Available for opportunities worldwide
Six years across machine learning, MLOps, and developer advocacy: shipping models to production at startups, growing open-source ecosystems at Iterative and DagsHub, and co-founding one of Africa's leading data communities. The work has reached more than 80,000 people across 120+ countries.
Gift Ojeabulu
"Gift possesses the rare ability to blend deep technical insight with compelling communication. His strategic thinking, resilience, and consistent global-level impact were vital to Iterative's growth."
Jenifer De Figueiredo, Community & Content Engineering Lead at lakeFS · Formerly Technical Project Manager, Amazon AND AI Community Lead, Iterative.ai
About
Over six years ago, I started building things before anyone asked for them: communities, machine learning solutions, platforms, and ecosystems. What started as side projects now serves a global audience across 120+ countries.
At Iterative and DagsHub, I worked with distributed teams across Europe, North America and Asia, helping developers trust new tools, adopt new workflows, and build AI systems responsibly. At CBB Analytics, I turned raw basketball data into decisions for some of the biggest programs in US college sport. And at Data Community Africa, I went deep on something harder to measure: what happens when an entire continent of builders finally has a room of their own.
The tension between what's technically possible and who actually gets access to it is what drives everything I do. If you're building something that needs to last, something technically sound, community-rooted, and built for the world as it actually is, that's the work I show up for.
Capabilities
I work at the intersection of AI engineering, developer experience, and community. Whether the challenge is shipping intelligent systems, growing product adoption, or building technical ecosystems, I focus on creating solutions that people actually use.
Design and ship production-ready AI applications that are reliable, scalable, and built around real user problems.
Help developers understand, trust, and successfully adopt technical products through education and advocacy.
Build communities that create long-term product adoption instead of short-lived engagement.
The strongest AI products aren't just technically impressive. They're adopted by developers, supported by communities, and built around real people. That's where I do my best work.
Fit
If your product lives where AI meets developers, we will work well together.
Experience
Startups, open-source companies, and analytics firms, always at the intersection of shipping models and growing the people around them.
"Few people I've worked with combine technical depth, strong execution, and clear communication as effectively as Gift. He's dependable, resilient, and approaches every challenge with curiosity and humility. What stands out most is his willingness to learn, embrace feedback, and continuously improve, qualities that make him not only an exceptional engineer but also an outstanding collaborator."
NickFounder, CBB AnalyticsFormerly Senior Data Scientist, Golden State Warriors and New York Knicks
Selected work
A sample of client strategy, ecosystem reporting and hands-on machine learning.
An AI-powered platform for mapping African data and AI talent, and matching practitioners with global opportunities. Built on everything the community work has taught me about where the talent actually is.
Coming soonWriting
I've written articles, newsletters, and contributed to research papers across global technical machine learning and AI publications, from in-depth engineering guides to practical community building. That work has been read more than 120,000 times across 120+ countries. Currently the Lead Author of a production-focused engineering reference on building and operating GenAI systems at scale, with a Tier-1 global technical publisher.
Catch broken data before it breaks your models, with three validation frameworks compared in practice.
10 min Data engineeringPolars, DuckDB, and PyArrow, and when each one actually earns a place in your pipeline.
8 min Data engineeringSchema design, partitioning, and cost control for a production analytics warehouse.
10 min LeadershipA step-by-step playbook for starting a technical learning community from zero.
13 min AIBuilding a language-identification pipeline that works for low-resource African languages.
9 min CareersPractical habits that compound early in a data or AI career.
8 min AIA newsletter dispatch on the builders shaping Africa's AI ecosystem.
10 min CommunityWhat actually keeps a developer community alive after the launch hype fades.
13 min AnalyticsThe complete EDA workflow, taught end to end through FIFA 21 player data.
25 min ResearchPeer-published computer vision research applying deep learning to medical image classification.
PaperSpeaking
Keynotes, talks, and workshops at global conferences, plus podcast appearances and hosted interview series on data science, MLOps, developer relations, and community.
On stage
On air
Community
Co-founding, leading, and contributing to data and AI communities across Africa and beyond, connecting practitioners and making tech more inclusive.
Co-founder and lead of one of the continent's leading data and AI communities.
2022 — 2024Lead meetup organiser and program manager.
2025Lead facilitator and code reviewer.
2022 — 2024Facilitator for open-source data and AI.
EuroPython · Remote moderator SciPy US · AI paper reviewer PyData Global · Technical reviewer
Recognition
My AI engineering expertise, developer relations, and community-building work have earned local and international recognition and features in major media outlets.
Impact
Numbers from six years of shipping AI systems, growing developer ecosystems, and building communities. Every figure comes from real products, real events, and real people.
Graduated with a B.Sc. in Computer Science, in the top 8% of the class. Moved from software engineering into machine learning: completed an intensive AI bootcamp and won Best AI Research Poster. Wrote a first AI research paper on computer vision, and organised first tech events, from monthly meetups to in-person hackathons and a conference.
Started building machine learning solutions and technical communities across Africa, before anyone asked. Began public speaking at tech conferences.
Co-founded Data Community Africa. Accepted into global technical publications and started publishing. Landed a first international role, as a Data Scientist with a US company, working remotely.
A first international CFP acceptance, and a first international conference talk, delivered virtually. Held the first in-person DataFestAfrica conference and hackathon, and launched the MLOps Lagos meetup. Named an ML Thought Leader by Global AI Hub and an AWS ML Community Builder. Began facilitating open-source data science at Sustain Africa.
Landed a first international Developer Advocate role with a US-based company, working remotely across five open-source and SaaS products and growing the developer community by 4,000+ members. Spoke at a first international conference in person. Featured in TechCabal and Technext.
Drove DataChain's Product Hunt launch to #8 Product of the Day. 350% LinkedIn growth for Iterative. Spoke at GDG DevFest Lagos and Ibadan.
Machine Learning Engineer at FastDoc. CFPs accepted on data engineering and on community building focused on measuring impact metrics. Received an all-expenses-paid invitation to an open-source AI conference in Minneapolis, United States, and led a Data Engineering study group.
CFPs accepted at PyCon US, PyCon DE & PyData Berlin, SQLBits, and PyCon Lithuania with two sessions. Invited to TechEx Global London as lead panelist for two sessions on AI, robotics, and intelligent automation. Published the four-year Data Community Africa impact report spanning 40 African countries. Lead Author of a GenAI engineering reference with a Tier-1 global technical publisher. Featured in ThisDay and TechPoint Africa.
Contact
Different goals need different doors. Pick the path that fits, or email me directly. Remote, across any time zone, with replies within 48 hours.