Sofiane Soualah
My background
Biography, professional experience, and technical skills.
About me
I'm passionate about applied mathematics. I started out at the University of Béjaïa (Algeria), before crossing the Atlantic to continue my studies at the Université de Montréal (Canada). I then spent 11 years at GIRO building public transit planning algorithms deployed in over 30 countries.
Over the years I moved from software development to team management. I worked on designing and implementing optimization algorithms, as well as on client support, training workshops, cross-team coordination, and product improvement.
My most impactful contribution was enhancing the MinBus product to optimize electric bus fleets and the challenges that come with them: charging-station capacity, total electricity consumption, electricity cost, and operating constraints. If you ride an electric bus today, there's a good chance its schedule passed through a few lines of my code.
After 11 years, I stepped back and took a closer look at the services around me. I saw care delays getting longer, waste bins overflowing, seniors getting a different caregiver every month. Planning problems I know how to solve, and that nobody was tackling the way we had for public transit.
Today, I work independently to put my experience and expertise at the service of organizations with a public service mission (waste collection, transportation, healthcare, home care), helping them better plan their vehicle routes, staff schedules and resource allocation, so they can deliver better service to the people who depend on them.
- ♟️Chess (Elo ~2000)
- ⚽Soccer
- 🎵Instruments: mandola, synthesizer, percussion
- French
- English
- Arabic
- Kabyle
- M.Sc. Computer Science & Operations Research, Université de Montréal.
- B.Sc. Operations Research, University of Béjaïa.
- Alter Ego (First Edition) at GIRO, 2022
- Various awards and scholarships received during my university studies
Experience
11 years of optimization in public transit, then problem exploration, then consulting.
Sofiane Soualah
Operations Planning & Optimization Consultant
I help organizations with a public service mission (waste collection, transportation, healthcare, home care) better plan their vehicle routes, staff schedules and resource allocation, so they can deliver better service to the people who depend on them.
Problem exploration
Dec. 2025 – Jul. 2026
8 months
Exploring operational decision problems in healthcare, waste management and supply chain: vehicle routing, staff scheduling, forecasting, capacity planning, resource allocation. Industry conferences, field visits and interviews with practitioners and managers, to understand the reality of each sector before proposing anything.
GIRO inc.
Publisher of the HASTUS software, deployed by transit agencies in more than 30 countries.
Team Manager
Key achievements
- Led a team of 7 employees responsible for vehicle scheduling, crew scheduling and disruption management algorithms.
- Supported the team's professional development: 1:1 meetings, performance reviews, and career progression.
- Drove the trade-offs between algorithmic performance, technical-debt reduction, and client commitments.
Software Architect
Key achievements
- Enhanced HASTUS-MinBus to better handle mixed fleets and to control overall electricity cost and consumption.
- Sped up MinBus solving time by up to 50%, making large-scale electric bus scenarios solvable in production.
- Contributed to architecture decisions and to the technical evolution of the platform.
- Provided technical direction and mentorship to the developers on the algorithms team.
- Experimented with machine learning in crew scheduling algorithms.
Senior developer
Key achievements
- Developed and maintained vehicle and crew scheduling optimization algorithms, deployed by transit agencies in over 30 countries.
- Extended HASTUS-MinBus to the optimization of electric bus fleets, accounting for operational constraints and charging station capacity.
- Calibrated and sped up the rolling stock algorithm for train scheduling (50% faster).
Application Analyst
Key achievements
- Calibrated optimization algorithms to meet the specific needs of ~20 clients.
- Provided technical support and led optimization workshops for ~50 schedulers at ~10 public transit agencies.
HEC Montréal
Business school of the Université de Montréal. Graduate-level courses in mathematical and business analytics modelling.
Lecturer
Expertise
Technical skills
Operations Research & Machine Learning
Languages & Tools
From modelling to production
Got a planning challenge?
Tell me about your needs, the operations involved, and what you would like to improve.