Dr. Arman Nassirtoussi

Since the year 2000, when I started my professional career, I have always perceived the world from the perspective of value creation, with earning as a byproduct of it.

In general, I have always been interested in the application of technology and the creation of innovative solutions in a way that makes clear, product-oriented value creation possible. Therefore, I have always pursued science from an applied science and technology perspective.

This philosophy has solidified over the years. It has expanded, and focused itself around the specific value creation chain in information systems, which is what I studied. I picked information systems because, in my mind, the idea of systems engineering and applying systems thinking to the information space was highly impactful, valuable and relevant, as we had just entered the information age. That was followed by an AI PhD on financial markets prediction using online news text mining.

The PhD gave me a deep understanding of data science and AI: its nature, its definition, its workflows and its possible implications. It came at exactly the right time, as the field and its terminology were taking shape, and it was among the work where the first end-to-end data science and AI workflows were being shaped and built, with direct application in industry. It also gave me great insights into natural language processing (NLP), as well as behavioral economics, the financial markets, the concept of value in general and the mechanics of free markets.

I then focused on the data science and analytics side of it and brought it to the more tangible e-commerce space, exploring how individuals and organizations can utilize and leverage data and AI. My work has brought together ideas from product thinking, engineering, AI, organizational behavior and development, as well as learning and personalization.

My applied perspective manifests itself best in starting product-based startups, of which I have started a few. Even in my corporate roles, the teams and organizations I led were highly startup-like, both in their formation and in their responsibilities, which always included building data and AI software platforms to support larger strategic business goals in e-commerce. As a result, I have oscillated between being an entrepreneur and an intrapreneur quite a few times.

I have worked at companies like T-Systems, Zalando and Henkel, at the last of which I built a larger organization of 60–70 members, building an end-to-end data platform with all the possible data roles in it: data engineers, data analysts, AI product managers, data product managers, machine learning engineers and more. I interviewed and hand-picked the people in these roles. As a result, I have become familiar with the nuances and intricacies of each role, and have helped shape their scope, definition and responsibilities so that they bring value to the organization.

I myself have held many different titles, some of which are teacher, director of studies, software engineer, AI researcher, project manager, product manager, head of data center onboarding and operations, analytics team lead, and head of product and engineering. That puts me in a unique position: closely familiar with many aspects of the field, through having worn those shoes for periods of time.

“The Right Job Elevates The Soul” is a reminder for us and those we work with to keep thinking about what the right job for us is at any given moment, and how it can best be facilitated, allocated, prepared for and carried out. ElevateSoul.ai is here to leverage all technology, including AI, to get us closer to a world in which people's potential can be realized much faster, at speeds unimaginable today, and where starting or changing a career path is as simple as a click. If this resonates with you, I'd be glad to connect.

Looking forward!

Best,
Dr. Arman Nassirtoussi
AI PhD & Founder of ElevateSoul.ai