Levent Özbek
Sr. Machine Learning Engineer & Architect.
Applied Quantum Scientist.
Optimization Expert.
First person to ever bring AI to Visual Effects.
A highly skilled Machine Learning Engineer with experience in architecting and deploying state-of-the-art ML systems across various industries, including Decision Intelligence, Quantum Computing, and Visual Effects. Adept at building and productionizing cutting-edge models, such as Diffusion models, GANs, LLMs, and Reinforcement Learning. A pioneer in bringing AI to Visual Effects, introducing generative models to enhance CGI asset creation and screenwriting. Demonstrated expertise in Quantum Machine Learning, contributing to Canada’s first team to train and test an LLM on a Quantum computer. Strong background in Deep Learning, optimization, and high-performance computing, with experience deploying custom models for image generation, inpainting, outpainting, and media production workflows. Proven ability to leverage quantum photonics for optimization and developed battery simulations.
Open Source Projects
Projects will be dynamically loaded here...
Education
University of London, Goldsmith
Hons. BSc. in Computer Science
2019-2023 | GPA: 3.7/4.0
University of Leeds
MSc. in Artificial Intelligence
2024-2025
Industry
Founding Machine Learning Engineer (Diffusion Models)
Adora - Seattle, WA (Remote) | April 2024 - Present
- Built & deployed a custom inpainting model in the context of advertisement creatives.
- Built & deployed a custom outpainting model to mimic Adobe’s “infinite canvas” feature.
- Built & deployed an image generation pipeline for travel advertisements.
- Built & deployed a RHLF (Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback) router to route prompts to appropriate models, LoRA, and config parameter settings.
Lead Research Engineer (Generative AI)
Crafty Apes VFX - Montreal, QC (Remote) | October 2022 - April 2024
- First person to bring generative models to the visual effects industry.
- Built & deployed a diffusion-based CGI asset generator.
- Built & deployed an LLM that acts as a screenwriting assistant tool.
- Built & deployed a prompt-based face swap tool.
Quantum Research Resident (Quantum Optimization)
Creed & Bear - Remote | November 2023 - April 2024
- Researched leveraging Quantum computing & photonics for optimization of energy distribution.
- Built a nonreciprocal quantum battery simulator using Qiskit & Pennylane.
- Developed a Monte Carlo Quantum circuit.
Machine Learning Quantitative Research Scientist
Borsa Istanbul - Remote | June 2022 - October 2022
- Boosted alpha generation and portfolio sharpe ratio
- Reduced model training time by 30%
- Improved execution efficiency
- Identified and monetized latent market opportunities
- Achieved 80% improvement in hit rate
- Increased production system reliability
Lead Applied Scientist
Netflix - Vancouver, BC | October 2021 - May 2022
- Lead the ML team in this newly acquired Visual Effects studio, working with the data acquisition team.
- Built & deployed a GAN to remove motion blur from 1.5 million images.
- Built & deployed an instance segmentation UNet model to parse human body parts & clothing.
- Adapted a NeRF model to create short videos from a limited number of image stills.
HPC Machine Learning Software Engineer
Liquid Analytics - Tampa, FL | March 2021 - October 2021
- Built the data pipeline for the Decision Engine.
- Built various in-house ML high-performance optimization libraries in Julia.
- Trained LSTM models on time-series data stored in Dgraph.
- Worked exclusively with GraphQL and the Julia language.
Quantum Machine Learning Research Intern
IBM - Ottawa, ON (Remote) | June 2021 - September 2021
- Collaborated with the quantum team to optimize LLM training and inference on a quantum computer.
- Built a single-head attention mechanism using a series of quantum circuits.
- Tech stack included Python, Qiskit, and Pennylane.
Machine Learning Engineer Intern
Stream Hatchet - Barcelona, Spain | December 2020 - March 2021
- Built a synthetic dataset of logos in livestreams using the Twitch API.
- Built a custom augmentation pipeline for logos placed on screenshots.
- Trained a YOLOv4 on this synthetic dataset, achieving a mean average precision of 97.2%.
Data Engineer
VESTEL - Montreal, QC (Remote) | May 2017 - October 2020
- Set up and maintained the data infrastructure for Vestel and subsidiaries across Turkey and Europe.
- Worked heavily with MySQL and Hadoop integration.
Software Developer Intern
VESTEL - Montreal, QC (Remote) | February 2016 - February 2017
- Worked on SQL databases and automated query scripts in SQL.
- Submitted weekly reports.
Awards
Renewable Bachelor Degree Scholarship
Year: 2017
FIRST Robotics Waterloo Regional Winner (Gold Medal)
Year: 2009