Head of Data Science & AI

Linda
Hoeberigs.

Scaling AI from strategy to shipped product. I lead teams that turn generative AI, NLP and machine learning into measurable business outcomes.

LinkedIn Top Voice in AI Certified Product Owner
🤖 OpenAI Top API User
10+
Years in AI
20+
Products shipped
8
Industry Awards
3
Languages
GenAI NLP ML Engineering Product Storytelling
🏆 Dataiku Moonshot Pioneer
🚀 Youngest manager in Unilever history

Where data meets
business impact

I'm a data science and AI leader with over a decade of experience driving AI strategy, building high-performing teams, and shipping products that move the needle. At i-Genie.ai (consumer insights without surveys, faster, better, cheaper) I lead Data Science & AI, define the early product roadmap, and took Brand Pulse, ACQ and Innov8 from zero to market. Under my leadership, i-Genie became one of OpenAI's top API consumers globally (10B+ tokens).

Before i-Genie, I spent 8+ years at Unilever where I scaled a data science function from being one of the first scientists to a 25-person Data Science & AI Engineering organisation within Consumer Market Insights, running projects across Consumer Insights, Marketing, NPD, HR and R&D. I set the technical vision, hired and developed talent, and delivered award-winning solutions in NLP, computer vision, and responsible AI.

What sets me apart: I combine deep technical fluency with commercial instinct and stakeholder storytelling. I don't just understand the models; I know how to align them to P&L impact, build the teams to deliver them, and communicate the "so what" to the boardroom.

AI Strategy & Product

Roadmap ownership, 0-to-1 product launches, GenAI at enterprise scale

Org Building

Scaled DS functions from scratch, hired and developed 25+ person teams

Executive Communication

Translating AI into boardroom language, aligning technical vision to business KPIs

Cross-Industry

FMCG, public sector, NGOs, ad tech, market research

Experience

From first data scientist to leading a 25-person AI organisation. A track record of building teams, shipping products, and driving commercial impact.

i-Genie.ai
Head of Data Science & AI
March 2023 — Present
Own the AI strategy, early product roadmap, and technical direction. Took three products (Brand Pulse, ACQ, Innov8) from concept to market. Grew the company into one of OpenAI's top API consumers globally (10B+ tokens).
OpenAI Token of Appreciation
Unilever
Head of Data Science & AI
June 2021 — January 2023
Set the technical vision and operating model for Data Science, Innovation and AI across Social & Business Analytics, Data Driven Marketing, and Consumer Engagement. Managed a 25+ person organisation spanning data scientists, ML engineers, and AI specialists.
Dataiku Moonshot Pioneer
Unilever
DS & AI Engineering Manager
June 2019 — June 2021
Stood up the AI engineering capability for Consumer Market Insight. Defined the E2E delivery model, embedded AI into core marketing processes, and drove cross-functional adoption across trends, e-commerce, M&A, content, and activation.
i-com Influencer Fraud Responsible AI Award
Unilever · London
Lead Data Science Manager
March 2017 — June 2019
First management role. Built and led a data science team, owned the innovation pipeline, and drove industrialisation of new tools and methodologies across Unilever's Global People Data Centre. Youngest mid-level manager in Unilever history at the time of promotion.
MRS Computer Vision NLP Solution Award
Unilever · London
Data Scientist
September 2015 — February 2017
Delivered analytics projects across Marketing, Finance, and Supply Chain, leveraging data from social media, search, and internal sources. Designed industrialisable analytics tools and evaluated emerging technologies for adoption.
Twitter · Boulder, CO
Data Science Secondment
2016 · 2 months
Secondment with Twitter's data services team as a Unilever data scientist, working on social analytics capabilities.
Centraal Planbureau
Researcher Macroeconomics
May — September 2014
Macroeconomic research on labour hoarding in the Dutch labour market at the Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.

