Nathan Bijnens

Introduction

Name

Nathan Bijnens

Address
9042 Ghent
Belgium
E-mail
Telephone
+32 486 15 88 29
Website
GitHub
Twitter
LinkedIn
Nathan Bijnens

I am Nathan Bijnens, a Sr Solution Architect Manager, Data & AI with an extensive background as software developer and Solution Architect, with a passion for Business, Cloud and Data. I guide my team, coach and mentor my colleagues and set-out the strategy and go-to-market towards our strategic, commercial and public sector customers on data & cloud. Responsible for nn M€ revenue and double digit growth on Analytics, Apps+Data, AI/ML. I drive customers initiatives, leveraging Microsoft AI & Analytics on Azure to solve the biggest and most complex data challenges faced by Microsoft’s enterprise customers.

In a previous role I was the Lead Cloud Solution Architect for the European Union Institutions and NATO at Microsoft helping the European Union and NATO become a Data Driven Government.

With a successful track record of building innovative systems in highly political and complex environments, I not only help on envisioning what data can do for business, I analyze, give recommendations, design architectures and inspire teams. I build on my background and experience with data analytics and building Big Data systems, especially real-time Big Data and messaging-based systems.

I enjoy working with clients and partners, from giving advice, talking about the Business and Technological value of Big Data and AI, to imagining solutions. Working in an entrepreneurial, data driven, innovative environment gives me energy.

I am a passionate speaker and evangelist, on AI, Big Data, IoT and Cloud.

Experience

Since February 2016 I joined

Microsoft

, currently leading the Data & AI team and business as the

Sr CSA & CE Manager, Data & AI

. I drive Microsoft's initiatives, leveraging Analytics, Data and AI on Azure to solve the biggest and most complex data challenges faced by Microsoft's strategic, commercial and public sector customers. I lead, coach, mentor and orchestrate, and set-out the strategy and go-to-market, working closely with external and internal stakeholders and partners.
  • Sr. CSA & CE Manager, Data & AI

    June 2021 - ...

  • Sr. Cloud Solution Architect, Data & AI

    July 2019 - May 2021

  • Cloud Solution Architect, Advanced Analytics + AI

    February 2016 - June 2019

    As a CSA I drive high priority customer initiatives, leveraging Cortana Intelligence on Azure to solve the biggest and most complex data and IoT challenges faced by Microsoft's enterprise customers. It is a technical, customer facing role, accountable for the end-to-end customer deployment and usage experience for cloud data and IoT services.

From October 2013 till January 2016 I worked for

Virdata

a start-up funded by

Technicolor

, as a

sr. Big Data and IoT Engineer

, previously as a

DevOps Engineer

. Virdata was an Internet of Things Cloud platform, scalable to millions of devices, from tiny sensors to TVs and Cars.
I worked on our Data Processing stack, on top of Spark and Spark Streaming, mostly in Scala. I also worked as the lead on our Spark as a Service offering.
  • Data Engineer
    From January 2014 till January 2016.

    As a Big Data Engineer, I worked on our Data Processing and Analytics stack, creating a Lambda and Kappa Architecture. Working with Apache Spark, Spark Streaming, Storm, Cassandra and Kafka. We mostly used Scala and bits of Java. We deployed using Chef on Mesos in the cloud.

    IoT Big Data Data Analytics Lamdba Architecture Software Architecture Scala Java Spark Storm Cassandra Mongo Mesos Docker
  • Spark as a Service Lead
    From May 2014 till January 2016.

    We created a Spark as a Service exploratory environment for Data Scientists in the Cloud, based around Mesos, Docker, iPython (now Jupyter) and Spark Notebooks.

    DevOps Big Data Data Analytics Scala Python Spark Cloud Mesos Amazon AWS Linux Docker Project Management
  • Cloud & DevOps Engineer
    From October 2013 till December 2013.

