Brendan Walsh, PhD, Developer in Waterford, Ireland
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Brendan Walsh, PhD

Verified Expert  in Engineering

Data Engineer and Developer

Location
Waterford, Ireland
Toptal Member Since
September 23, 2022

Dr. Brendan has over ten years of experience in digital transformation and bespoke development projects. His experience at Accenture and Wood Group allowed him to work for some of the largest companies in the UK and Ireland across the telecommunications, energy, and retail sectors. As a freelancer, Dr. Brendan specializes in systems development, including business intelligence, data engineering, Azure iPaaS (Integration Platform as a Service), and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central.

Data ReportingData QueriesData AnalysisUser RequirementsMacrosEnterprise Resource Planning (ERP)IntegrationMicrosoft ExcelSQLBusiness Intelligence (BI)Microsoft Power BIJSONDatabasesData EngineeringPythonSoftware Asset Management (SAM)Azure Data Factory

Availability

Part-time

Preferred Environment

Microsoft Power BI, Azure, API Integration, Python

The most amazing...

...thing I've developed is a new warehouse management system and eCommerce platform for a food bank, using Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central and nopCommerce.

Work Experience

Data Engineer

2015 - 2022
Freelance Clients
  • Created numerous system pipelines using Python, C#, Azure Data Factory, and Azure serverless functions to create real-time streaming and batch migration of data between CRM, ERP, eCommerce, and third-party applications.
  • Created ETLs that extract data from various systems and apps—including CRM, ERP, and eCommerce platforms—and transform and load the data into the star schema reporting database on Azure.
  • Created an ICHEC (the Irish Centre for High-End Computing) pipeline using bash and Python scripts to extract analysis data from ICHEC supercomputers, transform the data into binary formats and load it onto a reporting and visualization server.
Technologies: Data Engineering, SQL, Pipelines, ETL, Python

Power BI Developer

2015 - 2022
Freelance Clients
  • Created Power BI Reports for management reporting (year-on-year, quarter-on-quarter, and month-on-month metrics), customer-specific sales data, department-specific sales data, waste data, stock churns, supply-side reports, and financial reconciliation.
  • Created enterprise-level Power BI instances, on-premises data linked to Power BI Dataflows using Gateways, centralized Azure databases for reporting, and pipelines for CI/CD.
  • Implemented the data access strategy using access groups and row-level security.
  • Employed advanced quantitive models in Power BI to predict customer demand.
Technologies: Microsoft Power BI

Systems Developer

2015 - 2021
Freelance Clients
  • Built and implemented a new Business Central SaaS warehouse management system, enabling a paperless warehouse for core operations and 64% less data entry time at goods-in and removing the dual currency system for warehouse workers.
  • Designed and managed points of integration between customers and Tesco UK, reducing the time to offer by 85%. This enabled new complex business offerings, significantly improving the integration's durability.
  • Integrated new Business Central SaaS solutions with an existing customer relationship management system (CRM), developed a new nopCommerce e-shop, and integrated with the Power BI reporting platform, working as a lead developer.
  • Performed data model design and visualization, building a suite of reports on Azure and Power Platform that standardized reporting across the organization, which removed 55% of existing reports.
  • Created for a logistics company a dual currency ordering system and forecasting tool in Microsoft Excel using VBA macros, providing selective enterprise resource planning (ERP) functionality without prohibitive licensing costs.
  • Developed multiple tools in Python for automating business processes, such as creating the Single Euro Payments Area direct debits, bulk web app uploads and downloads, and ordering systems across intranets.
Technologies: Microsoft Power BI, Azure, Microsoft BI Stack, Microsoft Power Automate, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Python, APIs, API Integration, Integration, Salesforce

Software Engineer

2013 - 2015
Wood
  • Created an Excel macro tool for the subsea integrity management of oil and gas flowlines. The tool compared data from sensors along flowlines to standard operating procedures, quantifying process adherence retrospectively.
  • Built an Excel/Access tool for the asset management of subsea equipment, associated spares and tooling, and the subsequent calculation of contractor demand to be used for negotiating a 10-figure contract with global contractors.
  • Implemented the conclusions of SLARP—a joint industry project which looks at the structural impacts of non-uniform slugs on risers—into Flexcom, Wood Group Kenny's flagship finite element package in Fortran.
  • Developed LifeLine, an internal Wood Group VB.NET tool for calculating the fatigue life of internal tubes within umbilical risers while making an allowance for hysteresis.
Technologies: .NET, Excel VBA, Business Intelligence (BI), Fortran, Sensor Data

Business Analyst

2011 - 2013
Accenture
  • Contributed to the Vodafone Ireland ERP project as an analyst on the end-to-end team, identifying and designing all points of integration between the new Oracle CRM and ERP platform and the existing bespoke applications.
  • Tested new releases and provided tier 2 support on Accenture's global instance of SAP, including designing SWIFT XML schema for onboarding new banks, as part of the internal accounts payable team.
  • Created a .NET tool used internally to automate the UI testing of the internal Accenture SAP instance.
Technologies: User Requirements, Technical Requirements, SAP, Oracle, Integration

PhD Thesis | Red Blood Cell Dynamics on Non-uniform Grids

https://github.com/CHRG-Developer/LBFS-IBM-ADE-SP
I developed a three-dimensional blood flow model that accounted for the individual deformation of red blood cells using CUDA C++.

The blood flow model incorporated a fluid-flow solver using an unstructured lattice Boltzmann flux solver—an immersed boundary method—and a spring particle red blood cell model. The model was subsequently validated and verified against existing experimental results.

Languages

SQL, Excel VBA, Python, Fortran, C++11, C#

Tools

Microsoft Power BI, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Dynamics

Paradigms

Business Intelligence (BI), ETL

Platforms

Microsoft BI Stack, Azure, Microsoft Power Automate, Salesforce, NVIDIA CUDA, Linux, Oracle

Storage

JSON, Databases, SQL Stored Procedures, Data Pipelines

Other

Applied Mathematics, Problem Management, Microsoft Dynamics 365, API Integration, User Requirements, Technical Requirements, Integration, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Data Reporting, Data Queries, Reporting, Macros, Data Analysis, APIs, Data Engineering, Pipelines, Azure Data Factory, SAP, Sensor Data

Frameworks

.NET

2015 - 2020

PhD in Mechanical Engineering

Technical University Dublin - Dublin, Ireland

2007 - 2011

Bachelor's Degree in Structural Engineering

University College Cork - Cork, Ireland

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