About · Kevin Henao

Who I am

I'm a geospatial data engineer who started as a geoscientist. I studied Geosciences at Universidad de los Andes (GPA 4.12/5, on the "Quiero Estudiar" scholarship) and hold a CPG license. My first job was field geology in Colombia's emerald belt: core logging, structural mapping, and 3D ore modeling in Leapfrog and Datamine. Reporting ran on QGIS and hand-built Python, so I automated map and report production and gave Fura back about 100 hours a year. Over 8+ years I moved from geological reporting into operational GIS, then into cloud data engineering on AWS.

I take domain-heavy, ambiguous problems and ship systems that run in production. At Fura I built the first 3D geological model of the Coscuez emerald deposit, the basis for the company's first formal Colombian emerald resource estimation. At DIMAR, Colombia's maritime authority, institutional planners had no single view of operational status during COVID, so I shipped a monitoring workflow on ArcGIS Online, Survey123, and GeoPandas, and released ViENOS, an open-source Python/Dash dashboard (MIT) for tracking El Niño and La Niña on the Pacific coast.

At Arkho I took the acting-architect role on AB InBev invoice automation, where supplier PDFs arrived in 30–40 incompatible layouts. I designed the pipeline that normalized them into structured data on AWS Textract, Lambda, and Step Functions. I also built the Casaideas SAP-to-cloud pipeline on Glue, PySpark, and S3, and contributed to Coca-Cola Chile distribution ETL under quality-gated DevOps, shipping 15+ ETLs across 4 AWS CDK projects and 20+ Redshift reports. At Imaged Reality I extended the Stratbox Python API for depth-referenced extraction and trained a Random Forest facies classifier on borehole core imagery. That pipeline became the technical core of "Automating Core Data Integration: Insights from the Volve Field Case Study", which I co-authored for ADIPEC 2025 (SPE OnePetro D041S138R004).

Experience

Geoscience Software Specialist · Imaged Reality Ltd

2024-07 – Present · United Kingdom (remote from Colombia) · Full-time

Geoscience software specialist at a UK-based company building the Stratbox product suite for geological data interpretation across core analysis, outcrop modeling, and digital field trips. Role spans client-facing work, QA/product ownership, and Python development (formal working title: Product Owner | Python Developer).

  • Extended the Stratbox Python API with a depth-referenced data extraction method, and built and optimized a supervised Random Forest facies classification pipeline
  • Designed and ran a structured Jira bug-reporting and triage process
  • Co-authored an SPE paper at ADIPEC 2025: "Automating Core Data Integration: Insights from the Volve Field Case Study" (Borya, A., Henao, K., Ruiz-Graham, C.; SPE OnePetro D041S138R004)
  • Ran ~20 product onboardings and supported pilots advancing to active accounts
  • Supported simultaneous enterprise accounts in the oil & gas sector
  • Used GIS/spatial analysis throughout product support, analysis, and product design

Data Engineer · Arkho

2021-12 – 2024-07 · Remote (Chile) · Full-time

Cloud data engineer at a Chilean technology consultancy, delivering end-to-end AWS data pipelines and warehouse flows to enterprise clients across retail, beverage/logistics, and document-processing use cases, with direct stakeholder communication and DevOps quality gates.

  • Built and optimized end-to-end AWS data pipelines for Casaideas, moving complex SAP retail data into cloud staging and warehouse layers to support inventory, sales, and stock analysis
  • Designed raw, staging, and warehouse data flows using AWS Glue, PySpark, Athena, Redshift, and CloudWatch, improving traceability, monitoring, and downstream Power BI consumption
  • Acted as the practical architect for an AB InBev invoice automation solution, processing wide-ranging supplier PDF formats using Textract, Lambda, Step Functions, SQS, and curated storage layers
  • Contributed to Coca-Cola Chile data initiatives involving stock, logistics, and ingestion workflows under strict code-quality, security, coverage, and maintainability requirements
  • Managed delivery workflows using GitHub Actions, AWS CDK, CloudFormation, and AWS CLI, supporting automated deployments and least-privilege IAM patterns
  • Implemented benchmark- and cost-driven improvements across AWS workflows under enterprise constraints
  • Delivered 15+ ETLs across 4 AWS CDK projects and 20+ Redshift reports under quality-gated DevOps (SonarQube, GitHub Actions)

Business Intelligence Analyst · Heinsohn Business Technology

2021-11 – 2021-12 · Bogotá, Colombia (remote) · Project contract

Short project-based BI engagement (~1 month) building mining and electrical-power dashboards in a Colombian Ministry of Energy and Mines context.

  • Delivered Power BI dashboards plus custom JSON maps in QGIS for mining and electrical-power reporting
  • Built mining and energy dashboards aimed at a Colombian Ministry of Energy and Mines context

GIS Developer / Geoscientist · Dirección General Marítima (DIMAR)

2020-02 – 2021-12 · Bogotá, Colombia · Service contract (prestación de servicios)

Geospatial developer for a Colombian maritime government institution, building ArcGIS Online-heavy operational GIS solutions, web maps, and dashboards for institutional workflows and decision support.

  • Built web maps, dashboards, layers, and services using ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS Pro for operational institutional reporting
  • Designed Survey123 workflows and delivered fast-turnaround GIS solutions for institutional areas
  • Developed a COVID operational monitoring dashboard workflow
  • Built Python + Dash + Plotly dashboards and supported GeoPandas-based cleaning and georeferencing
  • Contributed XGBoost-based predictive species modeling in a university-linked research collaboration
  • Supported oceanographic and Pacific expedition interpolation and environmental-impact mapping

Resource Geologist (Jr.) · Fura Gems (Coscuez S.A.)

