Nikola Nikolic

Machine Learning Technology Lead | Applied Data Scientist | PhD in AI (NLP) | GenAI

Serbia

About

I am a Lead Machine Learning Engineer and Applied Data Scientist with a Ph.D. in Artificial Intelligence, specializing in Natural Language Processing (NLP), and a strong foundation in Computer Science. My work is centered on the research and application of advanced Machine Learning and Deep Learning techniques, with a primary focus on NLP. Throughout my career, I have contributed to all phases of the ML project lifecycle—including R&D, RFP, PDP, SDP, development, and production. I have extensive experience designing, developing, and maintaining end-to-end ML and data science pipelines in cloud-based environments. My domain expertise includes a wide range of NLP applications such as information retrieval, feature engineering and embeddings, text classification, generative AI, summarization, conversational AI and chatbots, question answering, semantic search, and recommender systems. With over a decade of experience in both research and industry, I bring a strong ability to work both independently and collaboratively. I am skilled in developing innovative solutions, leading technical initiatives, and driving projects from concept to deployment.

Experience

  • Lead Data Scientist at EPAM Systems
    Nov 2024 - Present · 1 yr 9 mos

  • HTEC Group (3 yrs 2 mos)
    • Machine Learning Technology Lead
      Jun 2022 - Nov 2024 · 2 yrs 6 mos

      - Supports Individual Engineer's Technical Growth - Provides technical consultancy to multiple project teams - Research SOTA models and solutions, and apply best industry practices - Actively engages in company initiatives such as internal projects, SDP/RFP support, interviews, mentoring, project audit, tech consulting, workshops, and experience sharing participation, tech sales and marketing support

    • Machine Learning Engineer
      Oct 2021 - Nov 2024 · 3 yrs 2 mos

      MLE involved in R&D, RFP, PDP, SDP, Dev and Prod phases of projects. Working on creating / maintenance ML/DS pipelines in cloud environments and training / fine-tuning models mostly for NLP domain tasks and systems such as Information retrieval, FE/Embeddings, Classification, Generative AI, Summarization, Conversational AI / Chatbot, QA, Semantic Search and Recommender systems.

  • Research And Teaching Assistant at Faculty of Technical Sciences, University of Novi Sad
    Oct 2012 - Sep 2021 · 9 yrs

    Researcher in the field of Artificial Intelligence. Teaching software engineering courses based on object-oriented programming, scientific computing and artificial intelligence.

  • Software Development Engineer at RT-RK
    Oct 2010 - Sep 2012 · 2 yrs

    Software engineer on student and commercial projects. Work on system software for digital TV on improving functionality, optimization, maintenance and creating new features.