Christopher Sindoni
415-350-3156
chris.sindoni@datamodeler.com
___________________________________________________________________
Objective
I am
interested in a contract position as a Data Modeler, Database Architect, or ETL
Architect. My preference is to be in the
Summary of
Qualifications
Technical Skills
Experience
Keystone Strategy/Microsoft July 2009 – Present Database
Architect
South San
Francisco, CA Contract
Project
Summary and Goals: Keystone Strategy, Inc. is a boutique consulting firm
specializing in economics and business strategy consulting. Keystone has been engaged
by Microsoft to do economic impact analysis for the merger between Bing and
Yahoo search and advertisement platforms, and my primary responsibility was to
this project.
Participation:
I was the Data Architect responsible for all aspects of the database systems
used for this very fast paced high profile project. The database was narrowly
focused on the internet search domain and was several terabytes in size with
multi-billion row fact tables. There were unique challenges due to the size of
the data sets, the high cardinality of search data, the short time frame involved,
and the requirement to do deep analysis of the “long tail” of end user search
requests. Duties over the course of the project included:
·
Data
modeling – Kimball, star schema design
·
Implementing
the physical data model to adequately manage multi-billion row fact tables using
Microsoft based products on standard hardware
·
Designing
and implementing ETL processes
·
Mentoring
a team of economists and data analysts on database fundamentals and SQL
·
Identifying
performance bottlenecks and tuning SQL queries
·
Setting
analysis strategy for individual client deliverables
·
Implementing
processes for data profiling
·
Working
with the database administrator to design disaster recovery processes for multi-terabyte
SQL Server databases
Gap, Inc. January 2008 – July 2009 Database
Architect
San
Francisco, CA Contract
Project
Summary and Goals: Gap Inc. Direct is the largest online clothing retailer in
the world. I was involved in two CRM projects during this engagement. The first
was designing an Enterprise Master Data Management database for customer information
through all touch points – POS, online commerce, loyalty programs, employees,
outbound marketing, etc. The second was an enhancement to a Promotions
Management and Control application that extended online promotions into Gap
physical stores.
Participation:
I was the Data Architect for the for the CRM group during this engagement. I
was responsible for development and ongoing change control of the data model
for the organization. Routine duties through the course of this engagement
included:
Redwood Trust November
2006 – December 2007 Database
Architect
Project
Summary and Goals: Redwood Trust Invests in and securitizes residential and
commercial real estate loans and securities. Through its ownership of
residential credit-enhancement securities, Redwood credit-enhances $237 billion
high-quality residential real estate loans. Redwood credit-enhances
approximately 10% of all jumbo residential loans in the
Participation:
This scope of this engagement included a redesign of the star schema data
model, defining a new hardware architecture and physical database
implementation, and re-architecting the ETL process from a SQL/job based
architecture to one using an ETL tool. The existing data model had not been
created using best practices and this resulted in a business intelligence layer
that had an unusually long and error prone development cycle, poor data
quality, and poor query performance. After implementing a correct data model
design the MicroStrategy report development and qa cycles were cut by
approximately 70%, and data quality and performance were improved dramatically.
The existing SQL based ETL process was very error prone and was extremely
difficult to understand, troubleshoot, and manage. The new process resulted in
dramatically improved data quality, system manageability, and communication
between the business and technical teams. The technologies on this project
included Microsoft SQL Server 2005 and Microsoft SSIS.
Gap, Inc. April 2004 – April 2007 Database
Architect
Project
Summary and Goals: Gap Inc. Direct is the largest online clothing retailer in
the world. Gap implemented a large scale business process reengineering project
for their online division. This included replacement of online stores for all
three Gap brands (Gap, Old Navy, and Banana Republic), as well as the order
management system, promotions management system, content management system,
data warehousing system, web analytics system, network, security strategy,
integration tools, etc.
Participation:
I was the technical architect for the data warehouse portion of the project. I
was brought onto the project during the initial requirements phase and I
assisted the product manager and approximately 30 business partners in the
requirements definition. I designed the entire logical and physical data model
with 500+ tables, set technical direction, and was the technical lead for the
database, ETL, and business intelligence development teams. I also did a
considerable amount of database tuning and hands on Oracle work. Prior to this
project the Gap had no data warehouse or reporting system for the online
division of the company. All reporting was done by pulling raw data into
spreadsheets and processing it manually. This project was implemented using an
Oracle 9i RAC database on Linux, a MicroStrategy 8 business intelligence
platform, and a combination of IBM/Ascential DataStage and Oracle PL/SQL for
ETL. Later in the project lifecycle the database was migrated to Oracle 10g on
IBM AIX. Data model subject areas included Sales, Returns, Shipments, Invoices,
Taxes, Inventory, Promotions, Price Changes, Products, Customers, and Web
Analytics. The database is currently 6 TB and is designed to grow to over 20
TB. The system has a unique design that delivers reports that combine data from
disparate subject areas into a single report. Reporting users can, for example,
make decisions to accept or reject a price change by reading a single report
that contains Sales Velocity, Profit Margins, existing and upcoming Promotions,
deployed Content, and Inventory levels. Prior to the implementation of this
system users were unable to consolidate the information they required in order
to make informed pricing decisions in a timely manner.
