Craig Harsip
Verified Expert in Engineering
Data Engineer and Developer
Boston, MA, United States
Toptal member since May 17, 2021
Craig is a senior data platform architect with deep expertise in AWS, Python, and production-scale ETL/ML pipelines. He architects and builds serverless and containerized architectures, designs reusable data frameworks, and modernizes legacy workloads. He is recognized for his clear communication, strong execution, and ability to deliver scalable and maintainable solutions.
Portfolio
Experience
- Database Design - 20 years
- SQL - 20 years
- ETL - 20 years
- Data Transformation - 20 years
- SQL Server 2010 - 10 years
- AWS Lambda - 5 years
- Amazon Web Services (AWS) - 3 years
- Python - 3 years
Preferred Environment
AWS Lambda, Python, AWS CloudFormation, Bash, SQL
The most amazing...
...innovation I've made was an IVR call flow generator, allowing the system to scale to meet the company's expansion while reducing the developer support required.
Work Experience
Data/DevOps Engineer
SB Technology, Inc.
- Built AWS Batch/ECS/Lambda/SQS/SNS/Glue pipelines with containerized execution, monitoring (DataDog), and cloud-native orchestration across distributed data-processing components.
- Converted a large data-science codebase into a versioned Python package using CodeArtifact, enabling CI/CD, automated testing, regulated deployment, and production-grade ML/ETL pipelines.
- Rebuilt and optimized Docker and devcontainer environments, reducing image sizes 30–50% via dependency pruning, multi-stage builds, and GPU/CPU variant tuning for ML and ETL workloads.
- Developed a configurable ETL framework using Python, YAML, PostgreSQL, and dbt-style layered modeling to deliver a modular, maintainable data engineering workflow.
Senior ETL Developer
Brightly Software
- Architected a reusable Python + SQL ETL framework for a multi-tenant SaaS application, enabling data services operations. This replaced months-long manual SQL work with repeatable workflows executed in minutes.
- Built automated Excel-based data ingestion pipelines, using openpyxl, that constrained customer data into validated templates, allowing non-technical users to request bulk insert/updates with drastically fewer errors.
- Generalized bulk data operations into modular tooling, turning ad-hoc one-off requests into standardized scripts and stored procedures that could run across environments.
- Reverse-engineered functionality in the legacy monolith to design safe updates to core entities, including cascading changes and multi-table consistency logic.
- Researched and delivered solutions for advanced data transformations, including multi-site data merges and cross-tenant consolidations.
- Enabled long-term maintainability by documenting patterns, environments, and operational constraints, and running knowledge-transfer sessions that transitioned ownership of the tools to the internal engineering team.
Senior Director of Engineering
EF Education First
- Drove the modernization of EF's enterprise BI platform, defining the architectural patterns and technical standards for migrating from SQL Server/SSAS services to a Snowflake + dbt + Fivetran + Prefect stack.
- Designed event-driven (SNS/SQS) and microservice integration patterns that extended legacy monoliths, enabling new systems—including a new airline GDS—to be added with minimal refactoring.
- Developed repeatable SQL Server -> PostgreSQL migration workflow, using AWS Database Migration Services (DMS).
AWS Architect
Freelance Clients
- Assisted several startups in onboarding to the AWS cloud.
- Architected solutions inclusive of VPC, database, and application layers.
- Implemented application logic in AWS Lambda (Node.js and Python) and API Gateway.
- Handled serverless website development using React (Gatsby), Cognito, and CloudFront, hosted in S3.
- Earned a 5.0 client rating in the AWS IQ portal across 11 reviews.
Data Engineer
Potion AI, Inc
- Developed pipelines in Azure Data Factory to transform data from multiple source systems into a unified schema consisting of dozens of tables, migrating millions of records daily.
- Designed and implemented network architecture to allow on-premise databases to be exposed to Azure via VPN.
