DataExpert.io

Founder

Ardent AI

I think AI will disrupt data engineering in a significant way. I’m investing in Ardent to accelerate that disruption!

Angel Investor

Peony Health

I invested in Peony Health because I believe habits are greatly impacted by neurochemistry and Susie Chen is a technical founder with business chops who will deliver on their mission

Illuminate AI

I'm one of the new Bay Area chapter leads for Illuminate AI! 

I help make events better and build this community to the next level!

Chapter Lead

Mage

I'm advising Mage on how to make a data engineering friendly Airflow competitor that will be the next generation of job orchestration!

Advisor

A House in Utah

Former Child

SylphAI

I’ve invested in SylphAI because I’m passionate about building community in AI that helps everyone meet their growth goals and fulfill their potential

Airbnb

Changed Airbnb's availability definition from "did a host set a rule that blocked this night" to "can a trip be booked that contains this night" 

Consolidate the availability definition across the company. Saving >500 TBs in the cloud and shrinking the data set to 3% its old size.


Decreased the landing time of Airbnb's unit economics dataset from 3 days to 1 1/2 days. Built a long-term roadmap to further increase the quality of this critical dataset. 

Improved the quality of online systems at Airbnb to be easily compilable by Spark pipelines to compute metrics offline. 

Lead a team of 6 engineers to deliver on the MIDAS initiative to increase the data quality of the Commercial Products org. 

Upleveled smart pricing at Airbnb by improving the feature engineering and latency of the data used to train the smart pricing model.

Staff Data Engineer - TC $600k ($220k Salary $320k Stock $60k bonus)

Netflix

Built a machine learning feedback system that allowed security engineers to label corporate user behavior as risky or not risky.

Built Asset Inventory - a graph database solution that is a map of all of Netflix's cloud infrastructure.

Senior Software Engineer - TC ~$575k ($550k salary + 5% options)

I built a pipeline that measures the cloud infrastructure impact on AB tests, saving Netflix millions by allowing them to make smarter AB test rollout decisions.

Senior Data Engineer - TC ~$365k ($365k salary + 5% options)

Facebook

- Managed a 10 PB+ Hive data warehouse
- Consolidated and conformed company-wide growth metrics (across WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, and Facebook) into a single, company-wide view. 
- Optimized machine learning feature set generation pipelines (200+ TB/day) from having a 4 day latency to having a 1 day latency. While also dropping compute costs for those pipelines 4x. 
- Reduced core notification data set latencies from 36 hours to < 8 hours. 
- Migrated 50% of notifications pipelines from using Hive to use Spark, Presto, or real-time streaming.
- Cut compute cost from notifications pipelines by 40% over the course of 9 months.

Data Engineer - TC $185k ($135k salary, $50k stock)

I love to teach. I post about #dataengineering and #mentalhealth daily. 

Many years of data engineering experience doing growth analytics at Facebook, security infrastructure at Netflix, and pricing and availability infrastructure at Airbnb. 

You can find me by looking up EcZachly on all social networks 

Join my Data Learning Platform https://www.dataexpert.io

Zach Wilson

I’m happy to share that I’m starting a new position as Strategic Advisor at omi!

I believe in Nik Shevchenko and I want to start having a much more data rich life!

Founder @ DataExpert.io, use code BF for 40% off!

Hitting 500k followers here on LinkedIn feels like a dream come true!

I started posting every day back on December 12th, 2020 and I had no idea it would impact my life in such a profound way

I met so many amazing creators along this journey like Carly, Aishwarya, Joe, Chip, Delia, Li, Annie, Jhillika and many more! 

To celebrate 500k followers, You can use code 500k at DataExpert.io/500k to get 50% off! This deal ends today at midnight pacific time! 

How long until I hit 1 million?

We're making some important updates to the Snowflake + dbt boot camp on January 6th! 

