Matt Adams


Senior Software and Data Engineer

Innovating Health & Life Sciences data solutions with Azure Databricks, Python, SQL, and Spark. Committed to DevOps and security best practices. Active contributor to open-source projects.

Achievements


Data Platform Modernization

  • Spearheaded the Data Platform Modernization initiative as technical lead, identifying a critical deficiency in reporting availability and quantifying its financial impact on the organization.
  • Developed and presented a comprehensive solution to executive leadership, including project design, budget forecasting, and implementation plan, securing executive approval and funding.
  • Led the technical execution of the project, serving as the primary point of technical escalation and ensuring successful delivery.
  • Optimized nightly ETL processing, reducing runtime from eight hours to two hours (a 4x improvement), resulting in a significant improvement in SLA compliance from 5% in 2023 to 99% in 2024.

PacificSource Enterprise Award - Innovation (2024)

  • Sole recipient of the Enterprise Innovation award for modernizing our data platform, impacting 1,500 daily internal users and an unknown number of external users.

Work Experience

PacificSource Health Plans

  • Senior Data Platforms Developer (Jun 2024 - Present)
    • Accomplishments:
      • Lead Data Platform Steering committee, providing oversight and governance to the data platform.
      • Migrating core data platform from nightly refresh to real-time data ingestion via streaming (Delta Live Tables, Spark Structured Streaming, Redis Cache, Kafka, Azure Event Hub, custom real-time APIs).
    • Skills: Further developed expertise in Spark and Azure Databricks, streaming pub/sub messaging services, and gained experience with Terraform and Azure DevOps build pipelines as well as GitHub Actions.
  • Software Developer III (Mar 2022 - Jun 2024, 2 yrs 4 mos)
    • Accomplishments:
      • Spearheaded the Data Platform Modernization as technical lead for a team of 12 engineers.
      • Converted 600 code packages, ranging from 1,000 to 20,000 lines of code each.
      • Achieved a 4x reduction in nightly ETL processing time.
    • Skills: Apache Spark, Databricks, Python, PySpark, Data Engineering, Azure Databricks, SQL, Delta Lake, Microsoft Azure, Cloud Architecture, Git, Azure DevOps Services, CI/CD, SDLC, Delta Sharing, Cloud Security, Azure Security, Large Language Models (LLM), Machine Learning, Kanban, Agile Methodologies
  • Software Developer II (Nov 2019 - Mar 2022, 2 yrs 5 mos)
    • Accomplishments:
      • Implemented master data management (MDM) for provider data, resolving complex contracting and business relationships within the data modeling process.
      • Led proof-of-concept projects for implementing modern data engineering practices, evaluating Azure Synapse, Azure Data Factory, and Azure Databricks, ultimately selecting Databricks.
      • Refactored the existing monthly ETL environment refresh, reducing the refresh time from 2 hours to 30 minutes.
    • Skills: Microsoft Azure, PySpark, Apache Spark, Python, Delta Lake, Azure Databricks
  • Network and Security Administrator II (Mar 2019 - Nov 2019, 9 mos)
    • Accomplishments:
      • Designed and implemented a Microsoft Azure tenant for PacificSource to support the initial Azure Data Warehouse proof-of-concept project, including:
        • Azure Active Directory
        • Secure network connectivity via Azure ExpressRoute
        • Azure Synapse (formerly Azure SQL DW)
        • Azure Data Factory
        • Azure Blob Storage
    • Skills: Microsoft Azure, Python
  • Associate Infrastructure Administrator I (May 2017 - Mar 2019, 1 yr 11 mos)
    • Skills: Microsoft Azure, Python

Earlier Experience

  • Held IT consulting and network administration roles at OBEC Consulting Engineers, Feynman Group, Inc., and Oregon State University from 2010 to 2017.

Skills


  • Data Platforms/Engineering: Databricks, Data Engineering, Azure Databricks, PySpark, Delta Lake, Apache Spark, SQL, T-SQL, T-SQL Stored Procedures
  • Cloud Computing: Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform (GCP)
  • DevOps/Automation: Git, Azure DevOps Services, GitHub, Terraform, CI/CD (ADO Pipelines & GitHub Actions)
  • Networking/Security: IP Networking, Cisco ASA, Windows Server, Server Administration, Network Administration, Cisco IOS, Active Directory, Microsoft Exchange, PowerShell
  • Methodologies: Kanban, Agile Methodologies
  • Other: Large Language Models (LLM), Machine Learning

Certifications


  • Databricks Certified Data Engineer Associate (Issued Jun 2024, Expires Jun 2026)
    • Issuer: Databricks
    • Credential ID: 106026681
  • Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) (Issued Jun 2019)
    • Issuer: EC-Council
  • ITIL Foundation (Issued Apr 2018)
    • Issuer: AXELOS Global Best Practice
  • MCSE: Cloud Platform & Infrastructure (Issued Oct 2016)
    • Issuer: Microsoft
  • MCSE: Server Infrastructure (Issued Jul 2014, Expired Jul 2017)
    • Issuer: Microsoft
  • MCSA: Windows Server 2012 (Issued Dec 2013)
    • Issuer: Microsoft
  • MCPS: Microsoft Certified Professional

Education


Western Governors University

  • Master of Science (MS), Cybersecurity and Information Assurance (2018 - 2019)
  • Bachelor of Science (BS), Cloud and Systems (2017 - 2018)

Oregon State University

  • College of Liberal Arts, Psychology (2007 - 2012)
    • Activities and Societies: Resident Assistant (Sep 2008 - Jun 2010, 1 yr 9 mos), Memorial Union Programming Council (Jun 2010 - Dec 2010, 6 mos)

Volunteering


  • Eugene Southtowne Rotary Foundation
    • Board Treasurer (Jan 2023 - Present)
      • Manage the distribution of $70,000-$80,000 in local grants and scholarships annually.
  • Eugene Southtowne Rotary
    • Member (Apr 2016 - Present)
  • Habitat for Humanity of Central Lane
    • Homeowner Support Committee (Mar 2017 - Jul 2018, 1 yr 5 mos)