Kanisa October
2003 - April 2004 Data
Architect
Project
Summary and Goals: Kanisa supplies software systems for tech support call
centers and user self help technical assistance. Part of the Kanisa product
offering is an analytics product that allows customers to measure the
effectiveness of their tech support, and take action to correct any gaps in
tech support content or training. My role on this project was to lead the
design of a reporting database that would fulfill the function of this
analytics product, and to lead the development of the ETL layer to populate
this database. This project faced some unique challenges - enormous data
volumes (click stream data), deployment on two different RDBMS platforms
(Oracle 9i and SQL Server 2000), a short development cycle with a tight budget,
and a design requirement to supply an end product that was generic enough to
satisfy all Kanisa customers. Kanisa customers include many of the big names in
the technology sector - HP, Cisco, Apple, Microsoft, Intuit, etc.
Participation:
Lead data modeler (logical and physical) and lead database software developer.
I lead the logical and physical database design efforts on both Oracle and SQL
Server platforms. ERWin was the design tool I chose to use. I set the
architecture and software standards for all stored procedures and led the
development effort of the ETL tasks to move data from a raw data staging area
into the star schema reporting database. ETL tasks were done using PL/SQL and
T-SQL. In addition to leading other developers I wrote approximately 20,000
lines of stored procedure code on this project. I also set direction and
standards for the report developers and directed the query tuning and
optimization efforts.
Intel October 2002 - October 2003 Data Architect
Project
Summary and Goals: This was a large project to replace a legacy software system
in the Intel mask operations group. A mask is a glass plate with a chip design
etched onto it. These glass plates are used in the chip making process much
like a photo negative is used to print a photograph. The system is used to
manage all aspects of the mask manufacturing process. This was a high
visibility, very complex, and high risk project. A data mistake during the
masking stage of the process is extremely costly to Intel. Mistakes have the
potential to cost over $100 Million if they get into production.
Participation:
Directed all aspects of the data implementation of strategic proprietary
business processes. This involved overseeing logical and physical data modeling
and stored procedure programming of 15 developers. This project implementation
was started without a lead data architect and had run into major trouble. I was
brought in as a data architecture expert in order to fix numerous database
design problems while keeping the project on schedule. This meant setting
design and coding standards, centralizing data modeling decisions, implementing
code review and mentoring processes, and leading the database development
efforts of 15 developers. Much of this work was hands on as many of the
developers were not database experts. I drove major changes to the data model
in order to implement a fully normalized design in order to enforce the hyper
critical data consistency requirements. Over the course of the project I
identified and eliminated over 100 logical data model flaws that had the
potential for extremely costly data inconsistencies. In addition to this I
directed efforts to identify and eliminate all poorly performing queries. The
application environment was Microsoft .Net and is written in C#. Using this new
technology also presented unique problem solving challenges.
Hewlet Packard April 2002 - October 2002 Database
Development Lead
Project
Summary and Goals: Implement data model and stored procedure improvements to
the database used for world wide customer support of HP business customers.
Redesign the data model to support a multi-language site navigation model. The
database used is SQL Server, and the application server platform is BEA
WebLogic.
Participation:
Lead database position. Led database efforts on a team of seven developers in
all aspects of database architecture, data modeling, and stored procedure
programming. This was a hands on role where I wrote approximately 40% of all
database stored procedure code. This included identifying areas for logical
data model improvements and rewriting existing T-SQL stored procedures with the
primary goal of improving system performance.
Smith and Hawken December 2001 - April 2002 Database Architect
Project
Summary and Goals: Project #1: Implement a data warehouse for analysis of click
stream and sales data from the Smith and Hawken on-line store.
Project #2:
Improve search functionality in the on-line store database. Improve multi-word
search results, implement fuzzy search, and sectioning search features. The
search technology used was Oracle Text.
