Diego Salazar Tortosa - Freelance AI Engineer

Q: Where is Diego based?

Diego is based in Granada, Spain and can operate in on-site , hybrid , and remote work models.

Q: What languages does Diego speak?

Diego speaks the following languages: Spanish (Native), English (Advanced) .

Q: How many years of experience does Diego have?

Diego has at least 11 years of experience. During this time, Diego has worked in at least 4 different roles and for 4 different companies . The average length of individual experience is 3 years and 8 months . Note that Diego may not have shared all experience and actually has more experience.

Q: What is Diego's latest experience?

Diego's most recent position is Founder & CEO at Grounded Models .

Q: What companies has Diego worked for in recent years?

In recent years, Diego has worked for Grounded Models , expressTEC , and University of Arizona .

Q: Which industries is Diego most experienced in?

Diego is most experienced in industries like Biotechnology , Healthcare , and Agriculture . Diego also has some experience in Education , Pharmaceutical , and Information Technology .

Q: Which business areas is Diego most experienced in?

Diego is most experienced in business areas like Information Technology , Research and Development , and Project Management . Diego also has some experience in Product Development and Quality Assurance .

Q: Which industries has Diego worked in recently?

Diego has recently worked in industries like Biotechnology , Healthcare , and Pharmaceutical .

Q: Which business areas has Diego worked in recently?

Diego has recently worked in business areas like Information Technology , Research and Development , and Project Management .

Recommended expert

Granada, Spain

Check rate

Experience

Mar 2026 - Present

5 months

Granada, Spain

Founder & CEO

Grounded Models

Designed and deployed event-driven assistants that automate operations end-to-end, from webhook ingestion and validation through message classification, grounded response generation, and reply orchestration (Python and Bash).
Built applications with FastAPI, Celery, PostgreSQL, pyvector, OpenAI API, Docker, and Nylas, combining LLM-based intent handling with retrieval over internal documentation. This also includes the use of LangChain and LangGraph for workflow automatization (when appropriate), evals through training a LLM-as-a-judge and tracing through Langfuse.
Deployed systems on Hetzner Ubuntu cloud servers, demonstrating the ability to package, deploy, and operate AI applications across backend, data, and infrastructure layers.

Jun 2025 - Feb 2026

9 months

Faro, Portugal

Head of Data Science

expressTEC

Led the design and implementation of an analytical module for cancer companion diagnostics, transforming raw molecular data into clinically relevant outputs (Python and Bash).
Built end-to-end pipelines for data ingestion, quality control, domain-specific biological interpretation, and generation of reporting artifacts, improving scalability, reproducibility, and operational efficiency.
Developed and deployed containerized cloud workflows on Azure using Docker, GitHub Actions, and Azure SQL, integrating laboratory data processing with production software engineering and cloud infrastructure.

Oct 2019 - Feb 2025

5 years 5 months

Tucson, United States

Data & Machine Learning Scientist

University of Arizona

Designed a project on human genetics connecting 3 labs (USA, Australia, Spain) and securing €263K in funding (GitHub, GitHub). Analyzed ~180 GB of compressed data, creating pipelines for data processing and optimization of computational resources (parallel and distributed computing using multiprocessing and PySpark; Python, R, Bash and AWK).
Developed a novel modeling framework to explore and fine-tune multiple algorithms that can then be deployed to analyze large amounts of genetic data. This was done through nested cross-validation and Bayesian optimization while considering multiple algorithms (Gaussian mixtures, ElasticNet, Random Forest, XGBoost and Deep Learning).
Achieved the highest predictive power with deep neural networks (R²=80% in the test sets). Used Explainable AI (XAI) techniques such as permutation importance and ALE plots, leading to the discovery of novel insights about the functioning of the human genome.

Oct 2014 - Jan 2019

4 years 4 months

Granada, Spain

Data & Machine Learning Scientist (Pre-Doc)

University of Granada

Secured €61,500 to predict forests' response to climate change (GitHub). Reconstructed the past evolution of hundreds of pine species and predicted their future distribution under hundreds of thousands of climate change scenarios across the globe (GIS). Used both Frequentist and Bayesian statistics, along with Monte Carlo simulations (R, Bash).
Developed a new modeling approach considering multiple sources of biological and technical uncertainty (e.g., selection across multiple algorithms and CV partitions). Achieved high performance metrics (AUC>0.98, Kappa>0.75 and TSS>0.9).
Validated the approach with an independent dataset, demonstrating significant improvements over random expectation. This supported its potential to predict tree responses under novel environmental conditions. Remarkably, this project opened a new venue for the improvement of Machine Learning models.

