CV · Sebastian Birk

Experience

Oct 2026 – present
Principal Research ScientistWellcome Sanger InstituteCambridge, UK
- Lotfollahi Lab — generative models and graph learning for spatial genomics.
Jul 2026 – present
Freelance Machine Learning Consultant, Target DiscoveryGSK
Dec 2021 – Jun 2026
Advanced Analytics & Data Science ManagerAvanadeMunich, Germany
- Part-time, alongside the doctorate.
- Designed the architecture for an Azure Databricks data science platform, working with data scientists to support mature MLOps and DevOps processes at one of the largest pharmaceutical companies.
- Data science subject-matter expert across projects, guiding junior data scientists.
Mar 2021 – Dec 2021
Advanced Analytics & Data Science Senior ConsultantAvanadeMunich, Germany
- Led a team of ML engineers building a scalable, robust machine learning platform in Azure for one of the largest pharmaceutical companies.
- Worked with data scientists across business groups to develop and deploy production-ready deep learning models and the MLOps workflows around them.
- Initiated and led the creation of an MLOps offering within Avanade ASG (Austria, Switzerland, Germany).
Nov 2019 – Feb 2021
Advanced Analytics & Data Science ConsultantAvanadeMunich, Germany
- Project lead on an AI project at thyssenkrupp, published by Microsoft as a customer success story.
- Built a PySpark simulation engine on Azure Databricks to optimise the supply-chain network of one of the world’s largest material traders, cutting transportation and inventory costs.
- Built an IoT system using computer vision to detect anomalies in car-body assembly for a Munich car manufacturer, with the model output surfaced in a Python web app.
- Built a classification model predicting the correct cost account for expense bookings, using word embeddings and topic modelling.
- Built an interpretable model predicting companies’ return on equity from financial data for a Swedish accounting firm.
- Led a five-person proof of concept that grew into a longer-running engagement.
Oct 2018 – Oct 2019
Advanced Analytics & Data Science Senior AnalystAvanadeMunich, Germany
- Helped build a holistic data and analytics platform in Azure for one of the world’s largest material traders.
- Supported an automotive company developing an IoT solution to control autonomous robots in manufacturing plants.
- Ran a proof of concept for Power BI as a company-wide visualisation tool.

Education

Oct 2021 – Jun 2026
PhD in AI for Health / Data ScienceHelmholtz Munich & Munich School for Data ScienceMunich, Germany
- Thesis: “Unveiling cellular niches from spatial omics data with generative deep learning”.
- Institute of AI for Health, supervised by Mohammad Lotfollahi, Carlos Talavera-López and Bastian Rieck.
- Co-affiliated with the Technical University of Munich and the Wellcome Sanger Institute.
Sep 2017 – Oct 2018
MSc in Business AnalyticsESADE Business SchoolBarcelona, Spain
- Best graduate of the year — GPA 9.59/10, of 40 students; ESADE Scholarship for Excellence.
- Master thesis: “Topic modeling of Twitter data in tourism”.
Oct 2012 – Nov 2016
BSc in International Business AdministrationUniversity of TübingenTübingen, Germany
- Best graduate of the year — GPA 1.11, of 300 students; focus on statistics, econometrics and finance.
- Exchange semester at Fox School of Business, Temple University, Philadelphia (2014–2015).

Earlier experience

Apr 2018 – Aug 2018
Functional & Industry Analytics InternAccentureBarcelona, Spain
- Developed a showcase IoT demo application for industrial machines.
- Supported the analytics team across data science use cases.
Apr 2018 – Jul 2018
Corporate Analytics ProjectTelefónicaBarcelona, Spain
- Developed a customer-service chatbot using topic modelling.
Mar 2017 – Aug 2017
Supply Chain Business Analyst InternAmazonMunich, Germany
Aug 2016 – Feb 2017
Financial Analyst InternMicrosoftMunich, Germany
Apr 2016 – Jul 2016
Finance & Controlling InternDaimler Financial ServicesMadrid, Spain