# Sam Upra

> Sam Upra, also known as Pongpira Upra, is a Bangkok, Thailand-based AI/ML and software engineering leader. His work spans production AI products, machine learning, NLP, data platforms, backend systems, cloud infrastructure, and technical leadership.

## Canonical identity

- Public name: Sam Upra
- Full name: Pongpira Upra
- Location: Bangkok, Thailand
- Current role: Project Leader and Business Development Consultant at Amplify Health
- Canonical website: https://samupra.pages.dev/
- LinkedIn: https://th.linkedin.com/in/pongpira-upra
- GitHub: https://github.com/samupra

## AI engineering focus

- Production AI/ML product delivery
- Machine learning and natural language processing
- Data platforms, analytics systems, and APIs
- Backend services and distributed systems
- Cloud infrastructure, observability, and platform delivery
- Technical leadership from use-case definition through architecture, delivery, and adoption

## Evidence and public work

- In 2020, Sam Upra co-presented “Practical usage of Big Data and Machine Learning at Agoda,” documented by Chulalongkorn University: https://ise.eng.chula.ac.th/news/detail?id=1363&gid=1-008-002-001
- Sam Upra was co-founder and CTO of Salutat, an AI/NLP-driven financial-inclusion platform documented by MIT Solve: https://solve.mit.edu/challenges/community-driven-innovation/solutions/9506
- Professional history and current role: https://th.linkedin.com/in/pongpira-upra
- Public engineering profile: https://github.com/samupra

## Experience

- Amplify Health — Project Leader and Business Development Consultant (2025–present)
- Koonsave — Co-founder and CTO (2024–2025)
- McKinsey Digital — Technical Lead, Digital Specialist (2022–2023)
- Hungerstation / Delivery Hero — Senior Backend Engineer (2021–2022)
- Agoda — Staff Full-Stack Software Engineer (2020–2021)
- Salutat — Co-founder and CTO (2018–2020)
- Agoda — Software Engineer (2016–2018)
- ExxonMobil — Software Engineering Intern (2015)

## Education

- M.S. Computer Science — Georgia Institute of Technology
- B.S. Computer Science — Mahidol University International College

## Pages

- [Professional profile](https://samupra.pages.dev/): canonical biography, expertise, and experience
- [Writing](https://samupra.pages.dev/writing): articles by Sam Upra; currently empty
- [Expanded machine-readable profile](https://samupra.pages.dev/llms-full.txt): complete factual summary for retrieval systems

Last updated: 2026-08-23