Awards & Honours

🏅

LinkedIn Top Voice in AI

2023. Recognised as a leading voice in artificial intelligence on LinkedIn

🚀

Dataiku Moonshot Pioneer

Frontrunner Award for pioneering AI innovation at scale

🛡

Dataiku Responsible AI

Frontrunner Award for building responsible and ethical AI systems

🔍

i-com Award

Industry recognition for Influencer Fraud Detection Solution

📊

MRS Award

Market Research Society award for Computer Vision Solution

💬

MRS Award

Market Research Society award for Language Analyzer, an NLP solution

💚

Unilever Data for Good

Award for applying data science to create positive social impact

🪙

OpenAI Token of Appreciation

Honoured for surpassing 10 billion tokens. One of OpenAI's top API users globally

Board & Advisory Positions

Royal Statistical Society

Fellow · Since 2016

I-COM UK Advisory Board

Member · 2018–2020 · via Unilever

Clarabridge CAB

Customer Advisory Board · 2016–2019 · via Unilever

Dataiku Neuron

Community member · AI and analytics thought leadership

Areas of Expertise

Bridging the gap between technical AI capability and real-world business impact.

GenAI at Scale

Defining strategy and delivery models for production-grade GenAI systems. From LLM-based product features to enterprise AI platforms processing billions of tokens.

Strategy & Delivery

AI Transformation

Driving organisation-wide AI adoption and cultural change. Enabling leadership teams and business functions to operate with data confidence.

Change Leadership

Stakeholder & Board Communication

Making AI investment decisions tangible for C-suite and board audiences. Connecting technical capability to commercial outcomes through clear, compelling narratives.

Executive Influence

Skills & Technologies

AI & Data Science

LLM Engineering RAG & Agentic AI Prompt Engineering NLP / Text Classification Summarisation Machine Learning Deep Learning Computer Vision Sentiment Analysis Fine-tuning Embeddings / Vector Search Topic Modelling Responsible AI Time Series Analysis Econometrics

Tools & Platforms

Python PySpark SQL Azure Databricks Power BI Dataiku Tableau Git OpenAI API Claude API Gemini API Vertex AI LangChain

Business & Leadership

Data Strategy AI Strategy Product Ownership (PSPO I) Scrum (PSM I) Stakeholder Management Team Leadership Public Speaking Competitive Analysis Digital Marketing E-commerce P&L Management Vendor Management

Academic Background

MSc International Financial Economics / Econometrics
Utrecht University
2014 — 2015 · Quantitative Finance, Risk Management, M&A
BSc Social Sciences (Hons.), Cum Laude
University College Roosevelt
2011 — 2014 · Economics, Finance, Political Science · Methods & Statistics
Corporate Law · Summer University
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
2014 · Grade: 100/100, A+
Le Diplôme de français B1+
Université catholique de Lyon
2013 · Grade: 83.5/100, A

The person behind the algorithms

The same persistence that drives me to scale an AI organisation is what got me a national basketball championship and into powerlifting. I don't do things halfway. Whether it's taking a product from zero to market, training for a new PR, or working through a reading list.

I grew up in the Netherlands, studied and lived across six countries, and I'm happiest when I'm learning something new: a language, a technique, a place. That restlessness is what pulled me from econometrics into data science, from analytics into AI engineering, and from corporate into building products.

When I'm not shipping products, you'll find me travelling, buried in a book, or figuring out how to make the perfect cup of coffee.

🏀
National Champion
Basketball
🏋️‍♀️
Powerlifter
Strength training
🌍
6 Countries
Lived & studied
📚
Bookworm
Always reading
Coffee
Fuel of choice
✈️
Traveller
Always exploring

The Bookshelf

22 books that shaped how I think about data, people, and the world.