    As a Big Data and DevOps Engineer, I was responsible for the scalability, quality and Operational Intelligence of a new platform. I introduced the Continuous Integration platform, using Jenkins, added unit tests. The platform is build using Chef, tried to be cloud independent (ran on Amazon AWS, Softlayer, ...).

    DevOps IoT Big Data Scala Jenkins Unit Testing Storm Spark ElasticSearch Ruby Chef Mesos Amazon AWS Linux Docker
At the end of 2013 I co-founded lambda-architecture.net, a website about the

Lambda Architecture

. The Lambda Architecture is a data-processing architecture designed to handle Big Data by combining both batch- and stream-processing, while attempting to balance latency, throughput, and fault-tolerance. Batch Processing is used to provide comprehensive and accurate (although slightly out of date) views, while simultaneously using real-time stream processing to bridge the gap.
From April 2012 till March 2014 I worked for

DataCrunchers

, as a

Hadoop and Big Data Consultant

. DataCrunchers was the leading Belgian consultancy firm around everything Big Data. I co-presented our Hadoop Ecosystem courses, and I was responsible for our Microsoft Big Data partnership.
  • Big Data & DevOps Engineer, Technicolor
    From October 2013 till March 2014.

    As a Big Data and DevOps Engineer, I was responsible for the scalability, quality and Operational Intelligence of a new platform. I introduced the Continuous Integration platform, using Jenkins, added unit tests. The platform is build using Chef, tries to be cloud independent (runs on Amazon AWS, Softlayer, ...).

    DevOps IoT Big Data Java Scala Jenkins Unit Testing Storm Spark Ruby Chef Amazon AWS Linux
  • Project Manager ABBAMelda, Flemish Government (Macq)
    From June 2013 till October 2013.

    Project Manager and Lead Developer of ABBAMelda, a ticket and maintenance management system, originally developed by Siemens. ABBAMelda consists of a Java EE backend, an Informix database, with a PHP/jQuery frontend. Under my lead, we created an enhanced Tablet intranet site, improved the bulk upload possibilities, additional REST services, introduced unit testing and switched to git. I was responsible for coordinating with different teams within the Flemish Government, as well as the contractor (Macq).

    Software Architecture Project Management Agile Scrum Java API PHP jQuery Unit Testing Puppet Linux Mobile Development ETL
  • A social media startup (2)
    From February 2013 till June 2013.

    Defining and implementing the architecture for a social media analytics startup. I designed and implemented a Lambda Architecture (in Java), on top of Storm and Hadoop, using Redis, Voldemort as well as Thrift.

    Java Storm Hadoop Kafka Redis Unit Testing Puppet> Linux Software Architecture Lambda Architecture
  • A social media startup (1)
    From December 2012 till January 2013.
    Java ElasticSearch D3 Data Visualization Software Architecture
  • Ewals Intermodal
    From October 2012 till June 2013.

    Developing Oracle database views for integration of Greencat and Crystal Reports.

    Oracle Greencat Crystal Reports ETL
  • Microsoft Big Data Partnership
    Responsible for the contact with Microsoft. Speaker at the Microsoft Inspirience Day about Big Data.
    Client & Partner Relationships Public Speaking Business Strategy Technology Evangelism Big Data Azure Hadoop
  • Solution Architect

    Discussions, presentations and conversations with partners, discussing potential Business Ideas and architectures. Evangelizing the Belgium market for Big Data.

    Client & Partner Relationships Public Speaking Business Strategy Technology Evangelism Big Data IoT
  • Internal Projects
    1. I co-developed on our internal Semantic Analysis Engine on top of Storm and ElasticSearch. The web interface is build around a Java, Jersey backend and a frontend in AngularJS.
    2. Setting up an internal Hadoop, ElasticSearch & Storm test cluster using Puppet and Cloudera Manager. I created some Puppet modules to manage Storm, ElasticSearch and Ganglia.
    3. I co-developed on IHarvest project. It is a distributed HTTP Fetcher & Parser on top of Storm, written in Java, the results are stored on HDFS for more extensive querying using Hadoop.
    Storm ElasticSearch Puppet Hadoop Java
From March 2011 till April 2012 I worked for

iController

, as

Lead Developer

. We build a credit management SaaS application, written in PHP. I managed a small group of developers, took the lead on everything technical and coordinated with the directors, partners and clients.
  • Lead Developer iController

    I developed our credit management web application in PHP, I managed a small group of developers, took the lead on everything technical and coordinated with the directors, partners and clients.