Industry Experience

See where this freelancer has spent most of their professional time.

Experienced in Biotechnology, Healthcare, Agriculture, Education, Information Technology, and Pharmaceutical.

Biotechnology

Healthcare

Agriculture

Education

Information Technology

Pharmaceutical

Business Area Experience

See which departments and functions this freelancer has contributed to most.

Experienced in Information Technology, Research and Development, Project Management, Product Development, and Quality Assurance.

Information Technology

Research and Development

Project Management

Product Development

Quality Assurance

Summary

I'm a freelance AI Engineer specialized in custom RAG systems and knowledge workflows. I help companies with internal data scattered across large volumes of documents unlock information quickly. I focus on delivering production-ready automations that drive down operational costs and maximize worker productivity.

Skills

Llm Applications
Rag
Ai Agents
Langchain
Langgraph
Langfuse
Prompt Engineering
Structured Outputs
Vector Databases
Evals
Fastapi
Apis
Postgresql
Azure
Docker
Github Actions
Containerized Deployments
Ci/Cd
Data Pipelines
Cross-Validation
Bayesian Optimization
Explainable Ai
Deep Neural Networks
Xgboost
Random Forest
Elastic Net
Python
R
Bash
Git
Awk
Pyspark
Parallel And Distributed Computing
Numpy
Pandas

Languages

Spanish

Native

English

Advanced

Education

Oct 2014 - Jan 2019

University of Granada

PhD · Bioinformatics · Spain

Sep 2008 - Sep 2013

University of Granada

BSc · Biological Sciences · Spain

Certifications & licenses

AI Engineer Expert

Datalumina (Netherlands)

Applied Generative AI Specialization

Purdue University (USA)

Data Scientist Certification

Pragmatic Institute (USA)

Statistics

Experience

Total positions 4

Experience in Biotechnology 6 y

Avg length 2 y 8 m

Longest experience 5 y 4 m

Global Experience

Countries worked in 3 (Spain, Portugal, United States)

Primary country Spain

Expertise

Recent roles Founder & CEO, Head of Data Science, Data & Machine Learning Scientist

Main industries Biotechnology, Healthcare, Agriculture

Main business areas Information Technology, Research and Development, Project Management

Qualifications

Highest degree Doctorate

Certifications earned 3

Profile

Created

July 2026

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Frequently asked questions

Have questions? Find more information here.

Where is Diego based?

Diego is based in Granada, Spain and can operate in on-site, hybrid, and remote work models.

What languages does Diego speak?

Diego speaks the following languages: Spanish (Native), English (Advanced).

How many years of experience does Diego have?

Diego has at least 11 years of experience. During this time, Diego has worked in at least 4 different roles and for 4 different companies. The average length of individual experience is 3 years and 8 months. Note that Diego may not have shared all experience and actually has more experience.

What roles would Diego be best suited for?

Based on recent experience, Diego would be well-suited for roles such as: Founder & CEO, Head of Data Science, Data & Machine Learning Scientist.

What is Diego's latest experience?

Diego's most recent position is Founder & CEO at Grounded Models.

What companies has Diego worked for in recent years?

In recent years, Diego has worked for Grounded Models, expressTEC, and University of Arizona.

Which industries is Diego most experienced in?

Diego is most experienced in industries like Biotechnology, Healthcare, and Agriculture. Diego also has some experience in Education, Pharmaceutical, and Information Technology.

Which business areas is Diego most experienced in?

Diego is most experienced in business areas like Information Technology, Research and Development, and Project Management. Diego also has some experience in Product Development and Quality Assurance.

Which industries has Diego worked in recently?

Diego has recently worked in industries like Biotechnology, Healthcare, and Pharmaceutical.

Which business areas has Diego worked in recently?

Diego has recently worked in business areas like Information Technology, Research and Development, and Project Management.

What is Diego's education?

Diego holds a Doctorate in Bioinformatics from University of Granada and a Bachelor in Biological Sciences from University of Granada.

Does Diego have any certificates?

Diego has 3 certificates. These include: AI Engineer Expert, Applied Generative AI Specialization, and Data Scientist Certification.

What is the availability of Diego?

Diego is immediately available full-time for suitable projects.

What is the rate of Diego?

Diego's rate depends on the specific project requirements. Please use the Meet button on the profile to schedule a meeting and discuss the details.