Stéphane Karasiewicz
Climate Pipeline Partner · Senior Data Engineer for Parametric Insurance
Hauts-de-France · Remote worldwide · 🇫🇷🇬🇧 native
skarazdata.com · linkedin.com/in/stephane-karasiewicz · github.com/KarasiewiczStephane · skaraz.science@gmail.com
I help parametric insurers ship climate scoring pipelines in 8 to 16 weeks, bridging climate science and DevOps without recruiting in-house.
Experience
Skaraz Data, Founder (Sep 2023 → Present). Climate Pipeline Partner (May 2026 → Present)
RemoteSenior data engineering for parametric insurance climate pipelines.
- Audit, build, and operate production climate scoring pipelines (drought, heat stress, precipitation, water balance)
- 3-tier engagement: Discovery (€5-7k, 2 weeks) · Partner (€25-50k, 8-16 weeks) · Retainer (€2-4k/month)
- Code Quality Guarantee: any major bug in production on shipped code fixed for free within 30 days of handover
- Available: 2-3 new engagements per quarter
Raincoat LLC, Senior Data Scientist (Freelance contract)
Feb 2024 → Jan 2026 · RemoteParametric insurtech (Seed-stage, San Juan, Puerto Rico). Climate risk technology.
- Operated end-to-end ML pipelines for 4 climate perils (drought, heat stress, precipitation, water balance) across 10+ countries in LatAm, SEA, and Africa
- Engineered automated data management for 2 TB+ satellite & reanalysis data (CHIRPS, IMERG, ERA5-Land, Copernicus CDS, WEkEO)
- Built water balance pipeline from scratch to production; built heat stress pipeline to ready-to-deploy state; delivered a modular architecture roadmap as scoped technical handoff for next-perils scaling, transferred to the team at contract end
- Ran dev/ops solo for production pipelines at end of contract; built 3 country-level operational dashboards (Precipitation, Water Balance, Drought)
- Tools: Python, xarray, GDAL, Docker, PostgreSQL, scikit-learn
IFREMER, Marine Remote Sensing Researcher
Feb 2018 → Jul 2023 · Boulogne-sur-Mer & Brest, FranceFrench National Institute for Ocean Science. 5+ years in satellite remote sensing for marine ecology.
- Operated production R pipelines processing 500 GB+ satellite & in-situ data; reduced manual effort by 50 hours/month
- Authored 2 CRAN packages (BDAlgo, subniche) with 8,000+ cumulative downloads and 27+ citations
- 6 peer-reviewed publications on environmental modeling using MODIS, Sentinel-2/3, and reanalysis data
- Mentored 6 researchers and Master's students on R, Git, and reproducible research
Technical stack
- Climate data: CHIRPS · IMERG · ERA5-Land · Copernicus CDS · WEkEO · MODIS · Sentinel
- Engineering: Python (expert) · xarray · GDAL · Docker · PostgreSQL · Airflow · CI/CD
- Languages: Python · R (2 CRAN packages) · SQL · Bash
- Methods: Production data pipelines · Geospatial analysis · Time-series · Multivariate stats
Education
- PhD Marine Ecology, Université de Lille, France (2014-2017). Phytoplankton evolution. Novel WitOMI statistical framework for ecological niches.
- M.Sc. Marine Ecology, Stockholm University (2012-2014) · B.Sc. Ecosystem Science, Open University, England (2010-2012)
Publications & Open Source
CRAN R packages
- subniche: Ecological niche modeling using OMI framework · 5,000+ downloads · 15+ citations
- BDAlgo: Bloom detection in time-series, extracts 22 phenological variables · 3,000+ downloads · 12+ citations
Featured publication
- Karasiewicz S., Chapelle A., Bacher C., Soudant D. (2020). Harmful algae niche responses. Harmful Algae, 98:101785. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hal.2020.101785
5 additional peer-reviewed publications at ResearchGate.
Languages
French · Native. English · Native (dual citizenship).