- We are limiting seats to 60 students to keep quality of instruction high (we are already halfway booked up)
- We are adding Cortex lessons for both vector search and document parsing
- We are adding a lesson change data capture 
- We are adding an Iceberg and Snowflake module for those interested in the open data format! 

If you're interested in some early Black Friday deals on this boot camp, send me a DM!

I'm launching a free data science interview boot camp with Vaishali Macwan tomorrow!

For the next four weekends, Vaishali will go over the most important things to land a product data scientist role!

- Week 1 Getting Noticed
You can't land a job without landing an interview. Master the job search skills quickly!

- Week 2: The fundamentals and interview formats
SQL is absolutely essential for data scientists. We'll be covering the different interview formats this week too

- Week 3: How to pass the product sense and company fit rounds
Product sense is one of the most difficult interview rounds for data scientists. Vaishali has mastered this round and will pull back the curtain!

- Week 4: The behavioral round and negotiation
These two rounds are critical to sealing the deal for your new data science job and getting paid the most you can!

You can join the free boot camp here: https://lnkd.in/gj7xxGU3

GourdAI

Impact Hub Harare

🔹 Facilitate hybrid training & workshops aligned to Google Career Certificate tracks:

  💻 🫆 Cybersecurity 
  🧮 Project Management
  🛠️ IT Support
  🎨 UX Design
  🛒 Digital Marketing & E-commerce
  📉 Data Analytics
  📡 Business Intelligence

🤖 Deliver foundational Artificial Intelligence training.

🧑‍🏫 Mentor learners through:

  ✅ Certification pathways
  📝 Project development
  📄 CV building
  🐙 GitHub portfolio creation
  🔗 LinkedIn profile optimization

🌍 Localize global content to Zimbabwean needs, integrating relevant case studies & market dynamics

🤝 Collaborate with partners & guest speakers to enrich sessions and support learner outcomes

IT Training Consultant  (DS4Y)

Menger Institute

Carl Menger (1840–1921) was the founder of the Austrian School of Economics and a revolutionary thinker who transformed our understanding of value, prices, and markets. His 1871 masterpiece, Principles of Economics, introduced the theory of marginal utility, solving the age-old paradox of value—why water, essential for life, is cheaper than diamonds. His insight? Value isn’t determined by labor or inherent properties but by individual perception and scarcity at the moment of decision-making.

Menger’s subjective value theory overturned classical economic thought and laid the foundation for modern market economics. He showed that prices emerge from voluntary exchanges, reflecting real human needs and preferences. His work directly influenced Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich Hayek, and generations of economists who defend free markets against central planning.

Beyond academia, Menger challenged entrenched economic fallacies wherever they appeared. His work in advising powerful institutions reinforced the limits of state intervention and exposed how government manipulation distorts markets and erodes individual freedom. His contributions strengthened the intellectual case for private property, sound money, and spontaneous order—principles that safeguard economic liberty from centralized control.

The Menger Institute upholds his legacy by advancing the study and application of free market principles. His insights explain that wealth, progress, and human flourishing are not granted from above but built from the ground up—by individuals free to think, trade, and create. In a world where economic freedom is constantly challenged, Menger’s work remains a cornerstone for those who seek a future driven by voluntary exchange, innovation, and individual sovereignty.

https://www.mengerinstitute.org/

Menger Scholar

Internet Society

I lead initiatives to establish and strengthen Internet Exchange Points (IXPs)—critical infrastructure that enables ISPs, content networks, and other stakeholders to exchange traffic locally. This role directly contributes to improving internet performance, reducing operational costs, and building sustainable local internet ecosystems.

Key Responsibilities:

IXP Development & Optimization: Spearhead the establishment of new IXPs and enhance existing ones by working closely with local communities and technical stakeholders.

Peering & Interconnection: Facilitate strategic peering relationships to optimize traffic flow, reduce latency, and improve user experience.

Technical Leadership: Provide infrastructure design, routing, and security guidance to ensure efficient and secure IXP operations.