    Project Management Requirement Analysis PHP symfony Unit Testing Jenkins git MySQL jQuery XML API
  • iController Server Automatization

    I virtualized and automated the whole iController server setup using Puppet. I created and extended several open-source Puppet modules.

    Puppet Linux MySQL PHP DevOps Jenkins git Amazon AWS
  • Various clients
    From July till November 2011.
    1. Analyzing the requirements, estimating and taking the lead.
    2. Extracting data from various Accounting software to iController, including a complex integration with SAP FI at LeasePlan.
    Accounting Software AS400 ETL XML XSchema Oracle MSSQL Navision
From September 2010 till February 2011 I was employed at

Netlog

as a

Big Data Engineer

and

Web Developer

, creating an analytical data warehouse based on Hadoop and Hbase. I deployed the first Hadoop clusters and created large parts of the data processing infrastructure, using Hive and Hadoop Pig. I also advised on new technologies, git migration, best practices & unit tests. Netlog was a social community network, with over 70 million members, mainly active in Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
  • Big Data Engineer

    Setting up the Hadoop infrastructure, analyzing data with Hadoop Pig and Hive, creating dashboards using Symfony2 and Hbase.

    Hadoop Hadoop Pig Linux Hive Hbase Thrift Symfony2 Data Visualization MySQL
  • Web Developer (Netlog) & Twoo Core Framework Developer

    Within the core Netlog framework, I worked on Event collection, Unit Testing and the migration to Git. I also benchmarked various caching and NoSQL technologies (Memcached, Redis, Membase).

    As part of the launch of Twoo, I was responsible for the design and development of the Request Routing and the security and access control models. I also advised on Design Patterns and Best Practices.

    PHP PHPUnit Unit Testing Linux Event Processing MySQL Design Patterns Best Practices git Memcached Redis Performance testing Membase
From October 2009 to August 2010 I started working at

iController

, a SaaS start-up in Ghent, as

web application developer

. I developed a new, greatly improved debtor & credit management web application. We used PHP and the symfony framework to create a stable and easy to maintain application.
From March 2007 till December 2014 I was the

Consultant, Managing Director and founder

of

Servs

BVBA; mainly active as a (part-time) IT consultant in the field of Big Data & Spark, Scala, web applications (PHP, sql, scalability, …), Cloud, DevOps & Linux system administration and hosting applications.

For the full details, see nathan.gs/cv.

Skills

As a

People Manager

with an extensive Cloud, Data & AI background I leverage coaching, business understanding and my analytical skills to deliver results.
  • Coaching & Mentoring
  • Entrepreneurial
  • Business Understanding and building customer journeys
  • Go to market strategy
  • Analytical Mindset
  • Business Management
  • Relationship building
  • Engaging and influencing
  • Presentation skills
  • Thought Leader
  • Trusted Advisor
  • Scaling people and organizations
My background as

Software Engineer

and

Solution Architect

and a lot of personal interests have taken me on a journey across a multitude of technologies.
  • Cloud & Azure
  • Software & Data Architecture, programming, especially Functional Programming
    • Software/Data Architecture
    • Kappa & Lambda Architecture
    • Data Mesh
    • Event & Message Driven
    • Scala
    • Java
    • Python
    • Bash
  • Data, Analytics and AI
    • Spark, Spark Streaming, including OSS and Databricks
    • Synapse Analytics
    • Postgres, MySQL, MariaDB, SQL Server, Azure SQL, ...
    • Cassandra, CosmosDB, etc
    • Azure Cognitive Search, ElasticSearch, ...
    • AzureML, MLOps, etc
    • Power BI
  • Linux & DevOps
    • Chef, Puppet, Azure Resource Manager Templates (ARM), ...
    • NixOS, nix

Languages

Dutch
Mother tongue
English
Very fluent

Other skills

In possession of a driver's license.

