Building MLOps tech teams in non-tech companies

On Wednesday 26 March 2025 I gave a 25 minute talk in Amsterdam at the at Ahold-Delhaize MLOps Conference.

The deck won't make 100% sense without the accompanying talk, but it contains many useful diagrams and topologies. Enjoy!

Outline of the talk

The local, non-tech company can gain a lot from working with tech, but it is also the most challenging type of big company to deliver complex projects in. There is a myriad of challenges to overcome. If that weren't bad enough, MLOps is a particularly odd brand of tech.

To do MLOps we need to understand data science, software engineering, DevOps practices, a bit of infra and a bit of security. The challenge is that people mastering all of these skills are rare, and mixed teams sometimes have a hard time understanding each other.

What are the challenges we face when starting with MLOps in these type of companies? How can we overcome them? And how can we build succesful teams. This talk will dive into the topic, give examples from real use cases and offers advice for both devs and leaders.