Building a Self-Serving Data Platform - Modernising Data Engineering

Recap Summary

During the session Damian discussed how FanDuel changed the approach to writing data pipelines to meet business delivery expectations during a phase of hyper business growth, whilst also tackling the issue of Data Engineer shortages in the market.

Damian discussed the changes in team mindset, as well as streamlining FanDuel’s tech stack to allow Data & Software professionals to transition into his Data Platform team without the need for major re-skilling.

3 Main Takeaways:

1. - Streamlining of the data engineering process. They created reusable code libraries, allowing the engineers to focus on other less repetitive areas and develop new products
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3. - It was also a conversation starter about the different approaches people would use to solve the same problems. The rapid growth of FanDuel has probably seen them doing it their way, when others may have brought in some out of the box solutions to do parts of the job.
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5. - And a huge takeaway is the interest in Data Engineering and the creation of the community! We had a full house last night and we can only see it growing from here
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7. - and another thing ... it's fascinating to see a Scottish based dev team do impactful work on a product that is aimed solely at the North American market. It demonstrates the globalisation of development and how an offshore (remote) team can be so successful.
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(From Calum Mather, INOV8)

Guest Bio:

Damian Grech

Damian has over 15 years of software and data engineering experience covering different roles along the way.

Working in organisations of different sizes, from start-ups to 2500 employee organisations, ranging in different industries from Oil & Gas going through reports to find missed hydrocarbon opportunities, to leading teams working on real time metrics systems at a leading Travel and Hospitality organisation.

He currently leads the data platform teams at FanDuel, the no. 1 sportsbook company in Northern America.