Education

Certificates

 Certified Data Engineer Professional
Certified Data Engineer Professional
Databricks | March 2024
 Senior Technical Leadership Program
Senior Technical Leadership Program
Microsoft | June 2022
Event Speaker Silver
Event Speaker Silver
Microsoft | 2018, 2021 & 2022
 Mentor Gold
Mentor Gold
Microsoft | May 2021
LFCS: Linux Foundation Certified Systems Administrator
LFCS: Linux Foundation Certified Systems Administrator
The Linux Foundation | 2017 and Nov 2020
OpenHack: AI-Powered Knowledge Mining Tech Lead
OpenHack: AI-Powered Knowledge Mining Tech Lead
Microsoft OpenHack | September 2020
Azure Data Scientist Associate
Azure Data Scientist Associate
Microsoft | October 2020 + renewals
OpenHack: AI-Powered Knowledge Mining Coach
OpenHack: AI-Powered Knowledge Mining Coach
Microsoft OpenHack | September 2020
OpenHack: Modern Data Warehousing Coach
OpenHack: Modern Data Warehousing Coach
Microsoft OpenHack | March 2020
Azure Data Engineer Associate
Azure Data Engineer Associate
Microsoft | September 2019 + renewals
DP-201 Designing an Azure Data Solution
DP-201 Designing an Azure Data Solution
Microsoft | September 2019
DP-200 Implementing an Azure Data Solution
DP-200 Implementing an Azure Data Solution
Microsoft | September 2019
Azure AI Engineer Associate
Azure AI Engineer Associate
Microsoft | February 2019 + renewals
Perform Big Data Engineering on Microsoft Cloud Services (70-776)
Perform Big Data Engineering on Microsoft Cloud Services (70-776)
Microsoft | February 2018
Microsoft Global Challenger (Insight Selling)
Microsoft Global Challenger (Insight Selling)
Microsoft | December 2017
MCSA: Cloud Platform - Certified 2017
MCSA: Cloud Platform - Certified 2017
Microsoft | May 2017
Designing and Implementing Cloud Data Platform Solutions (70-473)
Designing and Implementing Cloud Data Platform Solutions (70-473)
Microsoft | May 2017
Design and Implement Big Data Analytics Solutions (70-475)
Design and Implement Big Data Analytics Solutions (70-475)
Microsoft | February 2016
IBM Big Data Fundamentals Technical Mastery (N32)
IBM Big Data Fundamentals Technical Mastery (N32)
IBM | January 2013
Certificate on Basic Knowledge of Business Management
Certificate on Basic Knowledge of Business Management
FOD Economie | January 2013
IBM InfoSphere BigInsights (Hadoop & Big Data) Technical Professional
IBM InfoSphere BigInsights (Hadoop & Big Data) Technical Professional
IBM | October 2012
SARA Hadoop Workshop
SARA Hadoop Workshop
SURF SARA | December 2010

Education

Institute
University of Antwerp
Program
Social-Economic Sciences
Period
2005 - 2007
Achieved
Not Achieved
Institute
Hibernia Steinerschool in Antwerp
Program
ASO, Higher Secondary education
Period
1999 - 2005
Achieved
2005

Presentations

Presentations to Clients & Partners

Many presentations to clients and partners, typically on:

  • Digital Transformation
  • Microsoft AI and Cognitive Services
  • Data Sharing and Data Architecture
  • Internet of Things
  • Azure and Cloud

Public Presentations