Data Science · AI/ML · Solutions Architecture · Engineering

Talk data to me.

Two decades spanning government data science consulting, engineering, and enterprise AI solutions. I use this site as a means to display some of the projects on which I've worked and a testbed - of sorts - for server-side development. Take a look around and please feel free to reach out.

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Jay Borthen

"We are like butterflies who flutter for a day and think it is forever."

— Carl Sagan

01 — About

The person behind the platforms.

I'm Jay Borthen — a data science, AI, and engineering leader.

Today I serve as Principal Data Scientist & AI Solutions Architect at a firm in Northern Virginia, where I lead a technical team supporting data analytics and AI initiatives for the U.S. Coast Guard. Before that, I worked on projects that ranged from machine learning models for federal law enforcement to a resource-allocation platform used at the U.S. Treasury Department. I hold an M.S. in Mathematics and Statistics from Georgetown and a B.S. in Ocean Engineering from Virginia Tech (with a Minor in Economics).

"The hardest part of data work is never the modeling - it's earning the trust that lets people actually act on what the data says. That's true whether you're reviewing a destroyer's structural design or the output from an L.L.M."

02 — Expertise

Six disciplines. One unified practice.

01

Data Platform Architecture

Databricks, Snowflake, and Qlik environments designed and deployed for federal and commercial data engineering initiatives.

02

AI & Machine Learning

LLM-powered document intelligence, NLP pipelines, and ML models built with TensorFlow, PyTorch, and Python — production systems, not slide decks.

03

Data Governance

Data Mesh implementation, data stewardship, and incident-management policy developed for enterprise governance programs.

04

Analytics & BI

Qlik, Power BI, Tableau, and Shiny dashboards that turn raw data into decisions stakeholders can act on immediately.

05

Technical Team Leadership

Established and led technical teams supporting data analytics and AI initiatives across multiple federal organizations.

06

Solutions Architecture & BD

Pre-sales engineering, go-to-market strategy, and technical proposal development across strategic technology partnerships.

03 — Experience

One throughline.

2022 — Present

Principal Data Scientist | A.I. Solutions Architect

McLean, VA

Lead a technical team supporting data analytics and AI initiatives for the U.S. Coast Guard's Office of Data Analytics and Integrated Support Command; previously Senior Solutions Architect designing enterprise data/AI solutions for prospective clients.

  • Led implementation of a Data Mesh across USCG teams and designed data architectures for mobile data-collection applications
  • Developed a Python solution leveraging Claude to identify references within PDF documents and map associations, improving engineers' ability to analyze technical documentation
  • Designed, configured, and deployed Databricks environments and built Qlik pipelines/dashboards for USCG data engineering and analytics
  • Architected and presented enterprise data, analytics, and AI/ML solutions leveraging Qlik, Databricks, AWS, Snowflake, and other strategic partner technologies
2020 — 2022

Data Scientist

Quantico, VA

Supported federal law-enforcement analytics, machine learning, and digital platform modernization initiatives.

  • Linked AWS S3 data into a Databricks environment and redeveloped ML models with TensorFlow, including Random Forest and neural network models, for a Procurement Fraud group
  • Developed weapons-qualification tracking and armor-management systems via Power Automate
  • Tested SpaCy and PyPDF for NLP-based case-data processing and served as data liaison to other federal agencies
2019 — 2020

Data Scientist and Project Technical Lead

McLean, VA

Led digital platform modernization for a government client under a SAFe Agile/Kanban framework.

  • Integrated data science orchestration across Databricks, Spark, Azure Pipelines, Jupyter, PyTorch, TensorFlow, MLflow, and R Studio
  • Built and deployed Azure Monitor and Power BI dashboards for VM status, user activity, and resource monitoring
  • Developed interactive Shiny, D3, and Power BI applications to extract and manage data from PDF and JSON sources
2016 — 2019

Senior Consultant Data Scientist

Deloitte Consulting LLP & Unity Analytics, LLC · Washington, DC

Delivered data science consulting for federal clients at Deloitte while serving concurrently as a governing member and statistician at Unity Analytics.

  • Reduced NAVFAC's commodity tariff obligations by an estimated $6M annually via ETL scripts and R-based anomaly detection
  • Streamlined resource allocation for ~80,000 US Treasury/IRS employees across ~800 posts of duty, building Shiny/JavaScript applications that saved an estimated $5M
  • Reduced a machine-learning algorithm's runtime from ~73 minutes to under 16 seconds for Unity Analytics
  • Automated data-mining and descriptive analysis of 60,000+ real estate properties; guided Georgetown nursing-anesthetist students through statistical analyses

04 — Impact

The numbers that matter.

