorithms – Logistic Regression, Time Series Forecasting, Clustering and Classification.
•	Data Visualization done using Tableau for generating reports to enhance the productivity of the products.
•	Built a Data Warehouse on MSSQL Server for ERP System of the enterprise to organize the data for future processing.

Data Analyst Intern

Open to Collaborate | Storyteller | Lead Data Engineer@Wavicle| Linkedin Top Voice 2024 | Globant | Linkedin Learning Instructor | 2xGCP & AWS Certified | LICAP'2022

Data Engineer with 7+ years of experience working on data engineering, analysis, and modelling projects for various domains, such as banking, healthcare, sales, and e-commerce. I leverage my strong statistical and analytical ability to explore business ideas and provide innovative solutions. 

Skilled with technologies and strong intellect with enthusiasm as an avid learner with challenging opportunities. I’m working as a LinkedIn Learning Instructor to bring change as a data evangelist.

Post Graduated in Master of Technology in Data Science and Engineering from Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani in 2023, where I learned advanced concepts and techniques in data science and engineering, machine learning, cloud computing, and visualization. 

I hold multiple certifications in GCP, AWS, and Azure, and I enjoy working with cloud technologies and big data platforms.

I am passionate about data science and women empowerment, and I have been recognized as the 
- Linkedin Top Voice 2024 
- Data Science and Women Empowerment Thought Leader by Global AI Hub. 

I am also a proud participant of the LinkedIn Creator Accelerator Program 2022, where I share my insights and experiences with the data science community. 

I am open to collaborate and share ideas, or explore various opportunities in the data field.

Pooja Jain

73% of data pipeline failures happen because of dependency issues, not bad code.
Cron jobs don't care if yesterday's data never arrived. They'll happily run on empty tables and produce garbage.

Airflow? It checks, retries, alerts, and refuses to cascade your failure downstream.

→ Beyond scheduling Airflow gives an important feature of 𝗗𝗔𝗚𝘀(𝗗𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗔𝗰𝘆𝗰𝗹𝗶𝗰 𝗚𝗿𝗮𝗽𝗵𝘀), that helps to monitor, retry and gives flexibility to organize pipelines with minimum/less code.

🤔 Data Engineers often misinterpret Airflow just as an orchestration tool.

Apache Airflow is an open-source platform designed to programmatically author, schedule, retry and monitor workflows. 

🎼Think of it as the "conductor of an orchestra", where each musician (your data tasks, like data extraction, transformation, loading, or model training) knows when to play, what to play, and what happens if they make a mistake.

Most data engineers automate the wrong things at the wrong time.

Here's the framework I use after 8 years of building production systems:
✅ AUTOMATE WHEN: 
→ Task runs daily/weekly 
→ Human errors cause outages 
→ Work blocks other priorities
→ Team growth = more manual work
Examples: Reports, schema checks, alerts

❌ DON'T AUTOMATE WHEN: 
→ Task happens quarterly 
→ Requirements change weekly 
→ Process isn't understood yet 
→ Manual steps reveal insights

My rule: If it’s done 3+ times, script it; 10+ times, automate it; fails 5+ times, redesign it.
Automate what matters, when it matters—not everything!

Airflow isn’t just about running tasks.

🕑 It’s about building trustworthy, scalable, and observable pipelines that run reliably at 2am — even when you’re not watching.

Airflow gives structure to your chaos.
DAGs give clarity to your pipelines. 
That’s why DEs love them ❤️

Real Example: 
Instead of: 
❌ Cron jobs that fail silently 
❌ Manual dependency management
❌ No visibility into failures
You get: 
✅ Visual workflow monitoring 
✅ Automatic failure notifications
✅ Smart task scheduling 
✅ Easy debugging & restarting

Here's an amazing Airflow cheatsheet with some fundamentals concepts and interview questions to prepare for data engineers. 👇

Carousel Credits -  Futurense.com

Willing to learn more, here's the link to Astronomer free learning path - https://lnkd.in/g8-EWBda

Also, level up with Marc Lamberti's Udemy course on Airflow 3 - https://lnkd.in/gwArwaME

taplio

The Battle

Aurimas Griciūnas

Pooja Jain

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreAurimas Griciūnas's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScorePooja Jain's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

Aurimas Griciūnas

Pooja Jain

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Aurimas Griciūnas's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScorePooja Jain's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreAurimas Griciūnas's LinkedIn Performance