From Surat to Dublin: 10 Years in Data, and Why I'm Just Getting Started
15 October 2026 · 2 min read · by Malav Naik · Career
In 2015 I finished a Bachelor of Computer Applications in Gujarat and took my first job doing SEO keyword research. Ten years later I hold an MSc in Data Analytics from National College of Ireland, I’ve built data platforms for a global financial information company, and I work on platform integrity operations in Dublin.
This is the first post in a series where I’ll write about what I’ve learned along the way: data engineering, generative AI, and the less glamorous work of keeping online platforms safe.
The early years: cleaning data by hand
My first data role was at Bright Info Solutions in Ahmedabad. Most of the work was unglamorous: pulling data with SQL, cleaning it in Excel and Python, building weekly reports. It taught me the lesson every analyst learns early. Most of the job is making data trustworthy before anyone looks at a chart.
Building platforms at scale
From 2019 to 2024 I worked at S&P Global Market Intelligence as a data analyst and ETL developer. I built SSIS pipelines over multi-million-record financial datasets, designed data models for analytics, and helped migrate on-premise SQL Server databases to Azure SQL PaaS. That migration cut infrastructure costs by about 25%.
What I took from those years: good data engineering is invisible. When it works, nobody notices. When it breaks, everyone does.
Starting again in Ireland
In 2024 I moved to Dublin for a master’s. Going back to study after nine years of industry work was humbling. Modules in machine learning, deep learning and generative AI showed me how fast the field had moved. My dissertation combined knowledge graphs and prompt engineering, and my main project, SkillBot, paired a fine-tuned GPT-3.5 model with a 2.3-million-triple knowledge graph using retrieval-augmented generation.
Where I am now
Today I work in platform integrity, analysing complex escalations with AI-assisted tools. It sits where my two interests meet: data and AI used to make platforms safer.
Why write in public?
Three reasons:
- Writing forces clarity. If I can’t explain something simply, I don’t understand it yet.
- Dublin is one of the world’s great tech hubs. I want to contribute to its data and AI community, not just work in it.
- Accountability. Publishing every week keeps me learning.
Over the coming months I’ll post about Azure migrations, RAG evaluation, knowledge graphs, content moderation metrics, and the career lessons in between. If any of that interests you, follow along. I’d love to hear what you’re working on too.