Ten years in analytics engineering.
Now I do it as one person.

My first data job was tag audits. Google Tag Manager, UTM setups, reporting builds, exec-level reviews. Basically figuring out how data even gets created before it lands anywhere.

Most analytics engineers come up through SQL and models. I came up from the source. That shapes how I think about everything downstream. When a number's wrong, my first instinct is to trace it back to how the data was collected, not just how it was modeled.

Since Bain I've been in-house at a few companies. Inherited some messes. Built stacks from scratch. Been the one who left a project to whoever came next. Now I'm doing it as one person.

The engineering itself is interesting. Untangling old logic, rewriting messes, building QA in so problems get loud early instead of quietly rotting a report.

But that's not really why I keep doing this. What I actually care about is what happens after the handoff. When the numbers are right and easy to get to, teams stop arguing about them and just start using them.

That's the fun part for me. Watching a team make a decision they weren't confident enough to make before.

Personal reason: I'm starting a family. I want something I own, something I can grow over time.

Practical reason: most companies I want to work with don't need a full-time analytics engineer. What they actually need is someone experienced who shows up when things need fixing, and doesn't cost them a headcount when things are quiet.

That's a better deal for them too. The budget stays free for hires who actually move the needle on their team.

Video games, movies, TV. I build small app games on the side. One's live on Google Play right now.

Outside as much as I can. Yard, garden, camping, hiking. Travel when I can swing it.