Community Engagement: Build and nurture collaborative relationships with ISPs, content providers, network operators, and regulators to foster a strong peering culture.

Grant & Project Management: Oversee programs that support IXP infrastructure, training, and capacity building.

Regional Collaboration: Partner with regional and global organizations such as Af-IX, RINEX, INX-ZA, and others to drive interconnection growth.

Advancing the 50/50 Vision: Actively support the Internet Society’s 50/50 Vision, aiming for at least 50% of internet traffic in emerging markets to be exchanged locally by 2025.


Impact Highlights:

Enabled faster, more affordable internet through local traffic exchange.

Reduced reliance on costly international transit links, enhancing affordability.

Stimulated local digital economies by supporting local hosting, services, and innovation.

Strengthened regional connectivity and internet resilience.




Led collaborative efforts in Zimbabwe—working with POTRAZ, ISPs, CDNs, CSPs, and Tech Companies, —to strengthen local IXPs, illustrating the transformative power of effective IXP management in boosting national and regional internet infrastructure.

Project Delivery Manager

Big Data 

Advanced Analytics -using advanced machine learning methods
Real-time Analytics
Development of a distributed in-memory computing engine for Big Data.
Databricks Delta Lake
Next generation data solutions
Enterprise Data warehouse / Lakehouse.

Building the solutions using  cloud services and open sources such as DeltaLake, Apache Spark, Pulsar, Kafka, Redis, MLFlow, PyTorch, TensorFlow, Kubeflow, Kubernetes, Docker, Cassandra, MongoDB, PostgreSQL, and others.

Developing Data strategies and blueprints, which includes: team values, mission, vision, and tactics to grow SMEs Analytics customer base, develop product feedback pipeline, improve engineering features by providing engineering guidance on developing high availability services, improving service robustness, defining End to End workflow and developer experience.

Working cross-org with Marketing, Product, Solution architects, and Data scientists while intentionally crafting collaborative relationships.

Business Intelligence and AI Consultant 

Africai

Data Science Zimbabwe

Data Science Zimbabwe is a technology think tank committed to driving entrepreneurship and innovation through data-driven solutions. We provide a platform for research, training, and consulting, empowering individuals and organizations to leverage data to create new ventures and advance existing businesses.

Key Responsibilities:

 * Entrepreneurship Development: Curating programs and workshops to equip aspiring entrepreneurs with the data science skills needed to identify market opportunities, analyze customer behavior, and develop innovative products or services.

 * Innovation Acceleration: Collaborating with established businesses to identify data-driven strategies for product improvement, process optimization, and market expansion.

 * Startup Ecosystem Support: Providing mentorship, networking opportunities, and technical assistance to early-stage startups in the data science and technology sectors.

 * Data-Driven Policy Advocacy: Engaging with policymakers to advocate for policies that promote data-driven innovation, entrepreneurship, and digital transformation.

https://dsz.co.zw/

Entrepreneurship Innovation and Business 

CABS

Senior Backend Developer 

Higherlife Foundation

Software Engineer

Manning Publications Co.

In Kafka in Action you will learn:

Understanding Apache Kafka concepts
Setting up and executing basic ETL tasks using Kafka Connect
Using Kafka as part of a large data project team
Performing administrative tasks
Producing and consuming event streams
Working with Kafka from Java applications
Implementing Kafka as a message queue

Kafka in Action is a fast-paced introduction to every aspect of working with Apache Kafka. Starting with an overview of Kafka's core concepts, you'll immediately learn how to set up and execute basic data movement tasks and how to produce and consume streams of events. Advancing quickly, you’ll soon be ready to use Kafka in your day-to-day workflow, and start digging into even more advanced Kafka topics.

About the technology
Think of Apache Kafka as a high performance software bus that facilitates event streaming, logging, analytics, and other data pipeline tasks. With Kafka, you can easily build features like operational data monitoring and large-scale event processing into both large and small-scale applications.