$0M+

Annual Cost Savings

Delivered via NAVFAC tariff analytics and IRS resource-allocation tools

0+

Years of Experience

Across naval architecture, data science, and AI solutions

0.0%

Faster ML Runtime

Cut a production algorithm's runtime from ~73 minutes to under 16 seconds

0K+

Employees Served

By a resource-allocation platform built for U.S. Treasury/IRS offices nationwide

05 — Portfolio

Side projects & experiments.

I have many interests and accomplishments — a small handful are presented below.

Hardware

3D Printer

A made-from-scratch 3D printer. The video shows it producing a simple hanger; plans for builds like this can be found through RepRap.

Watch it print ↗ RepRap plans ↗

Virtual Reality

Virtual Reality Application

An Android application (an *.apk) I created for Google Cardboard — a proof of concept for an inexpensive, interactive, immersive 3D ship environment.

Google Cardboard ↗

Data Visualization

Interactive Statistics

I've created many interactive data visualizations and web apps with Excel, R, Python, JavaScript, and others.

Simulation

Dynamic Ship Trim Simulator

A proof of concept developed to simulate inertial trim effects on a translationally-restrained ship. It was built to run in a browser plugin that modern browsers no longer support, so it's shown here as a screenshot.

Game

JavaScript/jQuery Game

A JavaScript and jQuery-based browser game, adapted to feature the DDG 1000 Zumwalt-class destroyer.

Play in your browser ↗

Deep Learning

Ship Recognition with Deep Learning

Testing a trained deep-learning network (ImageNet) on naval ship images.

View the test ↗

Hardware

Backyard Radar System

A RADAR built for a little over $200.

Data Visualization

D3 Webgraph

An interactive webgraph built with D3 that can be tailored to many different kinds of projects. Here, I was using it to map out ship-space relationships.

Concept

The Sound Lot

An idea for providing practice space and equipment storage to musicians on a monthly basis: soundproofed containers with HVAC and 24/7 access.

Simulation · R

Gravitational Attraction Simulation

An in-browser gravitational system simulation written in R.

Run the simulation ↗

Statistics · JMP

Multivariate Analysis

A sample of a multivariate analysis I previously performed in JMP.

Machine Learning · R

Artificial Neural Networks

A work in progress that demonstrates the linear algebra behind artificial neural networks.

Read the walkthrough ↗

Typography

Ambiguity Font

Celebrate ambiguity with this free, deliberately ambiguous typeface.

Download the font ↗

Teaching · R

Creating R Packages

A brief I used when teaching a class on creating R packages.

View the slides ↗

06 — Recognition

Credentials, awards & writing.

Certifications & Clearance

PMP

Project Management Professional

Project Management Institute

Sec+

CompTIA Security+

CompTIA

Education

M.S.

Mathematics and Statistics

Georgetown University · Washington, DC

B.S.

Ocean Engineering (Minor: Economics)

Virginia Tech · Blacksburg, VA

Awards

  • SNAME Elmer L. Hann Award for Best Paper — Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers
  • Letter of Commendation from VADM James Syring, former Director of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency and former NAVSEA Program Manager for DDG 1000 Design and Construction

Publications

  • Borthen, Jay. Building Data Integration Solutions: Unifying Data for Enhanced Decision Making. O'Reilly, December 2025.
  • Borthen, Jay and Glen Grogan. "Performing Detailed Design Reviews of a U.S. Navy Surface Combatant within an Integrated Data Environment." Journal of Ship Production, Vol. 26, No. 1, February 2010.

Professional Memberships

  • Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers (SNAME)
  • American Statistical Association (ASA) & Washington Statistical Society (WSS)
  • Project Management Institute (PMI) & National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE)

07 — Book

Cover of Building Data Integration Solutions by Jay Borthen

Building Data Integration Solutions

A field guide to designing, architecting, and delivering enterprise-grade data integration platforms — drawn from two decades spanning naval architecture, government data science consulting, and enterprise AI solutions architecture.

  • Frameworks for evaluating ETL, ELT, and streaming architectures
  • Governance and data quality patterns that hold up in production
  • Real-world case studies drawn from federal and commercial engagements
Get the book

08 — Contact

Let's build something decisive.

Whether you're building out a data/AI team, scoping a solutions architecture engagement, or exploring a collaboration - I'd welcome the conversation.

Based in

Northern Virginia, Virginia

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