- Implemented SQL Server to PostgreSQL replication scheme in Azure, leveraging CDC.
Senior Engineering and Technology Lead
VistaPrint
- Modernized Vistaprint’s global contact center architecture, migrating 45 on-prem Cisco/NICE systems to Amazon Connect and delivering advanced IVR, routing, and speech analytics pipelines using AWS (Lambda, Transcribe, Comprehend) and Snowflake SQL.
- Architected and delivered internal .NET APIs that decoupled the CRM from a monolithic eCommerce platform, enabling multi-brand support without CRM code changes.
- Developed enterprise data pipelines and ETL frameworks, including SSIS workflows and unified data marts integrated into Vistaprint’s data warehouse.
- Built innovative contact center and workflow solutions, such as secure IVR payment processing, dynamic menu systems, creative production tools, and a customer recognition engine that reduced handle time by around 30 seconds.
Experience
optiontrader.tools
https://optiontrader.tools/Cbbratings.com
http://www.cbbratings.comEducation
Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute - Troy, NY, United States
Certifications
AWS Certified Data Analytics – Specialty
AWS
Classical Machine Learning for Financial Engineering
New York University
AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate
AWS
Skills
Libraries/APIs
Complex SQL Queries, Pandas, REST APIs, Scikit-learn, NumPy, Jira REST API, Node.js, React, PySpark, Terragrunt
Tools
Cisco UCCE, Cisco Unified Contact Center Enterprise, Amazon Connect, Query Plan, AWS IAM, Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), AWS CloudFormation, Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS), Amazon Simple Queue Service (SQS), Amazon Athena, Amazon CloudWatch, Amazon CloudFront CDN, RabbitMQ, Amazon Cognito, Terraform, AWS Glue, Yahoo! Finance, Prefect, Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS), AWS Key Management Service (KMS)
Languages
SQL, Stored Procedure, JavaScript, Python, VB.NET, C#, Snowflake, Transact-SQL (T-SQL), Bash, Ruby
Paradigms
ETL, Database Design, Agile, DevOps, REST, Business Intelligence (BI)
Platforms
AWS Lambda, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Jupyter Notebook, Docker, Amazon EC2, Apache Kafka, Azure
Storage
SQL Server 2010, Databases, Data Pipelines, Microsoft SQL Server, SQL Stored Procedures, SQL Views, Relational Databases, JSON, Amazon Aurora, Amazon S3 (AWS S3), SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS), Database Migration, Database Architecture, Data Integration, Amazon DynamoDB, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Database Performance, SQL Performance, Datadog
Frameworks
.NET, ASP.NET, .NET Core, JSON Web Tokens (JWT)
Other
Amazon RDS, Interactive Voice Response (IVR), Data Transformation, CTI, Call Centers, Contact Centers, Data Queries, Data Reporting, Data Engineering, Query Optimization, Database Optimization, Cloud, Architecture, Technical Hiring, Microsoft Data Transformation Services (now SSIS), Database Schema Design, Relational Database Design, DataOps, Amazon API Gateway, Workforce Management (WFM), AWS Database Migration Service (DMS), Data Modeling, CSV File Processing, CSV, Data, Data Architecture, Data Strategy, Budgeting, Reverse Engineering, Legacy Code, Technical Documentation, Stakeholder Engagement, Knowledge Transfer, Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), Amazon Route 53, Machine Learning, Linear Regression, Logistic Regression, NICE Systems, SOAP, Amazon Kinesis, Salesforce Service Cloud, Gatsby, StreamSets, eCommerce APIs, ETL Tools, Finance, Data Migration, Azure Data Factory (ADF), Azure Virtual Networks, Fivetran, Change Data Capture, Data Build Tool (dbt), Web Scraping, Azure CLI, GitHub Actions, Data Processing, Multi-tenant Architecture, DevContainers, AWS CodeArtifact, LangChain, Prompt Engineering, AWS WAF, Large Language Models (LLMs)
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