# Venkatachalam Subramanian Periya Subbu

> Forward Deployed Engineer @ Arango | M.S. in Data Science @ USF | EMS @ Christ University

Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Profile: https://flows.cv/venkatachalam

I am a Forward Deployed Engineer specializing in graph-based AI systems, Generative AI, and Large Language Models. My work focuses on combining knowledge graphs, GraphRAG architectures, and LLMs to build scalable, explainable, and production-ready AI solutions. I enjoy bridging theoretical foundations and applied engineering, with experience across LLM integration, graph databases, deep learning, and applied research. I hold an M.S. in Data Science from the University of San Francisco, where I developed strong mathematical foundations alongside hands-on experience with modern AI systems.

I currently work as a Forward Deployed Engineer at Arango, building and deploying graph-centric AI solutions in large-scale enterprise environments. My role involves designing end-to-end systems that integrate LLMs with knowledge graphs for advanced retrieval, multi-hop reasoning, and explainability, while optimizing pipelines for real-world constraints. I work closely with engineering teams to take AI systems from prototype to production, ensuring they are robust, interpretable, and scalable in operational settings.

## Work Experience
### Forward Deployed Engineer @ Arango
Jan 2026 – Present | San Francisco Bay Area

### AI Engineer @ Arango
Jan 2025 – Jan 2025 | San Francisco Bay Area
- Developed features and bug fixes in Python for ArangoDB’s official LangChain integration, reaching 50k downloads on PyPi.
- Introduced advanced similarity search strategies (Jaccard, Dot Product, Max Inner Product) in ArangoVector.
- Enhanced the GraphRAG importer service by introducing a Relationship Types parameter, enabling more precise representation of graph structures.
- Founding engineer of ArangoDB’s internal Knowledge Enablement tool using Python, GraphRAG techniques, and the Slack SDK, providing real-time knowledge enablement to +100 employees.

### Data Scientist @ Center for Law, Tech, and Social Good
Jan 2025 – Jan 2025 | San Francisco Bay Area
- Collected and analyzed 100+ state blockchain and AI statutes, 50+ legislative histories, and 20+ working group reports into a structured legal dataset.
- Performed NLP analysis on 150K+ words of statutes, supporting research on technology legislation.
- Built semantic tagging pipeline using LLMs and vector similarity to cluster legal provisions for better retrieval.

### Data Scientist @ Environmental Defense Fund
Jan 2024 – Jan 2025 | San Francisco Bay Area
- Developed a multi-technology framework for methane emissions modeling, analyzing Probability of Detection (POD) across satellite, aerial, and ground-based sensors to improve emission estimates.
- Built an ETL pipeline to extract research papers, text, and images from 100+ documents, reducing processing time by ~90% and automating data retrieval.
- Leveraged LLaMA & Hugging Face for document summarization and prompt engineering, classifying 100+ research papers on methane emissions for structured insights.
- Fine-tuned VGG16 using PyTorch to classify methane-related graphs with 92% accuracy, training on 4,000 web-scraped and synthesized graphs.
- Developed a YOLO-based image-to-data extraction framework, integrating AWS Bedrock and a custom ChartOCR pipeline to digitize methane emissions graphs, targeting 93% precision and 94% recall for structured data extraction.

### Research Assistant @ Indian Institute of Management Bangalore
Jan 2023 – Jan 2023 | Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
Worked on the "Literature Review and Applications of Generative AI" project under Prof. U Dinesh Kumar.

This paper aims to give an understanding of Generative AI, its history, Hidden Markov Models, Large Language Models, types of models, and applications of generative artificial intelligence in various domains and industries.

- Reviewed 50+ papers on Generative AI and LLMs, documenting its evolution and mathematical foundations as an intern.
- Analyzed 5+ foundational models – Compared architectures, performance, and applications in GenAI research.
- Analyzed transformative applications of Generative AI in 10+ industries, highlighting key models/products and their impact.

### Data Analyst @ Global Media Insight
Jan 2022 – Jan 2022 | Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
- Collected, Cleaned and Analyzed Gigabytes of website performance data for Search Engine Optimization. 
- Handled migration of data processes in large volumes (10+GB per client) and enabled event and goal tracking facilities.
- Carried out Keyword Research for SEO and Paid Advertising for 20+ Web pages.
- Presented Analytics Report to Team and Management
- Assisted the Search Marketing team in identification of opportunities for extensive reach of corporate websites and corporate and consumer products.


## Education
### Master of Science - MS in Data Science
University of San Francisco

### Bachelor of Science - BSc in Economics, Mathematics and Statistics
Christ University, Bangalore

### Bachelor of Science - BSc in Programming and Data Science
Indian Institute of Technology, Madras

### High School Diploma in Business/Commerce, General
GEMS Education


## Contact & Social
- LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/venkatachalam-subramanian-periya-subbu
- Portfolio: https://medium.com/@venkatachalam.sps
- Portfolio: https://venkatachalamsps.vercel.app/

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Source: https://flows.cv/venkatachalam
JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/venkatachalam/resume.json
Last updated: 2026-04-10