About the book
Kafka in Action introduces the core features of Kafka, along with relevant examples of how to use it in real applications. In it, you’ll explore the most common use cases such as logging and managing streaming data. When you’re done, you’ll be ready to handle both basic developer- and admin-based tasks in a Kafka-focused team.

Technical Reviewer

MBA I GRC | FinTech | Data Governance | Open Source Software| TMT | Business Intelligence | Analytics, DataOps, PropTech | Distributed Sys| Blockchain I AWS I AI ML

As a data-driven strategist and AI practitioner, I specialize in empowering professionals and businesses to harness the power of artificial intelligence, data science, and business intelligence for meaningful impact. I combine technical depth with real-world application to drive innovation in digital transformation, decision intelligence, and process automation.

My core competencies span data engineering, cloud analytics, and modern data stack tools — from Python and SQL to Databricks, Power BI, and Apache Spark. I build scalable data pipelines and design intelligent systems that convert raw data into predictive insights for operations, marketing, and finance.

With hands-on experience in AI integration, MLOps, and business intelligence reporting, I help organizations unlock value through advanced analytics, data storytelling, and machine learning. I also advise on AI strategy, ethical AI use, and data governance frameworks.

As a training consultant and career coach, I deliver workshops and mentorship on data careers, AI literacy, and emerging technologies. I’m passionate about future-proofing talent, especially in emerging markets, and guiding the next generation of tech leaders. Let’s collaborate to turn data into opportunity.

Jabulani Simplisio Chibaya, MBA

This weekend's Book Club at The self Discovery, Finishing School, Book Club with Fadzayi Mahere as a guest was like no other.

It was packed with nuggets, divergent knowledge and views, and a clear and better way to rise from trauma, bias, fallacies, stereotypes, and what has been holding us back.

Fadzayi started with talking about a topic that is very hard to process, one on trauma, and how some of its language is disempowering and rooted in getting us to look more into the small rearview mirror at things we can't change and less at the big window screen ahead.

She emphasized understanding things through your own lenses and discovering your true purpose and mission in life. There are a lot of things that come to success when you focus on what is unique to you and rooted in your authenticity.

Sometimes micro shifts work, and sometimes you just have to do it like Nike: radical changes, disruptive moves, and breakthroughs. The book of the month was The Mountain Is You by Brianna Wiest, and it challenged us to look at a lot of assumptions we have about challenges and emotional intelligence.

Key takeaways: never let the past be an anchor, always strive to be better than yesterday, forgive yourself for what did not work in the past, and focus more on the present and future.

Touching on careers and making decisions, sometimes one better do what works for them and not fall into the trap of living other people's dreams and hopes.

You are no longer your past, and you decide how you move on. Choose the life you want, go for it, and create it. Accept yourself and deliver your best no matter your surroundings.

Do what works for you, and optimize for you.

There are threats in our environment and also opportunity in every threat.
Before you get married to your career or profession, ask yourself your purpose and why.

In making career decisions, we should never lose focus on education and its purpose; money is not the main goal, but changing the world is. Schools tend to put blinkers on our focus and blind us to more possibilities, which brings me to what Yuval Noah Hariri says about imagined realities: everything around us is not real; it all exists in our brains, even the worst fears and milestones. It is all in us to win and master, to cultivate and create the life we want. We can start again and overcome. There is more power in facing the future and rebuilding our vision.

Special thanks to Pamela Chinhoyi for this great book club of a diverse bunch that is committed and aligned to growth and success.

And to Fadzayi for reminding us that we have more views and ways than one to attain success, and our path won't be the same as the other person's.

taplio

The Battle

Zach Wilson

Jabulani Simplisio Chibaya, MBA

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taplio

The Battle

Zach Wilson

Jabulani Simplisio Chibaya, MBA

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Zach Wilson's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreJabulani Simplisio Chibaya, MBA's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreZach Wilson's LinkedIn Performance