2018-02 – 2019-10 · Boyacá, Colombia · Full-time

Junior resource geologist progressing into geological data ownership, reporting, and geomodeling in a Colombian emerald mining context, bridging geoscience outputs to mine planning.

  • Owned geological information, reporting flows, and orebody/deposit boundary modeling
  • Performed drilling, core logging, tunnel logging, and structural mapping, plus bulk sampling and geochemical/XRD-linked data flows
  • Built and maintained final maps used for internal, investor, environmental, and mining-licensing reporting
  • Co-authored the geosciences chapter of formal mining-plan documentation presented with external consultants for authority approval
  • Contributed to early formal-company standardization efforts for Colombian emerald resource quantification
  • Supported mine planning through geological model outputs

Exploration Geologist (Jr.) · Fura de Colombia S.A.S.

2017-04 – 2018-02 · Boyacá, Colombia · Full-time

Junior exploration geologist doing field geology, mapping, drilling, core handling, and geological data organization in a gemstone/mining context.

  • Performed exploration geology and field geology work including mapping, drilling, and core handling
  • Built foundations in geological data organization and curation
  • Worked in an underground mining and exploration context with field rotation

Geochemical Investigator (Internship) · Fura de Colombia S.A.S.

2016-08 – 2016-12 · Coscuez, Boyacá, Colombia · Internship

Pre-graduation geochemistry internship (5 months, onsite + field) that served as a bridge into later direct employment at Fura.

  • Completed a pre-graduation geochemistry internship onsite and in the field
  • Gained early exposure that bridged into a later full-time geology role at Fura

What I work with

Languages (Programming)

Python · SQL · JavaScript (basic) · Java (basic)

Python / Data

pandas · NumPy · GeoPandas · scikit-learn (Random Forest, supervised classification) · PySpark · Dash · Plotly · DuckDB · ETL / data processing · data analysis and visualization · Parquet / CSV processing

Cloud / AWS

AWS Glue · AWS Lambda · AWS Step Functions · AWS CDK · AWS S3 · AWS IAM · AWS CloudWatch · AWS Redshift · AWS Athena · AWS DynamoDB · AWS SQS · AWS SNS · AWS EventBridge · AWS Cognito · AWS RDS / PostgreSQL · AWS Lightsail · AWS CloudFormation · AWS CLI · AWS Textract

Data Engineering

ETL design · Medallion Architecture (RAW / Silver / Gold) · Star Schema / dimensional modeling · data modeling · performance tuning · document AI (Textract)

GIS / Geospatial

QGIS · ArcGIS Online · ArcGIS Pro · ArcGIS API · Survey123 · GDAL · Leapfrog Geo · DATAMINE · spatial analysis · geospatial data handling · geoscience domain knowledge

BI / Analytics

Power BI · DAX · dashboards (Power BI, Dash)

DevOps / Dev Tools

Git · Docker · GitHub Actions (CI/CD) · SonarQube (quality gates) · Postman · DBeaver · Jupyter

Product / Workflow

Jira (process design + intensive use) · Confluence · Monday.com · agile / scrum · QA / testing workflows · requirements clarification · technical documentation · onboarding and demo support · issue triage and follow-up

AI Tooling

Claude · Claude Code · ChatGPT · AI agents · MCPs · Obsidian (PKM / knowledge systems)

Human Languages

Spanish (native) · English (Full Professional Proficiency, C2, certified via EF SET) · Japanese (basic)

How I work

  • Ownership / acting-architect: drives architecture decisions and end-to-end delivery without holding the formal title
  • Proactivity: designs processes and solutions before being asked
  • Ambiguity handling: operates well when requirements are unclear or data is messy; iterates via clarification loops
  • Technical-to-business bridging: frames engineering tradeoffs (cost, risk, time-to-value) in terms stakeholders can act on
  • Client-facing delivery: owns client relationships through scoping, demos, and incident resolution
  • Communication: translates complex technical/scientific information into outputs the right audience can act on
  • Cross-cultural async collaboration: Colombia / Chile / UK working norms, written-first, distributed-by-default

Education

  • BSc Geosciences · Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá (2013 – 2017) · GPA 4.12 / 5 · "Quiero Estudiar" scholarship (academic excellence)
  • Data Science (DS4A / Colombia 2.0) · Correlation One (2020 – 2020) · Graduated with honors (375 hours)

Certifications & credentials

  • AWS Machine Learning Foundations · Udacity (2021)
  • Data Science (DS4A / Colombia 2.0) · Correlation One (2020)
  • Web Development with ArcGIS API for JavaScript · ESRI Colombia (2020)
  • GIS + Python · Uniandinos (2019)
  • DATAMINE Studio 5D + EPS / DATAMINE EM · DATAMINE (2018)
  • CPG (Colombian Professional Geology License) · Colombia (2017–present)
  • ACGGP Member (Asociación Colombiana de Geólogos y Geofísicos del Petróleo) · ACGGP (2019–present)

Publication

  • Co-author, Automating Core Data Integration: Insights from the Volve Field Case Study. ADIPEC 2025 (SPE OnePetro), 2025. SPE D041S138R004.

Languages & context

Spanish (Native) · English (Full Professional Proficiency (C2, EF SET certified)) · Japanese (Elementary).

I work from Bogotá, Colombia, remote-first since 2021.