
Edward Kench
Verified Expert in Engineering
Data Architecture Developer
Edward is an Azure data and AI architect expert in streaming, real-time, big data, data lake, warehouse, lake house, and ML architectures on modern cloud data and AI platforms. He has experience in architecting predictive analytics, business intelligence, big data architectures, IoT and signal data, and cloud transformation, modernization, and migration. Working in finance, retail, and market research industries, Edward is a thought leader in data with solid math and analytical skills.
Portfolio
Experience
Availability
Preferred Environment
Business Intelligence (BI), Azure, SQL, Big Data, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Databricks, Spark, Python, Azure Synapse, Data Lakes
The most amazing...
...project I've built is a CDM lake house for AI on top of commercial customer data such as Microsoft 365, LinkedIn, and Power Platform for Microsoft marketing.
Work Experience
Senior Azure Architect
Mindtree
- Designed and implemented customer activity signals processing on cloud SaaS products, including Microsoft 365, Azure, LinkedIn, and Power BI. Collected signals from Cosmos DB and created an ADLS lake house for AI and analytics for the marketing team.
- Utilized Common Data Model lakes and warehouses on Synapse, ADLS Gen2, and Azure SQL. Designed Power BI reporting and feature stores for ML models used in Salesforce and other tools.
- Designed data structures to analyze user activities and optimize marketing strategies, campaigns, and core product features. This data model also was intended as a common data store for Microsoft teams to share their own or use data from other teams.
- Owned all product architecture and oversight of code and data quality, as well as system performance, application monitoring, and thought leadership. Built prototypes and POCs. Followed Agile Scrum methodologies using Azure DevOps.
Chief Architect | Azure Data and AI
Application Consulting Training Solutions
- Designed Azure data and analytics platforms for retail, finance, and SaaS as the chief architect. Built data architectures and POCs as needed using Databricks, Python, Synapse, Power BI, Azure SQL, ADF, ADLS, Spark, and Azure Data Warehouse.
- As a senior architect at Microsoft, I designed and implemented a return-to-school system during COVID-19 that used analytics to enable safe return. Utilized Power BI, Power Platform, Dynamics 365, ADLS, Cosmos DB, Databricks, ADF, and Synapse.
- Performed the migration of a major restaurant chain on-premises sales system to an ADLS, Databricks, ADF, Azure SQL, Azure Data Warehouse, and Power BI solution as a senior architect for Microsoft.
- Built a system for tracking global shipments of COVID-19 vaccines as a senior architect for Microsoft. This was a project for a worldwide shipping company where I used Power BI, Synapse, Databricks, Python, ADX, Event Hubs, and Kafka.
- Designed and implemented multiple anomaly detection systems for Azure consumption, VM performance, and data anomalies at the data layer using Azure Cognitive Services and ADX. Visualized through Power BI.
Vice President of Data and Analytics
Neptune Flood
- Designed and developed the core operational and analytics platform for a disruptive web-based insurance startup. Used Azure SQL Server, SSIS, C#.NET, Azure Data Factory, MongoDB, and Power BI.
- Built and designed a data warehouse for sales and risk analytics with Azure SQL Server and Azure Data Factory.
- Designed AI for risk analysis, dependent on geospatial analytics with geocodes, topographical, elevation, statistical modeling of risk features and characteristics, and LIDAR data.
- Constructed a sales forecast tool using R language libraries, SQL Server, and Power BI. This tool was used daily to manage decisions around aggregation and exposure to financial risk.
- Built mobile real-time analytics that propelled the sales process.
- Managed onshore and offshore direct reports, including data scientists and engineers, GIS developers, web developers, and testers.
Manager of Business Intelligence
Bankers Financial Corporation
- Led the delivery of One-click Homeowners, an award-winning predictive analytics tool that used SQL Server and R libraries to predict insurance risks. This system outperformed human underwriters in the profitability of selected risks.
- Replaced legacy reporting systems with a cloud-based Azure SQL enterprise data warehouse and Power BI. This system became the primary trusted source in the entire enterprise for business, operational, and financial data.
- Worked with the corporate leadership—as a senior analytics resource—to guide sales and marketing strategy through data-driven insights with SQL, R, and Power BI.
- Created data-driven market segmentation insights that allowed for measurable revenue gains and cost savings.
- Constructed operational BI dashboards with Power BI, Cognos, and Tableau for daily management of business processes for product management.
- Managed a team of direct reports including offshore and onshore SQL and BI developers, ETL developers, testers, and data scientists.
Director of Business Intelligence
Princeton Information Systems
- Managed direct reports, including onshore and offshore developers, testers, architects, and business analysts in BI, OLAP, data warehouse, and ETL roles.
- Architected a SQL, Vertica, and Tableau BI solution for managing high-volume cell phone metadata calls from major carriers.
- Established the BI Center of Excellence and BI Competency Center to centralize, socialize, and continuously improve analytics and insights across the company.
- Architected and designed data-driven workflow, pipelines, and analytics for a startup company that builts web-based financial workflows.
Research Platform Leader
Nielsen
- Managed a global onshore and offshore team of 40 to build market and media research analytics applications for all domestic box office and overseas film studios in 18 countries.
