Federico De Cillia
I build reliable AI agents that augment people.
With over 12 years in AI and data science, I bridge advanced AI capabilities and real-world business objectives. As Lead Data Scientist for Direct-to-Consumer Assortment Intelligence at EssilorLuxottica, I direct the strategy and implementation of Databricks-based AI systems for assortment, retail space and conversational analytics across 18,000+ stores globally.
I'm a hands-on builder: I take AI initiatives from messy business problems to production systems people actually use. That includes agents, recommendation engines, optimization tools, RAG chatbots, automations, apps and internal tools, always designed around measurable impact and adoption.
Alongside my enterprise role, I train and advise teams on how to use AI well in daily work. I help technical and non-technical people move past the hype, identify useful workflows, and build enough understanding to use these tools with confidence and judgment.
I build with AI every day, and I stay close to the frontier: new models, agentic workflows, tool use, evals and emerging research. What drives me is not AI for its own sake, but systems that augment human judgment, earn trust, and leave the people using them more capable than before.
Selected work
Databricks Genie retail agent
A governed Databricks Genie agent that lets retail teams explore enterprise lakehouse data in natural language.
AI assortment recommender
A Databricks recommendation engine that helps retail teams build store-level assortments from performance, trends and store traits.
AI product strategy
A Databricks optimization platform for brand mix and facing allocation, with what-if simulations and global performance insight.
AI second brain
An open-source second brain that any AI agent can operate, one rulebook, multiple agents, plain markdown.
WeGrocery
An open-source platform built for Porta Moneta APS, a nonprofit buying group, with one deployment per group from one codebase.
Production AI chatbots (RAG)
Retrieval-augmented chatbots that answer from your own knowledge, integrated across your channels.
AI enablement
Training teams and non-technical professionals to actually adopt AI.
Earlier work
Store segmentation web-app
Clustering retail stores into actionable segments, served through an internal web app.
Retail sales forecasting & anomaly detection
Forecasting global store sales and flagging anomalies at scale.
Covid closure forecasting
Modeling store and market closures across 40+ countries during the pandemic.
Audience behavior forecasting
Predicting TV and radio viewing and listening behavior.
Panel churn prediction
Predicting churn of panelists across international media panels.
NLP churn prediction
A text-mining model predicting customer churn.
Experience
Lead Data Scientist, Global Retail & DTC Assortment Intelligence · EssilorLuxottica
Feb 2021 – presentI lead the data science unit for Global Retail & DTC Assortment Intelligence, optimizing assortment strategies across 18,000+ retail stores. I own the full lifecycle of Databricks-based AI initiatives, from ideation and prototyping to full-scale production deployment: Genie agents on governed lakehouse data, forecasting engines, anomaly detection, clustering, optimization and recommendation systems that drive automated decision-making at scale. I mentor a high-performing team, set Data and MLOps best practices, lead internal AI enablement, and have delivered measurable business impact: license savings, multi-FTE efficiency gains and incremental revenue.
AI Consultant & Trainer · Freelance
2019 – presentI help teams and non-technical professionals actually use AI well, and I ship production-grade solutions: AI agents, LLM chatbots, automations and internal tools deployed for dozens of businesses across industries. Tailored AI training on generative AI, LLMs, agents and automation, from beginners to technical teams; advisory to spot high-impact use cases and avoid common implementation traps; end-to-end delivery from use-case scoping to production rollout. Recognized as a Vetted Pro on Fiverr (5/5 across 100+ projects).
Co-founder & Technology Lead · Porta Moneta APS, nonprofit volunteer role
2022 – presentCo-founded a Milan neighborhood NPO and built its digital operating layer as a volunteer: public website, WeGrocery ordering platform, AI chatbot for member support, digital membership workflows and lightweight internal operations.
Senior Data Scientist · Nielsen
Sep 2017 – Feb 2021Led predictive models (time series, classification, clustering) on audience and panel data across 10+ countries, and built scalable data pipelines.
Data Scientist, Consultant · Bip — Business Integration Partners
Apr 2016 – Sep 2017Big Data & Advanced Analytics CoE: delivered ML & NLP models at Sky Italy to improve retention and upselling.
Data Science Consultant · SAS / Value Lab
Jun 2015 – Apr 2016SAS Masterclass in Big Data & Analytics; built ETL pipelines and BI dashboards.
Data Mining Junior Officer, Marketing Department · Università Bocconi, Milan
Jan 2015 – Jun 2015Supported the Marketing Department with data mining and analysis (SAP-CRM, STATA), generating insights and reporting on customer satisfaction to support strategic decision-making.
Education & certifications
Master in Statistical Sciences
University of Padua · 2012 – 2014
LLP Erasmus, Economics
Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona · 2012
Bachelor in Statistical Sciences
University of Padua · 2008 – 2011
IT Technical Diploma (Perito Industriale per l'Informatica)
ITI F. Severi, Padua · 2004 – 2008
- Databricks Machine Learning Professional
- Microsoft Azure Data Scientist Associate (DP-100)
- Nova 111 Top Talent Italy (2023)
- Tackling the Challenges of Big Data, MIT Professional Education
- Deep Learning Specialization, deeplearning.ai
- Machine Learning for Data Science & Analytics, Columbia University
- Data Science and Machine Learning with Python and Spark, O'Reilly
- SAS Programming, Macro Language, SQL, Enterprise Guide
Skills
AI engineering
Data science & ML
Data & cloud
Apps & web
BI & visualization
Delivery
Languages
Get in touch
Or reach me on LinkedIn.