James Robinson

Portfolio

Data Engineer at Ember

Profile 🌍

I’m a data engineer with experience in data science and platform architecture across the water and energy industries. I like building things related to data and hate doing things manually! I also like doing things the right way, using best practices and the right tool for the job.

I am passionate about the environment. The fight against climate change is the problem of our generation and I’m motivated to use my skills in the most valuable way to combat it.

I am also an active contributor to the CADA network.

Skills 💻

  • Python
    • dagster expert - I have also contributed to the open-source project
    • pandas, polars & pyspark
    • flask & fastAPI
  • SQL
    • duckdb fan 🦆
  • Cloud platforms
    • Google Cloud - designed and created a full data platform at Ember using GCP
    • AWS - designed a duckdb database using parquet files stored on s3
    • Azure platform - Azure Data Engineer Associate certification
    • Databricks
  • CI/CD
    • github actions
    • docker

Experience 🗒

Ember

2023-present

Aiimi

2019-2023

  • Senior Data Engineer (2021-2023)
    • Platform Migration - Utilities
      • Translating data pipelines from the old on-premise data warehouse to a new bespoke and evolving cloud platform
      • Developing and promoting self-service data models into production
    • Effluent report - Utilities
      • Combining data from various business sources to compare legally agreed discharge to actual volumes
      • Working within an agile squad
      • Engaging with business stakeholders
    • Carbon Reporting - Internal
      • Lead initiative to improve our internal carbon reporting methods and widen our capabilities
      • Automate estimation of emissions from travel expenses, and office power consumption
      • Researched and implemented calculation of emissions from cloud resources
      • Gained approval from CEO to implement the calculations into our internal product
  • Data Consultant (2019-2021)
    • COVID Workforce Management - Utilities
    • Zero Emissions Hack (winner) - Utilities
    • Utility Demand Modelling - Utilities
    • Asset Condition Modelling - Utilities
    • Document Classification - Aiimi Labs R&D

I always have a focus beyond day-to-day delivery and have helped introduce good practices and work accelerators whilst on my projects. During my project work, I have implemented a testing framework to improve data quality and a module to create a relational data model in Analysis Services using the bespoke data catalogue. Outside of my day-to-day role, I have also, been involved with:

  • Green initiative
    • Hosted an internal company talk on the environment
    • Lead an initiative to use our data skills to improve our internal carbon reporting
    • Pitched the idea to the CEO and ran a week-long proof of concept with a team of data engineers and scientists
    • Gained approval to implement the solutions into our internal product
  • Data community leader
    • Developing resources and creating an environment for data consultants to connect and share ideas, lessons learned and best practices
  • Career shifting mentor
    • Was chosen by head of data to help mentor a scrum master in becoming a data engineer
    • Help focus their training and develop their skills
  • Apprentice mentor
    • Mentoring an 18 year old data science apprentice
    • Helping them transition from school into work

Havas Media Group

2018-2019

  • Junior Data Scientist
    • Web-scraping analytics
    • Automated the interpretation of an econometric model
    • Developed an R-Shiny app for conducting econometric analysis.

Education 🎓

Professional Certifications

2024

2021

University of Warwick

2014-2017

  • BSc Mathematics, Operational Research, Statistics & Economics (2:1)

Aylesbury Grammar School

2007-2014

  • 4x A-Levels (A*A*A*A)
  • 11x GCSE (A*-B)

Hobbies 🥅

Floorball

At uni I picked up a strange sounding sport when I decided that £600+ for a set of ice hockey gear was too much for a first year student. Cast your mind back to the plastic hockey sticks and balls that you played with in junior school and imagine that someone made this into a real sport - dramatic video explanation for anyone who’s interested. It’s not that popular in the UK (and let’s face it, the name doesn’t help), but has a great following in north and central Europe. The plus-side of playing a sport that no-one in your country has heard of, is that the pool of players for the national team is very small. So as a result, I’ve been lucky enough to represent Great Britain in 14 matches, scoring 4 goals in this time, but I think my team GB days are behind me now.

Nerdy stuff

I enjoy doing some hobby programming, too. I’m currently teaching myself Rust (really interested by learning some more in-depth software engineering practices and a lower-level language with some brilliant and unique features) and JavaScript (not sure I need to justify this one…). When I’ve had a bit more time, I’ve also created a smart mirror in python, set up email notifications whenever @BrentfordFC (COYB!) tweet about tickets going on sale, and optimised the Formula 1 calendar to reduce its emissions. Again, feel free to take a look at them on my github page.

I’m also a fan of the Linux desktop, currently sporting the latest Pop_OS! release. I love the open-source philosophy, have contributed to the dagster open-source project, and I’m keen to contribute to more open-source projects in the future.

Links 🔗