1st Place
ASIA 2025 Data Science Challenge
Winning solution (TabPFN) for predicting functional recovery after traumatic spinal cord injury.
Open to Data & AI roles
Hi, I'm Ricardo.
Data & AI Solutions · Business Development · ML Engineering
ETH Zurich MSc who bridges commercial strategy and deep technical delivery.
At Novalytica I own Data & AI proposals end-to-end — from solution architecture and client advisory to closing a >250k CHF engagement — while staying technical enough to win an international machine-learning challenge and co-author the peer-reviewed paper behind it. I turn complex client needs into Data & AI solutions that ship and move real metrics.
Bern, Switzerland ricardo.stirnimann@gmail.com
1st place
ASIA 2025 Challenge
Experience across
>250k
CHF deal owned & won
1st
ASIA 2025 ML Challenge
80+
Forum guests hosted
20%
VC fund IRR
About Me
Technical fluency with consulting DNA.
I started in Mechanical Engineering at ETH Zurich and followed the data into a Master in Management, Technology & Economics focused on Machine Learning and Statistical AI. That combination is the point: I can sit with a client to scope a Data & AI engagement and architect the commercial case, then go hands-on and build the model myself. Most recently, as Business Development Manager · Data & AI at Novalytica, I owned proposals end-to-end and closed a >250k CHF deal.
Highlights
Selected achievements.
Publication
Peer-reviewed research.
Co-first author · ASIA 2025 winning solution
The ASIA Data Science Challenge: Predicting Functional and Neurological Recovery From Acute ISNCSCI Scores
R. Stirnimann is a co-first author. The paper presents the winning ASIA 2025 Data Science Challenge solution (TabPFN) for predicting functional and neurological recovery after traumatic spinal cord injury from acute ISNCSCI scores.
J. Villines*, R. Stirnimann*, L. P. Lukas, O. Taran, M. Tuci, Y. Li, C. R. Jutzeler, J. L. K. Kramer, F. H. Geisler, D. Bourbeau, R. J. Cotton, S. C. Brüningk, and the ASIA Engineering and Data Science Committee
Topics in Spinal Cord Injury Rehabilitation, 2025 (ahead of print) · DOI 10.46292/sci25-00137
Read the paper Experience
Where I've made an impact.
Sep 2025
May 2026
No
Most recent
Business Development Manager · Data & AI
Novalytica
Sep 2025 – May 2026 · Bern, CH
- Hybrid commercial–technical lead: independently owned the end-to-end development of multiple complex Data & AI proposals, from first client conversation to signed contract.
- Won a >250k CHF engagement (with a second high-value proposal pending) by designing strategic solution architectures from deep-dive customer analyses and mapping project goals to actionable blueprints.
- Acted as trusted technical advisor to new clients, translating system architectures and Data & AI capabilities into clear, business-driven value propositions.
- Orchestrated the "Data & AI Forum" at the Swiss Life Arena, Zürich — securing 80+ key clients, partners and prospects and curating an agenda with speakers from Microsoft and Sieber&Partners alongside the CEO.
- Directed content & thought leadership: produced six 1-hour webinars (Microsoft Fabric, Data Agents), authored white papers, and ran the corporate LinkedIn and monthly newsletter strategy.
Jul 2024
Present
Working Student, Portfolio Management
Swiss Life Asset Managers
Jul 2024 – Present · Zürich, CH
- Support the Fixed Income desk (IG & High Yield, Leveraged Loans) with quantitative tooling in Python, R, SQL and the Power BI stack.
- Built dashboards that improved discovery of mispricings in the bond market, helping generate alpha.
- Defined requirements for a RAG tool to accelerate fund information gathering for client presentations.
Oct 2024
Sep 2025
Master Thesis — Event Segmentation & Anomaly Detection
Spinal Cord Injury & AI Lab, ETH Zurich
Oct 2024 – Sep 2025 · Zürich, CH
- Investigated event detection and segmentation (LSTM, Bayesian DNN) for time-series activity recognition on data from 16 SCI patients across 6 sensors.
- Extended MCA-TCN, Tifex-Py and XGBoost to predict Activities of Daily Living, designing the feature preprocessing and fusion pipeline on GPUs/cloud.
- Built a robust ADL segmentation pipeline with anomaly detection on unknown classes and wavelet feature extraction.
