About Me
I'm Ofer — a technology and product professional working at the intersection of technology, information systems, business processes, and user needs. I enjoy understanding how things work, identifying what people actually need, and turning complex requirements into practical, well-designed solutions.
My professional experience includes leading large-scale information system projects, particularly national Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) initiatives in Zanzibar and Nigeria. These projects have given me hands-on experience across the full product and system lifecycle — from understanding business processes and gathering user requirements to working with developers on system design, managing implementation, and supporting adoption. A big part of my role is connecting the technical side with the people and organizations that ultimately use the systems.
I also bring a strong analytical background. My research-based Master's degree from Tel Aviv University focused on urban mobility, where I conducted a quantitative analysis of over one million shared e-scooter trips to investigate how cycling infrastructure influences travel behaviour. The research involved large-scale data processing and analysis using Python, GIS, spatial and transport network analysis, and statistical methods. It strengthened my ability to work with complex datasets, approach problems systematically, and translate data into meaningful insights.
Alongside my professional work, I've been expanding my technical skills in AI and large language models, experimenting with AI agents, tool integrations, and practical applications of these technologies to real-world problems.
Looking ahead, I want to continue growing in roles that combine a solid understanding of technology with business and operational thinking. I'm particularly interested in the space between technical teams, products, and users — where understanding both what technology can do and what a business actually needs makes the biggest difference.
Resume
Experience
Project & Product Manager
Sivan Design D.S LTD — Israel / Zanzibar / Nigeria
- Led the end-to-end implementation of World Bank-funded Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) Systems projects for the Government of Zanzibar, Tanzania, and the Government of Ogun State, Nigeria.
- Conducted stakeholder and user requirements analysis to guide system design and ensure alignment with operational needs.
- Designed API integrations to enable interoperability and data exchange with external systems.
- Led multidisciplinary teams of software developers and GIS specialists, managing development activities using Agile (Scrum) methodology.
- Coordinated system deployment, testing, and User Acceptance Testing (UAT) through final delivery.
- Maintained client communication, coordinating with multiple stakeholders throughout the project lifecycle.
Data Analyst
Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality, Tel Aviv-Yafo
- Analyzed and managed diverse transportation datasets to support decision-making by senior municipal officials.
- Used Python (Pandas, NetworkX, OSMnx, NumPy, etc..) and SQL to automate complex data processing and analytical workflows, including geospatial modeling and statistical analysis.
- Developed dashboards, data visualizations, and maps to communicate urban mobility trends and analytical findings to non-technical stakeholders.
Academic Teaching Assistant
Tel Aviv Universirty, Department of Geography
- Taught Introduction to GIS and Advanced GIS courses, including preparation of teaching materials, classroom instruction, and development and grading of assignmen.
Data Analyst & Researcher
Freelance — commissioned by Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality
- Led the programming and analysis of over one million shared e-scooter trip records, examining riders route preferences, use of cycling infrastructure, and spatial patterns of e-scooter demand (Python & SQL).
- Conducted geospatial research and analysis in collaboration with Motus-Tech and Tel Aviv University.
- Translated research findings into evidence-based policy recommendations for urban micromobility planning and management.
Geospatial Data Analyst
Competition Authority, Jerusalem
- Applied GIS and spatial network analysis to support economic investigations, examining geographic accessibility, market competition, and spatial relationships (ArcGIS Products & Python).
GIS Operator
Ministry of Environmental Protection, Jerusalem
- Managed and enhanced GIS data for the Environmental Planning Department (ArcGIS Products)
Education
Certified Data Scientist with Expertise in Generative AI and AI Agents
Bar-Ilan University
Master's Degree in Geography
Tel Aviv University
- Thesis in Geosimulation lab: "The Impact of Cycling Infrastructure on Shared Dockless E-Scooter Riders' Usage Patterns and Travel Behavior"
- Final grade: 94 — Magna Cum Laude
Bachelor's Degree in Geography & Middle Eastern Studies
Tel Aviv University
- Geography & the Human Environment — 96, Summa Cum Laude
- Middle Eastern & African History — 93, Magna Cum Laude
Portfolio
AI Product POCs, Data Science & Analysis
Cadaster AI Assistant — Controlled Conversational Interface to Cadastral Data
Proof of concept exploring natural-language access to cadastral data without unrestricted AI database access: an LLM agent interprets intent and calls predefined tools over curated dbt models in PostGIS, returning grounded answers plus map visualizations.
View project →
Israel Transit AI Agent — Conversational GTFS Data Assistant
ReAct-style LLM agent answering natural-language questions (Hebrew or English) about Israeli bus routes, stops and schedules via tool-calling over a live GTFS/SIRI feed in DuckDB, with automatic multi-provider LLM fallback — built with Tamir Edelstein for Bar-Ilan University's Data Science programme. Work in progress.
