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Michael Pillow

@michaelpillow

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Senior data engineer building scalable, reliable analytics platforms.

United States

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What I'm looking for

I seek senior-level roles building reliable, cost-efficient data platforms where I can lead architecture, mentor engineers, and drive data quality and observability in cross-functional teams.

I am a senior data engineer with 9+ years designing, building, and operating scalable data platforms across e-commerce, marketplace, and enterprise environments. I specialize in Snowflake, dbt, SQL, Python, streaming data, and cloud-native architectures, and I partner closely with Product, Analytics, and Engineering teams to deliver high-impact analytics solutions.

At Chewy, I led the Customer 360 & Order Intelligence data platform, architecting Snowflake + dbt transformation layers, implementing ELT pipelines, data quality checks, and near-real-time Kafka ingestion that reduced latency from hours to minutes and delivered mid-six-figure cost savings. I introduced Databricks SQL and selective PySpark jobs, owned domain-based ingestion from MSSQL and SaaS sources via Fivetran, and implemented CI/CD, Terraform, and containerized validation services to ensure reliable, repeatable releases.

I mentor engineers, lead code reviews, and translate ambiguous business questions into durable dimensional models supporting churn, retention, and cohort analysis. I have strong experience with orchestration (Airflow), observability, schema evolution handling, and cross-cloud validation across AWS and Azure to ensure consistent reporting and integration.

Experience

Work history, roles, and key accomplishments

Current

Staff Data Engineer

Current

Chewy

Oct 2020 - Present (5 years 6 months)

Led the Customer 360 & Order Intelligence data platform, designing Snowflake ELT pipelines and dbt transformations to enable unified analytics and reduce analytics rework by 40%+. Optimized Snowflake performance and cost, delivered mid-six-figure annual savings, and built near-real-time Kafka ingestion pipelines to reduce latency from hours to minutes.

Snowflake DBT SQL Python Kafka Airflow Databricks Fivetran Terraform

Senior Data Engineer

Uber

Nov 2017 - Sep 2020 (2 years 10 months)

Designed and scaled batch and streaming pipelines with Kafka and Spark for near-real-time marketplace analytics, and built large-scale dimensional models in Hive/Presto to support experimentation and executive reporting.

Kafka Spark Hive Presto SQL Data Modeling Streaming ETL Performance Tuning

Data Engineer

General Mills

Nov 2015 - Oct 2017 (1 year 11 months)

Designed and maintained enterprise ETL pipelines using SSIS to integrate Oracle and SQL Server systems, built star/snowflake schemas for forecasting and reporting, and automated data validation to improve accuracy and reduce manual QA.

SSIS Oracle MSSQL SQL Python ETL Data Validation

Data Analyst

General Mills

Jan 2015 - Nov 2015 (10 months)

Developed SQL-based analytical datasets and reports for finance and operations, performed data profiling to identify quality issues, and supported dashboard and metric definition development for executive reporting.

SQL Data Profiler Reporting Data Quality Dashboarding

Education

Degrees, certifications, and relevant coursework

University of Lynchburg

Master of Science, Applied Mathematics

2013 - 2014

Completed a Master of Science in Applied Mathematics with coursework and projects focused on advanced mathematical methods applicable to analytics and modeling.