I started as a self-taught analyst in fintech. Now I run a data function and report to a CTO. In between, four platforms rebuilt or built from nothing.
I run the data function: strategy, the platform, the team and the commercial decisions that depend on data. I've line-managed up to six people (four data engineers and two web engineers), and led the team through a restructure that took it to two.
I rebuilt the whole AWS platform and cut its running cost from $26k to $7k a month, through a security incident that took the old platform offline early. I built a QuickSight proof of concept to cut down the data questions coming from the senior leadership team. It became their main window onto the company's data, is now used by about half the company, and its needs became part of the brief for the new architecture. I also choose and buy our data acquisition platforms, advise on what the company can sell from its data, and train people across the business to use it.
I've built a multi-disciplinary team across data engineering, web engineering and machine learning. I've hired three data engineers into it, and I'm now adding a Senior ML Engineer who will also help develop the data science team.
Hired to take over a contractor-built platform nobody in-house could maintain. I designed the AWS ingestion framework and Snowflake warehouse from scratch, set the engineering standards and hired an engineer, so the company owned its platform instead of renting the knowledge.
I reviewed an AWS and dbt estate that had outgrown its design and re-orchestrated it for parallelism, saving around $50k a year and cutting failures. I mentored engineers on AWS and Python, and ran AI fundamentals training across the IT department.
Data engineer on a large Teradata estate in online retail.
Built a multi-tenant BI platform from scratch, consolidating 300+ client databases into one Redshift warehouse with QuickSight on top. 70% cheaper to run than what it replaced.
My first data role. I taught myself Python, SQL, machine learning and data warehousing here, mostly because I needed them and there was nobody else to do it. I was there when GDPR landed, and I led the company's preparation for it: I investigated the requirements, ran training workshops, and drafted the data protection policy, covering DPIAs, subject access requests and data retention, which the CIO reviewed before launch.