Hello, I am David.
Highly motivated Software Engineer with 3 years of experience in backend and data engineering, specializing in Python, Go, AWS, and ETL pipelines.
Excellent communicator with a degree in Business Communications. Worked a decade in sales and marketing before programming professionally.
A customer-centric professional with a strong product mindset, an entrepreneurial spirit, and a proven track record of delivering high-impact projects.
Swiss citizen, married, father of two girls. Moving from Berlin to Switzerland in February 2024.
Work Experience
Full-Time Parenting
From September 2023
In October 2023, our second daughter was born. I am taking care of my family since September 2023.
Additionally, we are moving to Switzerland. Moving a family from one country to the next requires a lot of work. So I am indeed needed at home to take care of many things.
Software Data Engineer | epilot.cloud
March 2023 to August 2023, Cologne and Berlin
Driving Data Features of the cloud platform "epilot 360".
- Design storage and interface to analytical data systems (data lake) based on AWS s3 and AWS Redshift
- Introduced the idea of analytical data models to improve read performance (faster reads, and pre-computation)
- Design and implement a backend for the dashboard of the web application "epilot 360".
- Tech Stack: openapi, Python, Pandas, AWS RDS (Postgres), AWS Lambdas, AWS SQS, AWS EventBus
Software Data Engineer | Contentful
July 2022 to December 2022, Berlin
We've built the "core data platform" that everyone at contentful used to analyse data, get insights into the business and back deceisions with data.
Tech stack: AWS, Python, Terraform, Go, Airflow, unix, Kubernetes, Docker
Achievements:
- Improved query performance on AWS Redshift by distributing the work to multiple clusters with isolated scope (e.g. a read cluster for dashboarding-tools) and sharing data between the clusters
- Modularised the AWS Redshift deployment in Terraform. Refactored the networking settings to make it easier and more secure to connect to AWS Redshift. Ensured a similar setup on Production and Staging.
- Improved reliability of microservices (deployed on AWS) and Airflow with CircleCI, Pytest and Localstack
Software Data Engineer | Alexander Thamm GmbH
March 2021 to June 2022, Berlin & Munich
Data engineering at Alexander Thamm GmbH has four dimensions:
- Software Engineering
- Big Data and Machine Learning Technologies
- Cloud Technologies
- DevOps Practices
Tech Stack: Python, Java, Terraform, AWS, Azure, Docker
Achievements:
- Onboarded a java code base deployed to AWS based on spark that processed two million events every day. I got productive quite fast by intensively studying Java and the Maven ecosystem. Soon after, I could independently contribute features and review pull requests.
- Initiated refactoring that split a monolithic service into microservices. That resulted in a significantly faster build time with less errors, a more reliable deploy process and took out a lot of complexity from the system. (Happy to share the contact of my tech lead for reference)
- Built a greenfield data lake for batch processing data on Azure by migrating an existing system from Oracle. I deployed all resources with Terraform (infrastructure as code) and laid the foundation for big data processing with Spark pipelines (Python API) using Azure Data Factory and Databricks. (3 months)
- Built CI / CD Pipelines for machine learning pipelines using Python, AWS, Terraform, GitLab CI, Docker and kubeflow. This project was in its third year. I made the deployment of the code to AWS more effective with GitLab CI and Docker. (3 months)
Software Data Engineer | Pandata GmbH
October 2020 to March 2021, Berlin
- Write Python code for data flows
- Build pipelines that take data from APIs and load them to DWH
Product Consultant | BMW Group Brand Experience Center
June 2015 to June 2019, Zurich
https://www.experiencebmwgroup.ch/de/
- Responsible for delivering premium consumer experiences along the customer journey in form of product presentations, guided tours, configurations and test drives (leading of around 600 test drives with clients)
- Presentation of product innovations and launches in form of closed-room events in German, Italian and French and leading of test drive events
- Note: The role was actually called "Product Genius", but I thought "Product Consultant" is clearer.
Junior Consultant Online Marketing | plan.net suisse ag
June 2014 to June 2015, Zurich
Growth
2011 to 2014, mostly in Switzerland
- Service in the Swiss Armed Forces as Sergeant in the Infantry
- Work as animator in Egypt
- An internship in Marketing
- An internship in Account Management
Business Apprenticeship | InterComponentWare Schweiz AG
Acquired two Swiss diplomas:
- "Kaufmann mit Eidgenössischem Fähigkeitszeugnis"
- "Berufsmaturitätszeugnis"
Education
Certifications
- Currently studying AWS, Java, Algorithms & Data Structures and React
- Received a Data Engineering Nano Degree from udacity.com
- Finished the course “Linux Mastery” on udemy.com
- Received a FrontEnd Developer Nano Degree from udacity.com
- Finished the course “Python 3” on CodeCademy.com (that's where the coding journey actually started :) )
Bachelor of Science in Business Communications | HWZ
- 2014 to 2018
- From «HWZ University of Applied Sciences in Business Administration Zurich»
Part-time degree (16 hours lectures per week on top of full-time work for four years. Yep, that was rather exhausting.)
Title of the thesis: “Evaluation of the contribution of a «brand experience center» to the sales of new cars by the example at BMW Group Switzerland”. main topics were purchase decision behaviours, customer experience and digital business.
"Kaufmann EFZ mit Berufsmatura"
2008 to 2011
During three years I went for two days per week to the KV Zürich Business School and worked three days a week at InterComponentWare Schweiz AG.
A translation of the diploma might be "Federal Diploma of Vocational Education and Training".
Further Education Experiences
- 2017 Study a semester abroad in Bhutan at the Royal Thimphu College
- 2012 Management Training during my service in the Swiss Armed Forces
- 2008 to 2011 Acquired two Swiss business diplomas
Languages
- English: Fluent (C2)
- (Swiss) German: Mother Tongue
- Italian: Very good
- French: Very good
Interests
Life Long Learner, Programming, Build Things, Intuitive Systems, Vim, Guitar, Meditation, Reading, my Family