About.
I’m Sean Kraemer, a data scientist at Zurich North America in Chicago. My work focuses on AI tools for underwriting.
Before this, I spent several years building insurance pricing models. I went back to school while working full time and completed my Master of Computer Science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in May 2026.
The agent system I’m working on now reads a company’s public disclosures against our global sustainability guidelines and rates each provision red, yellow, or green, with each assessment linked back to the source text so an underwriter can check the reasoning.
Grad school is also where my portfolio projects started. After the courses ended, I kept working on them: adding tests, improving the documentation, and making the demos easier to run.
Outside of work
I keep myself busy trying new things and picking up new skills, and most of it comes back to Chicago, the greatest city in the world: planning outings with friends and family, meeting new people, volunteering and getting involved, and growing my professional community. For that last one, connect with me on LinkedIn.
- Chicago
Mostly wedding planning right now: I proposed to my fiancé Marissa the day before my master’s graduation, at the place where we met (UIUC), and we’re getting married in August 2027. Together we are eating our way through the Chicago food scene, which we’re convinced is the best in the world, and we keep exploring the city like we just moved here.
- Movies
The big one. Old, new, independent, big-studio, and every theater in the city, chains and independents alike. Ask me about whatever you watched recently, because odds are I have seen it and have opinions. Looking forward to Dune: Part Three. Top four: Whiplash, Hereditary, This Is the End, The Holdovers.
Follow me on Letterboxd - Music
Big on the Chicago house scene: local sets, and Boiler Room whenever it comes through. Regular Lollapalooza attendee (who turns down a music festival in their backyard?) and a Pitchfork fest lover to the end, rest in peace. On rotation: Kaytranada, Tyler, the Creator, Kendrick Lamar, Tame Impala, Charli xcx, Temples. Hip-hop, house, alt and indie, and hyperpop, roughly in that order.
- Training
Big on lifting, recently into running with a marathon somewhere down the road, and beach volleyball in the summer. I competed in gymnastics through high school and club gymnastics in college.
- Languages
Learning Farsi so I can speak it when I visit Iran one day. I am half Persian on my mom’s side and grew up without the language, which I would like to fix. Mandarin is next, since I took three years of it in high school and have lost most of it since.
- Elsewhere
Books, travel anywhere I have not been, and video games with a difficulty problem: League, Spelunky, and whatever FromSoft puts out.
Find me on Goodreads
I care a lot about free and open-source software and open models, and about accessibility in the things we build. I want more people to have access to useful technology, and I’d like to spend more time contributing to those projects. I also try to stay involved in my community and civically engaged in the city.
On the list of things I keep saying I will learn: DJing, piano again, a drum kit I have no room for, and enough about a 3D printer to justify buying one.