Arjun Varma
Advanced Data Science Consultant @ ZS Associates | Building intelligent systems with ML, Deep Learning & AI for Fortune 500 healthcare clients.
About Me
Passionate about transforming data into actionable insights
I'm an Advanced Data Science Associate Consultant with a passion for building intelligent systems that drive real business impact. Currently pursuing my Master's in Data Science at Columbia University, I bring 3+ years of experience from ZS Associates where I've worked with Fortune 500 healthcare clients on ML platforms, predictive analytics, and LLM-powered solutions.
I specialize in transforming complex data into actionable insights using Python, SQL, PySpark, and modern ML frameworks. My work spans from building organization-wide analytics platforms to developing early cancer detection models that can potentially save lives.
Education
Columbia University
New York, NY
Master of Science in Data Science
Aug 2025 - Dec 2026
- TA for Business Analytics II: Foundations of AI at Columbia Business School
- Volunteer at Columbia Disability Services
Vellore Institute of Technology
Vellore, India
B.Tech in Electronics & Communication Engineering
Jul 2018 - May 2022
- GPA: 4.0/4.0 (WES Evaluated)
- Special Achiever Award & Merit Scholarship
Career Journey
From engineering student to data scientist at Fortune 500 companies
Started B.Tech at VIT
Electronics & Communication Engineering
Began undergraduate studies at Vellore Institute of Technology
Graduated with 4.0 GPA
Special Achiever Award & Merit Scholarship
Completed B.Tech with perfect GPA (WES Evaluated), received academic honors
Joined ZS Associates
Decision Analytics Associate
Started career in analytics, building PySpark/SQL pipelines for Fortune 500 healthcare clients
Fast-Track Promotion
Associate Consultant (4 cycles vs typical 5)
Promoted early due to accelerated performance; received Expert Associate and Insight Illuminate Awards
Hackathon Top 10%
Lateral Transfer to Data Science
Selected for Data Science vertical after top finish in company-wide hackathon
Advanced Data Science Consultant
ML Platform & LLM Projects
Led org-wide analytics platform, piloted RAG-based LLM for FDA documents, BTC cancer detection model
Started MS at Columbia
Data Science
Pursuing Master's in Data Science; TA for Business Analytics II at Columbia Business School
Summer 2026 — Open to opportunities
Work Experience
3+ years of building data-driven solutions at scale
Advanced Data Science Associate Consultant
ZS Associates
Pune, India | Feb 2025 - Jun 2025
- Worked in Performance Analytics, Forecasting, and Data Science teams for Fortune 500 healthcare clients; collaborated with US-based stakeholders
- Built and deployed an organization-wide analytics + ML platform consolidating multiple data sources to surface real-time KPIs by territory and product; partnered with PMs and marketing heads for a >$10B revenue oncology portfolio
- Drove adoption by 1,000+ sales reps and HQ leaders, replacing Excel reports and cutting prep time from days to minutes
- Piloted a retrieval-augmented LLM to turn FDA approval documents into concise briefs for commercial teams
Decision Analytics Associate Consultant
ZS Associates
Pune, India | Jul 2024 - Jan 2025
- Led a 5-member team on a strategic initiative to overhaul legacy business rules and modernize processes, saving ~50 hrs/mo and improving first-pass quality to >99%
- Built and productionized Positive-Unlabeled (PU) learning models at a Fortune 500 organization to systematically infer missing categorical labels in transactional data
- Implemented automated model drift checks and unit testing to ensure long-term reliability
- Scored top ~10% finish in company-wide hackathon; selected for lateral transfer into Data Science vertical
- Received Client Contraste Award for outstanding client outcomes and feedback
Decision Analytics Associate
ZS Associates
Pune, India | Feb 2022 - Jun 2024
- Engineered PySpark/SQL pipelines integrating multiple data sources to deliver brand performance insights across multiple products
- Defined patient-cohort inclusion/exclusion rules robust to missing/miscoded fields; yielded consistent, audit-ready analytics
- Drove reporting and ad-hoc analytics that surfaced care gaps and market opportunities, informing key brand strategies across multiple new launches
- Promoted to Associate Consultant in 4 cycles (typical: 5) via accelerated performance; received Expert Associate and Insight Illuminate Awards
Featured Projects
From ML models predicting cancer to LLM-powered chatbots
BTC Cancer Early Detection
Anomaly Detection & Predictive Analytics
ZS Associates | Jan 2025 - May 2025
Developed an ML model to predict monthly Bile Tract Cancer diagnoses from a pool of 250M patients. Addressed critical 45-day claims data delay and improved performance using advanced clustering techniques.
- 250M patient pool analysis
- Advanced clustering techniques
- Industry conference presentation
Built an LLM-powered RAG chatbot that answers questions about company financials from SEC filings. Implemented Streamlit UI + FastAPI backend with ChromaDB semantic retrieval.
- 4.5/5 quality score via OpenEval
- SEC filings integration
- Semantic search with ChromaDB
AI-powered scene understanding and analysis application deployed on Railway. Leverages modern ML techniques for intelligent scene recognition and processing.
Agricultural Product Classification
RAG & Classification System
Columbia University | Aug 2025 - Oct 2025
Built an AI-assisted, retrieval-augmented generation product-classification system for a Series-B East African agtech. Achieved 99% holdout accuracy using GPT-4.
- 99% holdout accuracy
- Real-time REST API
- Compliance & risk alerts
Technical Skills
Technologies and tools I use to bring ideas to life
Programming
Analytics & ML
Big Data & MLOps
Tools & Platforms
Also experienced with
GitHub Activity
Recent contributions & projects
Recent Activity
Repositories
Fantasy Premier League
Avid FPL player with Top 1% finishes for 4 consecutive years. Combining data analysis passion with sports strategy!
Get in Touch
Interested in collaborating or have a question? Feel free to reach out!