Voices of TBAuctions: Turning data into business value

Welcome to Voices of TBAuctions, an interview series spotlighting the people behind Europe’s leading multi-brand B2B digital auction platform. Through candid conversations with our leaders and team members, we explore who they are, their experiences, insights, and the passion that drives our success. 

We are excited to highlight Roberto Bonilla, Lead Data Engineer at TBAuctions. You can watch the video above or, if you prefer, read the full interview below! 

What do you enjoy the most about working at TBAuctions?

Definitely the people! I’m very lucky to work in the data team, where we have over 12 nationalities among our 15 team members. Everyone is so passionate and collaborative that I really enjoy working with them. It’s also really exciting working at TBA.

Can you describe your role and the skills required for it?

My role basically involves managing the entire data and AI platform, from expanding it to more brands to making a greater impact with AI. A fundamental skill in my work is technical expertise, as everything we do here in the Data Team is highly technical and requires in-depth knowledge. Secondly, you need to understand the business. It’s the combination of these two things that makes us unique.

What advice would you give to someone new in your role?

Stay curious and keep learning. I think it’s important to ask questions and challenge the status quo every day, as this position is technical yet also involves business impact. So, you need to ask yourself: are you doing enough to meet the needs of the business in the long term while carrying out your development work? With the addition of AI, you will face new challenges and need to keep up to date on a daily basis. That’s a real challenge. But it’s also one of the most exciting parts of my job.

What aspect of working at TBAuctions makes you feel most proud?

There are two things that make me really proud of TBAuctions and my work here. Firstly, we are creating products that matter. If you think about it, valuation is at the core of auction businesses. We recently released an AI agent called Predicted Lot Value to our Klaravik brand in Denmark and Sweden, which actually attacks this problem. The second thing is the pace of innovation within the data team. We’ve been invited to multiple AI and data expos, as well as to present our work to important organisations in the Netherlands. I’m really proud to work at TBA for that reason.

What is a fun fact that your colleagues might not know about you?

So, after finishing my Master’s degree, I started a TikTok channel. I had a lot of free time after graduating, and it was a niche market, so all of my followers were Spanish speakers. In the first week, I gained 15,000 followers, and by the end of the month, I had 25,000. That was a lot. I thought I might become an influencer, but in the end, when I tried to monetise, I could only make an incredible €10.

Do you have any final thoughts you’d like to share?

Yes, on Thursday at 11:40 I will be presenting in Amsterdam about our journey and the technical iterations we have made to achieve agentic AI here at TBA. I hope to see you there! Please stay tuned!