Leo is available for hire

Leo Hu

Verified Expert in Engineering

Database Engineer and Developer

Location

Auckland, New Zealand

Toptal Member Since

July 20, 2020

Leo Hu is not just a traditional database administrator (DBA), engineer, and architect with 12+ years of database engineering and architecture experience—he is a passionate data guru. Leo prefers proactive database monitoring and thrives on projects where he has to solve severe problems and design an efficient database solution based on the client's requirements. Leo was named a Microsoft SQL Server MVP and also has an AWS certification as a cloud practitioner.

Data Queries Data Cleaning Data Engineering Data Visualization Data Warehouse Design SQL T-SQL (Transact-SQL)Microsoft Excel ETL Microsoft Access Excel 2013 Microsoft SQL Server Database Development SQL Server DBA SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS)Database Clustering Code Obfuscation Database Administration

Portfolio

Fraedom (VISA)

Amazon Web Services (AWS), Database Architecture, SQL, Microsoft Power BI...

Aderant

Amazon Web Services (AWS), Database Design, Database Modeling, Obfuscation...

Volkswagen Finance China

Mirroring, Clustering, Linux, MySQL, Windows PowerShell, Oracle...

Experience

SQL - 15 years Microsoft SQL Server - 12 years Database Administration (DBA) - 10 years Database Development - 10 years Database Design - 8 years High Availability Disaster Recovery (HADR) - 8 years Database Architecture - 8 years Database as a Service (DBaaS) - 5 years

Availability

Part-time

Preferred Environment

SQL, SQL Server DBA, Microsoft SQL Server, Windows

The most amazing...

...thing I've worked on is developing and maintaining the databases of the biggest law firm software company.

Work Experience

Senior Database Engineer

2019 - PRESENT

Fraedom (VISA)

Designed and developed a data platform for a fintech company that benefits 600,000 organizations in 178 countries.
Worked with operations and database administrators to continuously improve production environments and helped mitigate database-related production incidents.
Provided database expertise to engineering and development teams, such as reviews of database designs, queries, and performance optimizations.
Designed and implemented database-related projects, e.g., data archiving, data streaming, and data classification.

Technologies: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Database Architecture, SQL, Microsoft Power BI, Streaming Data, Classification, Windows PowerShell, Elasticsearch, Apache Kafka, Azure, Database Development, High Availability Disaster Recovery (HADR), Database Triggers, Database as a Service (DBaaS), SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS), SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS), Data Engineering, Reporting, Data Analytics, Dashboards, T-SQL (Transact-SQL), SQL DML, Microsoft Excel, APIs, Data Processing Automation, Data Processing, ETL, Python, Data Queries, Data-level Security, Data Visualization, Data Warehouse Design, Excel 365, Data Cleaning, Reports, Microsoft Access, Data Pipelines, CSV, CSV Export, Data Extraction, Documentation, PL/SQL Tuning, Performance Tuning, Optimization, Database Optimization, Excel 2013, SharePoint, Teamwork

Senior Database Administrator and Database Developer

2016 - 2019

Aderant

Optimized and supported databases for a global industry leader in providing comprehensive business management software for law firms.
Served in a multi-purpose role that combined the responsibilities of a database administrator and database developer.
Designed and implemented the database architecture and developed a database feature as a service to internal development teams.
Mentored and coordinated internal database-related development projects across all product teams, including a cloud-based product (AWS), along with providing solutions for database issues from the critical response team.

Technologies: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Database Design, Database Modeling, Obfuscation, Windows PowerShell, .NET, Microsoft SQL Server, Database Development, High Availability Disaster Recovery (HADR), Database Administration (DBA), Database Triggers, Database Security, Database as a Service (DBaaS), SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS), SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS), Data Engineering, Reporting, Data Analytics, Dashboards, Azure SQL, T-SQL (Transact-SQL), SQL DML, Microsoft Excel, APIs, Data Processing Automation, Data Processing, ETL, Python, Data Queries, Data-level Security, Data Warehouse Design, Excel 365, Data Cleaning, Reports, Microsoft Access, Data Pipelines, CSV, CSV Export, Data Extraction, Documentation, PL/SQL Tuning, Performance Tuning, Optimization, Database Optimization, Excel 2013, SharePoint, Teamwork

Database Administrator (DBA)

2013 - 2015

Volkswagen Finance China

Worked for the top-level auto finance company in China as part of the Volkswagen Group, one of the largest automakers worldwide.
Served as a development and production database administrator and worked on release processes in a highly available database topology, featuring clusters and availability groups under SQL Server 2008 R2 and SQL Server 2012.
Defined the disaster recovery, designed and built the SQL Server, and reviewed, managed, and developed SQL Server DBA best practices.
Implemented the upgrades and support of the SQL Server along with performance-tuning and troubleshooting issues.
Monitored alerts and fulfilled other general DBA duties.