01
Thinking, Fast and Slow
Daniel Kahneman · 2011
Made me question every decision I've ever made.
data & behaviour
02
Fooled by Randomness
Nassim Nicholas Taleb · 2001
We're all terrible at understanding probability.
data & behaviour
03
The Culture Map
Erin Meyer · 2014
Changed how I give feedback across cultures.
leadership
04
The Anxious Generation
Jonathan Haidt · 2024
What screens are doing to the next generation.
psychology
05
Everybody Lies
Seth Stephens-Davidowitz · 2017
Google search data reveals what surveys never will.
data & society
06
The Body Keeps the Score
Bessel van der Kolk · 2014
Rewired how I think about stress and resilience.
psychology
07
No Rules Rules
Meyer & Hastings · 2020
Radical candour and talent density. Bold and polarising.
leadership
08
Creativity, Inc.
Ed Catmull · 2014
How Pixar built a culture where feedback fuels creativity.
leadership
09
The Ministry for the Future
Kim Stanley Robinson · 2020
Climate fiction that reads like a policy brief from the future.
fiction
10
Burn
Herman Pontzer · 2021
Everything you think about metabolism is wrong.
science
11
Invisible Women
Caroline Criado Pérez · 2019
The data gender gap is everywhere. Can’t unsee it.
data & society
12
The Power of Habit
Charles Duhigg · 2012
Cue-routine-reward. Simple framework, massive impact.
psychology
13
Measure What Matters
John Doerr · 2017
OKRs done right. The framework behind my own teams.
strategy
14
How Brands Grow
Byron Sharp · 2010
Destroys marketing myths with data. A Unilever must-read.
marketing
15
Zero to One
Peter Thiel · 2014
Think different, build monopolies, ask better questions.
strategy
16
Outliers
Malcolm Gladwell · 2008
Success is timing, culture, and 10,000 hours.
society
17
En finir avec Eddy Bellegueule
Édouard Louis · 2014
Raw autofiction about class and identity. Stayed with me for weeks.
fiction
18
Life 3.0
Max Tegmark · 2017
Big-picture AI thinking that got me into this field.
AI & tech
19
When Breath Becomes Air
Paul Kalanithi · 2016
What makes life worth living. Devastating and beautiful.
memoir
20
Klara and the Sun
Kazuo Ishiguro · 2021
AI consciousness through a solar-powered companion. Quiet and profound.
fiction
21
Blockchain Chicken Farm
Xiaowei Wang · 2020
Tech through a rural Chinese lens. Totally unexpected.
tech & society
22
How Asia Works
Joe Studwell · 2013
Why some Asian economies soared and others stalled. Data-driven and eye-opening.
strategy

Side Projects

Things I build, ship, and share with the community.

AI Job Market Tracker NL

Scrapes, classifies, and tracks AI/ML/Data Science job listings from Dutch job sites over time. SQLite database, Chart.js dashboard, and automated weekly updates via GitHub Actions.

$ python -m src.main --update Top category: data-scientist (24%) Top skill: Python 84% | LLM 20% Dashboard generated with 6 charts
Python SQLite Chart.js GitHub Actions Web Scraping

Terminal Portfolio CLI

An interactive terminal portfolio you can run with npx. Navigate my resume, skills, and experience right from your command line with arrow keys.

$ npx linda-hoeberigs
╦ ╦╔╗╔╔╦╗╔═╗
║ ║║║║ ║║╠═╣
╩═╝╩╝╚╝═╩╝╩ ╩
? What would you like to know?
About Me
Skills · Experience · Awards
Node.js CLI Chalk Inquirer

Page Summarizer

A Chrome extension that summarises any web page with AI. Get key points, sentiment analysis, and reading time estimates in one click.

Chrome Extension AI JavaScript

Diaper Price Tracker

A Python CLI that scrapes 4 major Dutch retailers for Pampers Premium Protection prices and ranks them by price per unit. Uses JSON-LD extraction and Playwright browser automation.

$ python tracker.py Scraping Albert Heijn... ✓ 1 product Scraping Bol.com... ✓ 2 products 🥇 Bol.com €0.1166/unit (240 pack)
Python Web Scraping Playwright Rich

prompteval

A lightweight, zero-dependency Python framework for scoring and comparing LLM prompt outputs. 10+ built-in scorers, model-agnostic runners, side-by-side benchmarking with variance analysis, and multi-format reporting.

$ python quickstart.py ExactMatch: 1.00 LengthRange: 1.00 Pass rate: 75% | Avg score: 0.750 Winner: smart-model (score=1.0)
Python LLM Evaluation NLP Zero Dependencies

Apps

Native iOS apps I've designed, built, and shipped.

GymLog Powerlifting Tracker

A native iOS app for powerlifters to log sessions with top sets, back-offs, and RPE tracking. Includes training program builder, e1RM progress charts, warm-up calculator, plate calculator, rest timer, and competition scoring (Wilks, DOTS, IPF GL). All data stays on device.

SwiftUI SwiftData Swift Charts iOS 17+

Let's talk

Whether it's about AI strategy, speaking engagements, advisory work, or simply exchanging ideas. I'd love to hear from you.