Participation:
Project #1: Designed and implemented a reporting data model to meet existing
and future anticipated reporting requirements. The data model was based on a
star schema design (dimensional data warehouse) and had fact tables for click
stream and sales data. I also designed and directed the implementation of a new
means of data collection for this database. This is a unique approach that
collects click stream data from the application server’s servlet pipeline. This
enabled reporting on many metrics that are impossible with traditional
approaches using web and application server logs, but are critical to effective
management of an on-line store. I also wrote all ETL procedures in Oralce
PL/SQL.
Project#2:
Completely redesigned and implemented product search functionality using Oralce
Text. This included changing the indexing strategy, modifying the database
search tables, completely rewriting the PL/SQL stored procedures and shell
scripts used to rebuild search tables and indexes, and rewrite the SQL queries
statements used by the web application. I also recommended changes to the
content included in search in order to target results more accurately.
The Sharper Image July 2000 - December 2001
Database Architect
Project
Summary and Goals: Project #1: Lead a team of four developers in the
implementation of a second generation auction site. Lead the development effort
of the integration of the auction and on-line store databases.
Project #2:
Ongoing Oracle database support for on-line store and on-line auction sites.
This is an extension of a project listed below under “Intel”. Ongoing
application design enhancements and database performance improvements.
Participation:
Responsible for all business requirements analysis, data modeling, and leading
database implementation efforts for the on-line store and auction databases.
Defined data flows and system architecture to meet business requirements and
seamlessly integrate the on-line store with the on-line auction. Lead
implementation of physical database
objects and tuning SQL queries. Defined software architecture to manage user
registration and sign-in processes across two different application server
platforms. Served as the project technical lead and technical liaison to the
management team on an auction implementation project. Wrote custom data
conversion programs in Java. Defined application interface design and
application server data cache for optimum database performance. Tuned all SQL
queries as required. Also had responsibility for all ongoing data model design
decisions and database implementation strategies for any new business
requirements.
PeoplePC March
2001 - October 2001 Lead Data Modeler
Position:
Lead Data Modeler – complete enterprise database redesign
Project
Summary and Goals: Complete redesign of an existing enterprise database used
for on-line business-to-business and business-to-consumer services. Logical
data model, physical data model, and stored procedures. Provide data modeling
mentoring to database developers and programmers.
Participation:
Responsible for leading all aspects of a redesign of legacy database
applications. I gave technical direction to approximately 15 developers
involved in this project. This included setting modeling and programming
standards, code review procedures, code release procedures, query tuning, and
all database development efforts. The legacy database was designed by
application programmers and web developers with various disciplines. Virtually
every design rule in the book was violated and data integrity issues came up
constantly. This entire legacy design was scrapped in favor of a complete
custom redesign. I lead this redesign effort. This involved implementing correct
standards and training application programmers on correct data modeling
practices. The redesign was a highly normalized (fourth and fifth normal forms)
database used for on-line transaction processing. Main subject areas included
customers, products, orders, logistics, client specific pricing, content
delivery, and billing. Also worked with DBA staff to optimize database queries
and application interfaces.
Intel October
1999 - December 2000 Data architect,
Business Analyst
Project
Summary and Goals: Various web projects for outside clients: Second Generation
On-line store for The Sharper Image – complete site redesign, integrate with
existing business systems to support the brick and mortar and catalog sales,
add customer personalization features, deploy multi-language site on a single
system; Portal Site for the People’s Republic of China; Web based business
management system for Free Trade Zones in China; Web based teaching community
for teachers and education professionals.
Participation:
Lead all aspects of the data implementation during the full project life cycle
of The Sharper Image on-line store project. Got involved with the project at
the business requirements analysis phase. Worked with Sharper Image senior
management to develop business requirements documentation, define high level
data flows, and supplied technical solutions to specific business requirements.
Led all database development efforts on a team of 12 developers. Led
development effort of the logical and physical data models to meet the needs
for The Sharper Image’s unique business requirements. Led development of a
comprehensive normalized data model to meet the needs of delivering real-time
content to the sharperimage.com website. Defined system and software
architectures to support business requirements. Defined database system
architecture for hot standby databases and geographically load balanced
databases, selected hardware, defined physical server architecture for optimum
database performance (using modified Oracle OFA), lead implementation efforts
of database objects and PL/SQL code to enforce business rules and application
logic, lead analysis and tuning of SQL queries for optimum response time.
Optimized Oracle memory management for optimum performance under loads
experienced in production environment. Wrote custom Java programs for importing
users and product information from legacy web database and file system sources.
On other projects defined logical and physical data models and consulted on
data architectures to support business requirements. Acted as mentor to junior
data modelers, DBAs, and programmers on other projects done by the group.