- Delivered localized, multilingual BI systems for reporting on box office numbers for over 50,000 theatres worldwide.
- Delivered analytics solutions that were hailed by film executives as game-changing and which were used by top executives in all major Hollywood studios.
- Delivered AI that tapped into Nielsen's deep big data stores to combine demographic, box office attendance, exit polling, and online sentiment analysis data to provide vast green fields for data exploration and self-service film industry reporting.
- Delivered the first Hollywood analytics system for 3D movies for Avatar.
- Delivered predictive systems such as the box office estimator, which predicts the grosses for major film releases over upcoming weekends.
Trainer and Consultant
TechSherpas
- Helped measurably increase profitability for a major grocer's bakery by designing an SQL data warehouse and a touch-screen system.
- Worked as an architect on the Nielsen TV rating team during a custom app development project with SQL, C#, and ASP.NET.
- Taught—as a Microsoft certified trainer—SQL, OLAP, BizTalk, .NET, distributed apps, COM and COM+, SOA, OOP, OOAD, Microsoft solutions, and Microsoft Operations Frameworks.
- Taught courses in Java and J2EE, WebLogic, WebSphere, JavaScript, OOP and OOAD, and UML.
Experience
LAUSD COVID-19 Dashboard
https://achieve.lausd.net/dailypassThis system provides dashboards that allow schools to open safely using a daily pass model based on testing and tracing in school cohorts.
CIO Magazine | Top 100 Award for Data Analytics
https://www.cio.com/article/2456293/business-intelligence/cio-100-winners-turn-analytics-into-money-making-new-products.html?page=2Box Office Estimator
I managed the team which built this predictive tool.
Nielsen Film Cube
When the film Avatar was released, Fox Studios requested a redesign to the platform to allow the breakout of 3D viewing statistics, leading to changes on the system that allowed any Hollywood Studio to view, for the first time, 3D grosses vs. regular screen grosses across 50,000 theatres, domestic and international.
Nielsen Online Campaign Ratings
I delivered this tool, which was used by major brands such as Coke and Procter & Gamble, and followed a similar model to Google Ads in how it tracked user web habits.
Bankers Financial Enterprise Data Warehouse
The system I delivered replaced multiple legacy AS/400 systems, thousands of reports, and increased self-service BI adoption across the company by 1900%!
Senior management began to treat data in the warehouse as the de-facto-trusted standard, resulting in it being used to produce corporate income statements and financial reports. It also led to multiple revenue and savings opportunities by becoming a single unified data platform used for strategic initiatives across all business units.
Skills
Languages
VB, M, UML, Python, SQL, Visual Basic .NET (VB.NET), C#, JavaScript, C#.NET, Java, R
Frameworks
Spark, Django, Bootstrap
Tools
SSAS, Microsoft Visio, SQL Server BI, Microsoft Power BI, Tableau, IBM Cognos, Azure Machine Learning, MATLAB
Paradigms
Object-oriented Analysis & Design (OOAD), Requirements Analysis, Kanban, Dimensional Modeling, Kimball Methodology, OLAP, Agile, Scrum, Business Intelligence (BI), Object-oriented Design (OOD), ETL, DevOps
Platforms
Databricks, Azure, Azure PaaS, Azure IaaS, Apache Kafka, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Salesforce, Azure Event Hubs
Storage
Microsoft SQL Server, NoSQL, Database Administration (DBA), SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS), Azure SQL, SSAS Tabular, MongoDB, SQL Server DBA, SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS), Database Modeling, SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT), SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS), Data Lake Design, Data Lakes, Azure Blobs, Vertica, Netezza, Sybase, PostgreSQL, Azure Cosmos DB, Neo4j, IBM Db2, Oracle SQL, Data Pipelines
Industry Expertise
Insurance, Security
Other
Analytics, Blob Storage, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Solution Architecture, User Self-service, Financial Reporting Dashboards, Dashboards, Distribution Channel Performance, Market Research & Analysis, Customer Analysis, Supply Chain Optimization, Budget Management, Financial Systems, Financial Data, Film & Television, Project Budget Management, Azure Data Lake, Slowly Changing Dimensions (SCD), Entity-relationships Model (ERM), Big Data, Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, Excel Reporting, IT Project Management, Big Data Architecture, IBM Watson Analytics, DAX, SQL Design & Reporting, Data Warehouse Design, Business Intelligence Architecture, Data Analytics, Data Architecture, Azure Data Factory, Azure Data Lake Analytics, Platform as a Service (PaaS), Azure SQL Data Warehouse (SQL DW), Azure Synapse, Technical Leadership, Data Visualization, Data Engineering, BizTalk, Apps, Geospatial Data, Geospatial Analytics, SAP BusinessObjects (BO), Startups, MicroStrategy, Tableau Server, Predictive Analytics, Azure Stream Analytics, Retail, Identity & Access Management (IAM), CI/CD Pipelines, Machine Learning, Informatica, WebLogic, Azure Databricks, Streaming Data, Real-time Data, Dynamics CRM 365
Libraries/APIs
Google Analytics API, Google APIs, jQuery, Node.js
Certifications
Microsoft Certified Solutions Architect Expert
Microsoft
Microsoft Azure Data Engineer Associate
Microsoft