Leo Torres
Tech Lead Ready for Management Leadership
Executive Summary
I'm a technical lead at FGS Global, currently in my third year as Lead Data Scientist running production data and LLM systems at enterprise scale. That role builds on a longer track record as a research engineer (PhD in Network Science at Northeastern; postdoc at Max Planck) and as an open-source maintainer of libraries that other scientists and engineers depend on. I'm now ready to extend that execution-focused leadership into people management and organizational leadership.
As a current tech lead, I've mastered the technical aspects of leadership: architecture decisions, code quality, project delivery, and technical mentoring. Now I'm ready to expand into people management, team building, strategic planning, and organizational influence.
My management philosophy combines my technical depth with focus on people development, clear communication, and building high-performing teams. I believe great engineering managers enable others to do their best work while driving business outcomes.
Leadership Focus
Management Leadership Transition
Transitioning from technical execution leadership to people management and organizational leadership, combining technical expertise with strategic vision.
Leadership Experience
Lead Data Scientist & Tech Lead
May 2023 - PresentFGS Global
Strategic technical leadership combining people management with hands-on technical execution
• Lead Data Scientist for European operations, serving Fortune 500 clients
• Direct people manager for 5 data scientists and engineers
• Tech lead for cross-functional team of 6 engineers on flagship internal product
• Architected LLM-powered infrastructure processing 1M+ articles daily
• Established engineering standards and mentoring frameworks for technical team growth
Postdoctoral Research Leader
Aug 2021 - May 2023Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences
Research leadership and collaborative project development
• Led collaborative research projects with international teams
• Co-led development of XGI (NumFOCUS affiliated Python library) as side project
• Mentored graduate students and junior researchers
• Assisted with postdoctoral hiring and recruitment processes
• Co-organized academic conferences and workshops
Ph.D. Student
2016 - 2021Network Science Institute, Northeastern University
Research and development with emerging leadership responsibilities
• Elected President of Network Science Institute Graduate Student Association (2018)
• Co-organized Diversify NetSci initiatives promoting DEI in network science community
• Led the organization of and taught summer courses for incoming students
• Developed novel algorithms for spectral graph theory and network analysis
• Collaborated across interdisciplinary teams on complex research projects
• Created open-source Python libraries for network science community
• Contributed to COVID-19 mobility data analysis during pandemic
Research Programmer
2012 - 2014Wolfram Research South America
Data engineering and curation for knowledge systems
• Data engineer developing data pipelines for Wolfram Alpha knowledge engine
• Responsible for specific data domains and maintaining data quality
• Worked in remote, distributed team environment
• Gained experience with large-scale data processing and knowledge systems
Research Intern
May 2019 - Jul 2019Yahoo! Research
Industry research experience in large-scale data systems
• Built graph representation learning models on large-scale social network data
• Processed terabyte-scale datasets using PySpark and distributed computing
• Developed Python pipelines for large-scale network analysis
• Applied machine learning to social media data at unprecedented scale
Strategic Impact
COVID-19 Mobility Data Pipeline
Engineered data pipeline processing mobility data for 300+ US cities during COVID-19 pandemic, contributing to public health research.
Challenge: Need for scalable, real-time mobility data processing during health crisis
Solution: Built ETL workflows using Apache Airflow with data quality checks and geospatial optimization
Impact: Enabled epidemiologists to analyze movement patterns, contributing to 2 major technical reports
Open Source Software Leadership
Led development of multiple open-source projects in network science and mathematical visualization communities.
Challenge: Fragmented tools and limited collaboration in research software
Solution: Co-developed XGI (NumFOCUS affiliated) and served as Organization Owner for Manim Community
Impact: Thousands of users worldwide, featured in GitHub's Popular Python Repositories
FGS Global MediaIQ Platform
Led development of flagship internal product processing 1M+ news articles daily for Fortune 500 clients.
Challenge: Scaling AI-powered media analysis for enterprise clients
Solution: Built LLM-powered pipelines with RAG architecture, managing team of 6 engineers
Impact: 10x processing speed improvement, handling 1B+ log entries with enterprise reliability
Academic Research Excellence
Developed novel spectral methods for network analysis, publishing in leading venues while building practical software tools.
Challenge: Bridging theoretical research with practical applications
Solution: Combined rigorous mathematical research with open-source software development
Impact: Publications in SIAM Review, Journal of Complex Networks; SIAM Network Science Best Talk Award
Community Leadership
• Co-organizer - TopoNets satellite, CCS'22, Palma de Mallorca
• Co-organizer - Higher Order Networks (HONS) satellite, NetSci'22, Shanghai
• Co-organizer - Diversify NetSci satellites, NetSci'19 & NetSci'20
• Organization Owner - Manim Community (mathematical animation library)
Leadership Philosophy
I believe that exceptional teams are built on trust, empowerment, and shared purpose. My leadership philosophy centers on creating environments where talented individuals can do their best work while growing both professionally and personally.
Core Principles
- Servant Leadership: Leaders exist to remove obstacles and amplify their team's impact. I prioritize my team's success over personal recognition, focusing on creating conditions for collective achievement.
- Technical Excellence: Deep technical understanding enables credible leadership. I maintain hands-on involvement to guide architectural decisions and mentor effectively.
- Psychological Safety: Innovation requires risk-taking, which requires trust. I foster environments where failure is learning and diverse perspectives are celebrated.
- Strategic Vision: Teams need clear direction and context. I translate organizational goals into inspiring missions that connect daily work to meaningful impact.
- Continuous Growth: Learning organizations outperform static ones. I invest in systematic skill development, knowledge sharing, and career advancement for all team members.
Working With Me
Communication Style: Direct, transparent, and context-rich. I believe in over-communicating vision while under-managing execution.
Decision Making: Data-informed but values-driven. I gather diverse input, make timely decisions, and adjust based on outcomes.
Team Building: I hire for potential and cultural add, not just current skills and cultural fit. Diversity of thought drives innovation.
Performance Management: Regular feedback, clear expectations, and growth-oriented reviews. I celebrate wins publicly and address challenges privately.
Work-Life Integration: Sustainable pace enables long-term excellence. I model healthy boundaries and support flexible arrangements.
Speaking & Community Engagement
I speak on technical topics and research management in academic and industry settings:
• Talk: "LLMs: Computation or Measurement?" - Berlin Data Meetup 2024
• Invited Talk: "The why, how, and when of mathematical representations" - University of Amsterdam 2022
• Invited Talk: "X-centrality, node immunization, and localization" - Oxford Networks Seminar 2022
• Conference Presentation: "Localization and percolation in networks" - SIAM Workshop on Network Science 2022