About Me

What I Do

I'm a Data Scientist at Vocalink, a Mastercard company, where I work at the intersection of payments infrastructure and machine learning. Vocalink operates the core payment systems that power UK account-to-account payments - including Faster Payments and Bacs - processing billions of transactions worth over £8 trillion annually.

My work involves building ML models on massive payment datasets to understand transaction behavior, classify payment purposes, track money flows across industries, and generate insights for major UK banks, regulators, and government bodies like the Office for National Statistics. It's high-impact work where model decisions directly influence how the UK economy is measured and understood.

My Journey

I studied Mathematics and Computer Science at Durham University, where I developed a strong foundation in statistical theory, algorithmic thinking, and machine learning. Modules like Decision Theory, Bayesian methods, and Data Science sparked my interest in probabilistic approaches to real-world problems.

I joined Mastercard in 2023 as a Software Engineer working on data engineering and ETL pipelines, which gave me valuable exposure to production systems, CI/CD workflows, and the infrastructure side of data work. In 2024, I transitioned into a Data Scientist role, where I could focus more heavily on modelling, analytics, and applied machine learning.

What drew me to this field is the blend of rigorous quantitative thinking and tangible real-world impact. I enjoy problems where getting the model right actually matters - whether that's informing government economic policy, preventing fraud, or helping banks understand their customer base.

Beyond the Models

In 2025, I took on additional work in product development and payments innovation research. This involved exploring the future of account-to-account payments, particularly tokenised payment rails and new instant payment schemes. I researched use cases, assessed technical feasibility and risks, and presented strategy decks to executive leadership and company town halls - bridging the gap between technical depth and commercial opportunity.

Outside of work, I enjoy building various side projects (like this portfolio!) to learn new technologies and experiment with ideas that don't always fit into a corporate setting. I love both watching (Brentford FC) and playing football, which is a big motivator for my analytics. I also speak both Urdu and Spanish, and enjoy travelling and learning about history.