Jan 2024
Jan 2025
Consultant
ETH Juniors
Jan 2024 – Jan 2025 · Zürich, CH
- Built data pipelines (Excel, Azure DB, PostgreSQL) and Power BI dashboards for the CTO of Enersuisse, plus an ML prototype (sklearn) with a business-potential report.
- Developed and delivered a tailored 12-module Power BI training programme for Zurich City administration.
Feb 2023
Jun 2024
Working Student, Risk Management
Swiss Life Asset Managers
Feb 2023 – Jun 2024 · Zürich, CH
- Designed a new ESG risk reporting procedure (SQL, Python, Power BI, Excel) across sources like SimCorp, APIs and MSCI BarraOne.
- Ran the project agile (Jira Service Management) with Risk, Compliance and Portfolio Management stakeholders.
- Built a Power BI dashboard surfacing market shifts in issuers’ credit risk.
Feb 2023
Present
Partner
Wingman Campus Fund (now Founderful Campus)
Feb 2023 – Present · Zürich, CH
- Administer a micro-VC fund providing initial capital to founders at ETH Zürich, EPFL and HSG.
- Sourced, evaluated and monitored 80+ startup investments over 4 years, achieving a 20% IRR.
- Run tech bootcamps and act as a jury member for pitching events.
Sep 2022
Feb 2023
Founders Associate
First Momentum Ventures & Arteus Energy
Sep 2022 – Feb 2023 · Karlsruhe, DE
- Built the Business Development function of Arteus Energy (agri-photovoltaics), creating a sales pipeline for PPA partners.
- Screened founders for the fund and ran market sizing, competitor analysis and due diligence.
Mar 2022
Sep 2022
Sw
Entrepreneur in Residence / EA to CEO & COO
Swiss Organic Partners AG
Mar 2022 – Sep 2022 · Zürich, CH
- Directed the rollout of a multi-year strategic plan, reporting progress to the CEO and COO.
- Led cross-department projects to redesign workflows and improve data flows between business units and IT.
Oct 2021
Apr 2022
Back-End Developer (Python)
Sensirion
Oct 2021 – Apr 2022 · Stäfa, CH
- Built and deployed document-management scripts (Python, Git) for a migration, cutting identification effort by 90%.
Education
2025 · Grade 5.25 / 6
MSc Management, Technology & Economics
ETH Zürich
Focus on Machine Learning & Statistical AI — Probabilistic AI, Intro to ML, Econometrics, Risk Management.
2021 · Grade 4.5 / 6
BSc Mechanical Engineering
ETH Zürich
Specialisation in Microsystems & Nanoscale Engineering. Thesis: batch growth of carbon nanotubes.
Skills
The toolbox.
Programming
PythonRC++SQLMatlab
ML / AI
PyTorchscikit-learnDeep LearningLSTM / TCNBayesian DNNTabPFNAnomaly DetectionTime-SeriesOpenAI API
Data & BI
Power BIPower AutomatePandasNumPyPostgreSQLBloomberg TerminalSimCorp Dimension
Cloud & Tools
Azure MLGit / GitHubGitLab CIJiraHugging FaceVercel
Languages
German (Native)Spanish (Native)English (Fluent)French (Intermediate)
Projects
Things I've built.
Winning TabPFN solutions for predicting functional and neurological recovery after traumatic spinal cord injury — 1st and 2nd place, a conference invite to Phoenix, and a co-first-author publication.
PythonTabPFNMachine LearningPandas
Master Thesis — ADL Segmentation & Anomaly Detection
Time-series event detection for monitoring Activities of Daily Living in SCI patients, fusing six sensors with MCA-TCN, Bayesian DNN and wavelet features.
PyTorchBayesian DNNLSTMSignal Processing
Smart Meter Analytics & ML Tool
Data pipelines (Azure DB, PostgreSQL) and Power BI dashboards for Enersuisse, plus an ML prototype to optimise smart-meter rollout and maintenance.
PythonSQLPower BIscikit-learn
Batch Growth of Carbon Nanotubes
BSc thesis scaling up suspended carbon-nanotube FETs, with a new high-speed Raman scanning technique reaching ~60% transferable CNT density per trench.
Raman SpectroscopyNanofabricationMaterial Science
Contact
Let's turn your data into decisions.
Whether it's a Data & AI proposal, a dashboard, or a research collaboration — I'd love to hear about it.