Christopher Woodard
Data Engineering And Architecture Leader
South Lyon,MI
Summary
With over 25 years of experience, I have acquired valuable insights in driving team growth and delivering tangible business value. Recognized leader in platform, data, and enterprise data architecture. Possesses an in-depth understanding of data warehousing, data engineering, and modern big data platforms. Eager to pursue my passion for data and technology, while also understanding the unique requirements of various industries. My ultimate goal is to develop and implement data-driven strategies that align with business objectives. Furthermore, I aspire to utilize my diverse experience to cultivate exceptional teams and impart knowledge to foster their professional development.
Overview
12
12
years of professional experience
5
5
years of post-secondary education
Work History
Manager, Product Engineering and Delivery
General Motors
09.2021 - 03.2025
- Directed ten platform and software engineers supporting data streaming and data management platforms including Kafka, NiFi, and Data Governance platforms Immuta and Atlan
- Championed Kafka topic creation and access request automation, reducing cycling time by 99.93% and boosting monthly Service Level Agreement (SLA) results from 80% to 100%
- Eliminated 2 unsustainable platforms resulting in $3M cost savings and managed platform annual budget
- Successfully challenged team to improve Kafka uptime SLA from 99.8% to 99.999% by enabling seamless hardware replacements
- Empowered team to instill confidence in decision making and promoted shared consciousness to strengthen cohesiveness
Senior Manager / Principal Architect, Data and Platform Engineering Leader
Blue Cross Blue Shield of MIchigan
11.2019 - 09.2021
- Oversaw twenty-five data analysts, data analyst managers and platform architects
- Initiated acquisition of Stonebranch workload automation and Databricks with a Return on Investment (ROI) within three years to increase Data Engineer and Data Scientist productivity by over 50% and help enable DevOps
- Designed flexible, extensible and scalable enterprise data architecture consisting of an Operational Data Hub, an Analytics Data Hub and a Data Lake to address operational and analytical solutions including data services required for mainframe retirement, data science enablement and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Interoperability and Patient Access Final Rule solution
- Redesigned a data governance process to promote data consistency as well as increased security and integrated the new process into the data development lifecycle
Director, ECommerce and Digitization
Atlas Oil Company
05.2019 - 09.2019
- Interviewed B2B customers and company staff to develop a Digitalization Strategy to address administrative costs and enable the eCommerce platform
- Designed a Microsoft Azure hosted Data Integration Hub (DIH) architecture to facilitate order to cash process automation between the eCommerce platform and back-office systems
- Successfully integrated the eCommerce platform orders with the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) business system, using the DIH, to eliminate manual order entry by 100%
Manager, Information Architecture
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan
11.2017 - 05.2019
- Provided technical leadership for the data access layer and analytics engine, leveraging Cloudera Hadoop and Amazon Web Services, to enable the first integration of data across business units that reduced IT and Business data consumer lead times by over 50%
- Built lasting relationships with business partners by listening to needs and collaborating on solutions
- Designed Hadoop security model, captured design patterns, aided technology selection and improved nonfunctional attributes across the ecosystems such as security, usability, sustainability and stability
Manager, BI Reporting & Analytics Enablement
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan
03.2016 - 11.2017
- Supervised ten application developers, business analysts, delivery leads, data analysts, and report developers to support EDW-based solutions
- Built solutions to enable self-service frameworks to reduce user lead times by over 30%
- Accomplished multiple tasks within established timeframes
Manager, Application Development & Support, Ancillary Systems
Delta Dental Of Michigan
07.2015 - 03.2016
- Guided ten employees on 4 cross-functional teams
- Oversaw the design, implementation, and maintenance of system architecture and software applications
- Optimized and refined data reporting capabilities and tools
- Reduced data warehouse job run times and data quality issues by analyzing several DataStage, PLSQL, or SAS-based ETL jobs, identifying issues negatively impacting the data flow, and implemented solutions
- Spearheaded an enterprise-wide initiative to implement a modern, cost-effective document generation solution to replace the existing, outdated application to deliver a scalable and reliable contract renewal process
Operations Lead – Fleet Data Warehouse & Hadoop Data Lake
GE Capital
08.2013 - 07.2015
- Led nine contractors across two teams supporting the Fleet Data Warehouse and the Hadoop Data Lake
- Mobilized a specialized team to implement the first GE Hadoop Data Lake which led to the successful launch of a large-scale marketing job that decreased the run time by over 96%
- Optimized Data Warehouse data availability and accessibility to improve user experience by implementing a continuous improvement process, improving the rate of data ingestion, and ease of consumption by adjusting table structure and indexes
Education
Advanced Certificate - Programming in Java
WASHTENAW COMMUNITY COLLEGE
Ann Arbor, MI 05.2009 - 12.2009
Bachelor of Arts - Criminal Justice
WESTERN MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY
Kalamazoo, MI 09.1993 - 12.1997
Skills
Team leadership, Relationship building, Budget control, Coaching and mentoring
Vendor management, Effective communication
SQL, PL/SQL, UNIX Shell Scripts
Java, C, Python, Scala
AWS, Amazon Redshift, Azure
Databricks, Immuta, Atlan, Stonebranch
Apache Kafka, Cloudera Hadoop, Hive, Spark, Flink
Informatica, DataStage, Erwin Data Modeler, Oracle, Cognos, Tableau, Docker, Kubernetes
Timeline
Manager, Product Engineering and Delivery
General Motors
09.2021 - 03.2025
Senior Manager / Principal Architect, Data and Platform Engineering Leader
Blue Cross Blue Shield of MIchigan
11.2019 - 09.2021
Director, ECommerce and Digitization
Atlas Oil Company
05.2019 - 09.2019
Manager, Information Architecture
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan
11.2017 - 05.2019
Manager, BI Reporting & Analytics Enablement
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan
03.2016 - 11.2017
Manager, Application Development & Support, Ancillary Systems
Delta Dental Of Michigan
07.2015 - 03.2016
Operations Lead – Fleet Data Warehouse & Hadoop Data Lake
GE Capital
08.2013 - 07.2015
Advanced Certificate - Programming in Java
WASHTENAW COMMUNITY COLLEGE
05.2009 - 12.2009
Bachelor of Arts - Criminal Justice
WESTERN MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY
09.1993 - 12.1997