Saving Data Architect Tuomas Melin

Tuomas Melin is an experienced Data professional who likes working with both the technical and organisational aspects of data. He has a background in software development and also over 10 years of experience in data architectures, which makes him somewhat of a unicorn in the industry. He has designed and implemented cloud architectures for a variety of customers in Finland and in the Nordics. This is why various customers always ask if Tuomas would help them in their data-related problems, which takes us to the core of the problem. We also see that Tuomas’ input would be valuable for coaching fellow Recordlians, so we want a bit of him back from these intriguing projects that he is involved in, and thus try to locate a new person to split his current project load. In order to find such a unicorn for hiring, we wanted to learn more about how Tuomas became Tuomas from a professional angle?

Like many in the data field nowadays, Tuomas started his career as a Software Developer in 2010. Back then his J2EE stack consisted of Java 7, Spring, Hibernate, and Oracle as the database. Learning software development in a huge project was a really good stepping stone into the world of IT and business. Some ten years ago Tuomas saw an opportunity to try Data Warehousing as a part of his job. SQL and integration development was already something he was skilled in so the transformation to ETL was quite smooth.

When the cloud journey started in Finland, he understood that these worlds (software development and Data Warehousing) might at some point end up starting to resemble one another and was curious about how to learn to implement something like that in the cloud. It started off with big data management solutions. So he ended up being among the first in Finland to do that in AWS.

During his career, Tuomas has been in many customer cases. His role has ranged between data engineering, software development, cloud infrastructure data design etc. Customer domains have been in the fields of customer analytics, retail, manufacturing and marketing optimization. During his time he grasped some learnings that are now part of his professional self and since these were so interesting we wanted to share some of them to you as a form of an interview.

So what are your key takeaways from transforming a large forest company with data?

• Organisational data transformation can take many shapes and forms and both bottom-up and top-down approaches are needed. 
• Large-scale data platform development can create many bottlenecks. Some can be in the development phase, some in design or even in organisational readiness. A data transformation journey needs to tackle all of these aspects.
• Transformation via training the technical staff to become more data-driven in their own work is a good way to get organisational competencies up-to-speed.

You have worked in retail for a bit now, what are your key take-outs from there?

• Retail is something everyone is familiar with and on the surface, things seem really simple. But there are lots and lots of processes and tools needed to make things tick. To improve that with data is to try to make things simpler.
• Data platforms can power business data solutions that simplify business processes.
• Clear roles and responsibilities of systems will make planning architectural solutions a lot easier.

As we know, working together is not just about competency but also about the cultural fit. That’s why we wanted to interview Tuomas also from an angle of who he is (btw he is the only one with a personal laptop sticker at Recordly).

What are your favourite techie toys?

In technologies, my favourites are tools that are robust and simple. In the past, I would have gone with more custom-developed flavours but I’ve grown to like what value good SaaS solutions will add to the development in the long run. If I’d had to write my own data platform from scratch it would probably be full of Python and SQL. In technologies, my least favourites are the shiny new toys, meaning technology trends with the hype that is not always healthy. 

Name a customer that I have learned most from and why?

I feel I've been able to learn from almost all the larger projects I've been involved in. If I'd have to pick one, it would be one where I got to see different aspects of tech, organisational transformation and business results. One such has been the most recent retail project I have been in. The hardest part of my work is balancing when to go deep in tech, when to be on a high level and when to try to focus only on the business aspects. The most fun part of my work is working together to make the hard parts work together.

What do you look forward to in your career?

I’d really like to see Recordly strive as a combination of excellent company culture and top-notch technical deliveries to our customers.

What is your favourite lunch burger on Fridays?

I like to experiment but typically something spicy. I’d like to be able to eat more veggie burgers so I need to find a favourite on that side of the menu too!

What is your favourite drink?

I drink a lot of water so I’d have to go with that. Whenever I get the chance, I also enjoy tasting different kinds of beers.

How would you feel like pairing up with Tuomas in his professional challenges?

Tuomas would like to have more time to help mentor Recordly people and keep the future-oriented strategic architecture planning on his agenda instead of swamping too deep into implementation. This is why he would like to find a partner in crime to split work and work as a pair. The ideal would be eg. a senior developer with some architectural skills who would be looking for a career path expansion to data. 

In case you would like to learn more, you can write to Tuomas (tuomas.melin@recordlydata.com). 

Want to be Tuomas' partner in "crime"? We at Recordly are constantly looking for new data troops! Read more about us and send your application over today 👇