I am a data scientist that cares about producing deployable, testable code.
I make machine learning models that go into production.

Download Resume

Work Experience

Data Scientist Lead, Progressive Insurance

2016 - Present

Currently, Josiah is a member of the Usage Based Insurance team at Progressive. He takes raw sensor data and turns it into a custom insurance rate for millions of drivers. These data pipelines and models run in production and at scale in an enterprise environment. Generalities: A full stack Machine Learning Engineer role. From gathering business requirements to interpreting analysis results. Ongoing Data Science experience in this role: extract insight from “black box” algorithms, AWS/Hadoop experience, advanced polyglot data pipelines, reproducible research, machine learning with unstructured data (deep learning), production machine vision models and deployment to scalable web apps and apis.

R&D Analyst, Progressive

2015 - 2016

This role entails advancing the science of pricing at Progressive. The data analysis aspect of the job entails munging large data sets from internal and external sources, testing statistical and ML models and explaining/visualizing research results to internal stakeholders. The engineering aspect entails deploying models in R and Python and writing/maintaining large code bases and deploying web applications on scalable frameworks Linux, Hadoop, AWS, Shiny, Flask/Python. Analysis products and controls used to price a 20 billion dollar book of business.

P.L. Pricing Analyst, Progressive: 2014-2015
Pricing Intern, Progressive: Summer 2013
Enterprise Risk Analyst, Park National Corporation: Dec 2012 - Apr 2013
Lead Tutor, Kenyon College Economics Department: 2012-2014
Retail Loan Services Intern, Park National Bank: Summer 2012
Extern, Nationwide Insurance: Mar 2012

Education

Kenyon College, Gambier, OH

Bachelor of Arts degree, May 2014

Highest Honors in Economics with Distinction and Statistics, Magna cum Laude

Skills

  • Python: Scikit-Learn, numpy, pandas, Flask, Keras, Tensorflow, dask, bokeh
  • Linux/Cloud: Ubuntu, Redhat, bash, cuDNN, GiT, sqlite, Hadoop, Hive, AWS EC2/S3
  • Other: xgboost, Excel, SQL, Latex/Markdown, HTML/CSS, Javascript, kubernetes
  • CAS Actuarial Exams:
    • Exam P/1
    • Exam FM/2
    • Exam MFE/3
    • Exam C/4
    • All 3 VEE Credits
    • Exam ST
    • Exam LC
    • Risk Management Seminar 1

Publications

  • Luther, William J. and Olson, Josiah, “Bitcoin is Memory” (June 7, 2013). Journal of Prices & Markets, 3(3), 2015: 22-33.. SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2275730 (2,325 downloads)
  • Olson, Josiah T., “Market Structure in Minimally Regulated Liquor Markets” (2014). Greenslade Special Collections and Archives.
  • Olson, Josiah T., “Martingales and Financial Mathematics”, Senior Thesis Kenyon Mathematics

Hobbies

  • Fly Fishing
  • Cross Country Skiing
  • Connoisseur of IPAs
  • Hopelessly rooting for the Browns
  • Less-hopelessly cheering on the Packers