View project →
Forecasting E-Scooter Pile-Ups — LightGBM vs Graph Neural Networks
Forecasts where shared e-scooters will pile up on Tel Aviv-Yafo pavements 1–6 hours ahead, on a 100 m grid built from a year of municipal MDS data. LightGBM is compared with spatio-temporal GNNs on a scooter-flow graph, under a strict once-only held-out test.
View project →
Cycling Infrastructure & Shared E-Scooter Behaviour — MSc Thesis
Master's thesis analysing ~1M shared e-scooter trips in Tel Aviv-Yafo to measure how cycling infrastructure shapes route choice, parking location and demand.
View project →
Predicting Bus Trip Performance with Machine Learning
XGBoost classifier predicting whether a bus trip runs early, on-time or delayed from GTFS, SIRI and weather data — built with Tamir Edelstein (Elia Transportation Engineering) for Bar-Ilan University's Data Science programme.
View project →
Israel Train Stations Dashboard
Interactive Streamlit dashboard exploring passenger departure patterns across Israel Railways stations — built on open GTFS and government transport data, deployed live on Streamlit Community Cloud.
View project →
Sustainable City Policy for Shared Dockless E-Scooters
Peer-reviewed paper (ABMTRANS 2024) analysing 1M Tel Aviv scooter rides to expose the demand–supply mismatch: oversupply locked in the city center, undersupply leaving peripheral users without a ride.
View project →GIS Project Management
ZanSDI — Zanzibar Spatial Data Infrastructure
GIS Project Manager for Zanzibar's national geoportal: leading system design, development and capacity building for a World Bank–funded SDI built on GeoNode, GeoServer and PostGIS.
View project →
Diagnosing Intermittent Web-Map Rendering Failures with Synthetic Monitoring, Grafana, Loki and AI
Production incident investigation on the ZanSDI GeoNode/GeoServer platform: built a synthetic user monitoring pipeline (Python, Playwright, PostgreSQL, dbt) and centralized log analysis (Grafana, Loki) to catch and diagnose intermittent map rendering failures, tracing the root cause to stale pooled database connections in GeoFence. Investigated and resolved jointly with Mushegh Mkrtchyan.
View project →
Ogun SDI & LULC Mapping
GIS Project Manager for Ogun State's SDI and statewide Land Use/Land Cover mapping — directing the design of the Geom Tool and the OLARMS land-administration integration to meet the Bureau of Lands and Survey's workflow needs.
View project →Maps & Geospatial Analysis
Near-Home Parking: Shortest-Path Lot Assignment
Network model using OSM walking distances to assign every residential street to its optimal night parking lot, with load indexing across all city quarters.
View project →
Contraflow Riding on One-Way Streets
Mapped shared e-scooter trips against traffic direction in Tel Aviv to quantify contraflow patterns and identify high-risk corridors.
View project →
Spatial Equity of Shared Micro-Mobility
Kernel density analysis of e-scooter availability across peripheral quarters, exposing supply-demand gaps in underserved neighborhoods.
View project →
Who Pays to Park? Neighborhood Parking Equity
Choropleth analysis of paid vs. free parking distribution across Tel Aviv neighborhoods, surfacing equity implications of pricing policy.
View project →
Fleet Distribution at Special Events
Analyzed shared e-scooter distribution during Tel Aviv's Pride Parade to map peak-hour supply gaps and support pre-positioning decisions.
View project →
Bus Service Frequency Changes: 2022–2024
Year-over-year GTFS analysis mapping where bus service improved or degraded across Tel Aviv, tracking the impact of light rail integration.
View project →Conferences & Recognition
Conferences
Presentation
"Towards a Sustainable City Policy for Managing Shared Dockless E-Scooters"
ABMTrans2024 — 13th International Workshop on Agent-based Mobility, Traffic and Transportation Models — Hasselt, Belgium
Presentation
"Towards a Sustainable City Policy for Managing Shared Dockless E-Scooters"
Israeli Regional Science Annual Conference — Tel Aviv, Israel
Online Presentation — Best Papers Section
"Shared Dockless E-Scooters in the City: System Analysis and the Novel Management Policy"
18th Conference on Location Based Services — Ghent, Belgium
Presentation
"On the Way to the Optimal Urban Micro-Mobility Policy: The Use of the Shared Dockless E-Scooters in Tel-Aviv"
3rd Annual & Students Conference — Israeli Smart Transportation Research Center — Israel
Recognition
The Exact Science Faculty Dean's List
Tel Aviv University, Israel
B.A. Excellence Track Scholarship
Tel Aviv University, Israel
M.A. Excellence Scholarship of The Exact Science Faculty
Tel Aviv University, Israel