Technologies: Mirroring, Clustering, Linux, MySQL, Windows PowerShell, Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, Database Development, High Availability Disaster Recovery (HADR), Database Administration (DBA), Database Triggers, Database Security, SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS), SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS), T-SQL (Transact-SQL), SQL DML, Microsoft Excel, APIs, Data Processing Automation, Data Processing, ETL, Data Queries, Data-level Security, Data Visualization, Data Warehouse Design, Excel 365, Data Cleaning, Reports, Microsoft Access, Data Pipelines, CSV, CSV Export, Data Extraction, Documentation, PL/SQL Tuning, Performance Tuning, Optimization, Database Optimization, Excel 2013, SharePoint, Teamwork

Database Administrator (DBA) and Developer

2011 - 2013

Websense

Supported a database and IT system for a global company with 2,000+ employees.
Developed tools to integrate and monitor the availability and performance of IT services and infrastructure.
Dealt with database work involving high availability, emergencies, monitoring, analysis, and performance tuning.
Oversaw the database disaster recovery and security, database deployment, maintenance and management, and migration upgrade.

Technologies: Salesforce, Visual Basic, Ruby, PHP, ASP.NET, Microsoft SQL Server, Database Development, High Availability Disaster Recovery (HADR), Database Administration (DBA), Database Triggers, Database Security, SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS), SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS), Reporting, Data Analytics, Dashboards, T-SQL (Transact-SQL), SQL DML, Microsoft Excel, APIs, Data Processing Automation, Data Processing, ETL, Data Queries, Data-level Security, Excel 365, Data Cleaning, Reports, Microsoft Access, CSV, CSV Export, Data Extraction, Documentation, PL/SQL Tuning, Performance Tuning, Optimization, Database Optimization, Excel 2013, SharePoint, Teamwork

Experience

Database Archiving Solution

Designed and implemented a database archiving solution. It's a configuration-based system that allows you to add a configuration for archiving tables and then this system will automatically generate archive stored procedures and scheduled jobs.

Push-mode Data Streaming for SQL Server

Created a push-mode data streaming platform for SQL Server. Once the data is transformed, it pushes the incremental change to message queueing systems, such as Kafka and Service Broker, digests it in the other application like Elasticsearch, and then eventually presents it on reporting tools like Kibana, PowerBI, and so on.

Optimization of Complex Queries and Stored Procedures

Optimized and refactored complex T-SQL queries or stored procedures for a few companies in the fintech, software, and eCommerce industries.

Database High Availability and Disaster Recovery Solution Design and Implementation

Processed the database's high availability and disaster recovery architecture, including a range of SQL Server technologies such as AlwaysOn, clustering, mirroring, replication, and log shipping.

Skills

Languages

SQL, T-SQL (Transact-SQL), SQL DML, Python, PHP, Ruby, Visual Basic

Tools

Microsoft Power BI, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Access, Excel 2013

Paradigms

Database Development, Database Design, ETL

Platforms

Windows, SharePoint, Oracle, Azure, Apache Kafka, Linux, Salesforce, Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Storage

Microsoft SQL Server, Database Administration (DBA), Database Architecture, Database Security, Database Triggers, Database Modeling, Database Mirroring, SQL Server DBA, SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS), SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS), Data Pipelines, Database as a Service (DBaaS), Azure SQL, Amazon S3 (AWS S3), Elasticsearch, MySQL, Amazon DynamoDB, Amazon Aurora

Other

High Availability Disaster Recovery (HADR), Database Clusters, Classification, Obfuscation, Clustering, Mirroring, Data Engineering, Data Processing Automation, Data Processing, Data Queries, Data-level Security, Data Visualization, Data Warehouse Design, Excel 365, Data Cleaning, Reports, CSV, CSV Export, Data Extraction, Documentation, PL/SQL Tuning, Performance Tuning, Optimization, Database Optimization, Teamwork, Streaming Data, Reporting, Data Analytics, Dashboards, APIs, Cloud, Amazon RDS

Frameworks

Windows PowerShell, .NET, ASP.NET

Education

2001 - 2005

Bachelor of Management in Information Management and Information System

Beijing Information Technology Institute - Beijing

Certifications

JUNE 2022 - PRESENT

AWS Certified Database - Specialty

Amazon Web Services

AUGUST 2020 - PRESENT

AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner

Amazon Web Services

JANUARY 2019 - PRESENT

MCSA — SQL 2016 Database Development

Microsoft

JANUARY 2019 - PRESENT

MCSE — Data Management and Analytics

Microsoft

DECEMBER 2018 - PRESENT

MCSA — SQL 2016 Database Administration

Microsoft

APRIL 2014 - APRIL 2015

Microsoft SQL Server MVP

Microsoft

MAY 2012 - PRESENT

MCITP — Database Administrator 2008

Microsoft

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