HR Analytics AI Assistant
Built a Databricks Genie-based assistant that lets stakeholders query HR data in natural language. Achieved 70% accuracy in testing and reduced dependency on manual reporting.
Senior Data & Analytics Engineer
Taanis Karigar
From steering wheels to steering data.
Hey there! I'm a mechanical engineer who fell in love with data. Over the past six years, I've evolved from building physical systems to crafting data pipelines, AI solutions, and decision-support tools that create real operational impact. Currently, I'm leading AI initiatives at FrieslandCampina's Global HR People Analytics team.
My Path
Three chapters, one thread.
Every step built on the last. From building race cars to building AI assistants — problem-solving has always been the constant.
Chapter One
The Engineering Foundation
Started as a mechanical engineer — designed a steering wheel for a Formula Student race car, optimised overseas supply chains at MAHLE (cut freight costs by 15%), and earned degrees from COEP, Sheffield, and TU/e.
Chapter Two
The Data Transition
PDEng at TU/e led me to Woonbedrijf, where I built choice models and an R Shiny app for energy renovation decisions. Then at RoyalHaskoningDHV, I mastered ETL in Alteryx and PowerBI — and eventually migrated corporate data to Parquet, slashing Azure costs by 90%.
Chapter Three
AI & Strategic Impact
Now at FrieslandCampina, I lead AI initiatives in People Analytics. Built a Databricks Genie-based HR assistant achieving 70% accuracy. Exploring privacy-conscious AI with locally-hosted open-source models for sensitive HR use cases like anonymisation.
Featured Work
Projects that matter.
A selection of work where I turned complex problems into systems people actually rely on.
Data Lake Modernization
Led the migration of RoyalHaskoningDHV's corporate data to Parquet format. Cut Azure Data Lake storage costs by nearly 90% while significantly boosting processing speed.
Energy Renovation Tool
Used stated choice experiments and discrete choice models to understand tenant preferences. Built an R Shiny web app featured on TU/e's website that helps housing associations make better decisions.
Toolkit
What I work with.
A blend of engineering rigour and modern data tooling. Always learning, always building.
Python
90%
SQL
90%
R
85%
Azure & Databricks
80%
Power BI
80%
Alteryx
85%
Streamlit
75%
AI / LLMs
70%
Let's talk
Always happy to chat.
Whether you want to discuss a project, explore an opportunity, or just exchange ideas about data and AI — I'd love to hear from you.
What I'm up to now
Exploring the frontier.
These days, I'm deep into generative AI applications for enterprise HR, privacy-conscious LLM deployments, and modernising data architectures on Azure. I also enjoy building side projects — like web scrapers that reveal interesting insights about everyday things (ever wondered about Tesla prices on Marktplaats?).
Databricks
Genie
Open Source LLMs
Python