Distilled Images January
2000 - July 2000 Data Modeler, Business
Analyst
Project
Summary and Goals: Implement web based business-to-business and
business-to-consumer commerce system. Implement a unique business model which
enabled businesses with marketable photographic images to sell those images to
consumers. Prints were created by Distilled Images on an on-demand basis
eliminating the need for product inventory.
Participation:
Initially consulted on technical feasibility and recommended the approach to
implementation based on funding schedules. Led a group of four other
developers. Analyzed the business process and workflow from the corporate
business plan, led the data modeling, architecture, and database implementation
efforts. Defined the computing platforms, system and CORBA based software
architecture which fulfilled the need for a real-time order processing API into
the Distilled Images system. Managed three developers who wrote Pl/SQL code,
Java application code, and user interface code.
TimeShift March
1997 - October 1999 Database Architect/Programmer
Project
Summary and Goals: Implement custom data warehouse for reporting phone call
billing, customer acquisition, and system performance information. Implement a
real-time billing system based on Portal Infranet with an Oracle back end.
Design custom database driven fraud controls and integrate them with the
billing database. Design database interfaces to allow TimeShift customer
service representatives real time web access to information in the
Infranet/Oracle billing system. Develop strategy to implement real time
database replication from west coast to east coast.
Participation:
Involved as a hands on database architect and technical lead during the full
life cycle of this project. Lead all database efforts on a team of 15 developers.
Designed and lead implementation of data warehouse databases for billing,
customer acquisition, and system performance databases. Designed OLTP databases
for conference calling, real-time fraud prevention, and customer service.
Defined software and hardware architecture to support business requirements,
projected customer growth, and real-time processing requirements. Tuned Oracle
queries, stored procedures, and application interfaces to optimize system
performance. Implemented Oracle OFA to support performance requirements.
Interfaced with management to define all business processes relating to the
company’s core software applications. Developed data model to support real-time
fraud prevention, conference calling, and real-time phone call billing, and ODS
for billing, customer acquisition, and system performance. Redesigned flawed
data replication strategy.
Intel September 1996 - March 1997 Database
Architect/
Project
Summary and Goals: Implement web based business-to-business and system to
automate Intel marketing programs targeted to small businesses in emerging
markets. Implement OLTP and data warehouse databases to support business
requirements. This system had to support multiple languages from a single
database and single computing platform.
Participation:
Responsible for leading the entire life cycle of database design and
implementation of transaction processing and data warehouse databases. Led all
database development efforts of five developers. Designed and implemented the
logical and physical data models, lead development efforts of stored
procedures, triggers, and SQL queries. Developed a design that allowed Intel to
implemented four independent marketing territories into a single database
without impacting divisional operations. Led design and implementation efforts
of an ODS and ETL tasks. Led development of software interfaces to the
enterprise SAP system. Designed support for National Language Support (NLS)
support for Asian languages with double byte character sets, designed
application level security. Wrote custom data conversion programs for each
divisional database using
Western Digital May 1996 - January 1997 Data Modeler – Contract
Project
Summary and Goals: Design, develop, and implement a database to support a
client server system that automated the management and reporting of work flow
processes in Western Digital’s Advanced Manufacturing Engineering group.
Participation:
Responsible for the entire database during the entire life cycle of the
project. Interfaced with design managers, designers, and system users. Did the
logical and physical data model with ERWin. Implemented the database and
managed it through turnover to production personnel. Tuned all database
queries. Worked with DBA staff to implement physical architecture that met
Intel standards and sill optimized database performance. Programmed some custom
front end forms with
The Ticket Machine November 1992 - April 1996 CTO, Co-founder
Summary:
Start-up company that built the worlds first self-service entertainment
ticketing system.
Job function:
Conceived, developed and implemented the world’s first automated event ticket
distribution system via client server multimedia kiosks. Responsible for the
hardware and software architecture of the entire system. Responsible for all
technology decisions and company technology direction. Managed six programmers
doing custom program development and system implementation. Multimedia kiosks
are Windows based, connected to a central UNIX database server via a Pacific
Bell frame relay network. Back end based on Oracle 7.0.
Westech Automation September 1988 - October 1992 Systems Engineer
Summary:
Systems integrator and distributor of factory automation hardware and software.
Job function:
Designed and implemented custom Factory Automation solutions. These systems
were process control systems for both continuous and discrete manufacturing
processes, and SCADA systems. My duties included functional specification
development, system design, implementation, start-up and training.
Education
May 1984
Bachelor of
Science
Chemical
Engineering