Summary
Overview
Work History
Education
Skills
Certification
Accomplishments
Timeline
Soft Skills
Soft Skills
Generic
Varun Lakhotia

Varun Lakhotia

Data Architect/Lead Data Engineer
Sydney

Summary

  • Seasoned data professional with over 13 years of experience and specialization in scalable data integration and warehousing solutions within Airline Loyalty, Travel, Hospitality, Restaurants and Pharmaceuticals domain
  • Work experience inn data architecture, data analysis, end to end design and development of reusable ETL/ELT frameworks and scalable data migration routines within modern cloud data platforms
  • Well versed with technologies like Azure Data Factory, DataBricks, DataStage, PL/SQL, Snowflake Cloud, Siebel EIM and PySpark
  • Authorized to work for any Australian employer

Overview

13
13
years of professional experience
4
4
years of post-secondary education
1
1
Certificate
2
2
Languages

Work History

Manager

Cognizant Technology Solutions
Bangalore
01.2021 - Current
  • Client Info: World’s largest hotel chains based out of Las Vegas, Nevada and operates in over 100 countries and are pioneers in their field
  • Enterprise DWH Modernization – Enterprise Data Warehouse modernization of existing on-prem Data warehouse system to Azure Cloud Data Warehouse for its business intelligence, analytics and data consumption needs while also expanding and enhancing information management architecture
  • Solution, design and develop best fit Azure cloud-native enterprise data ingestion solution (DIF) - a highly customized, modular plug and play, reusable high volume data ingestion, quality, and data curation framework for data integration, transformation, and governance from a wide variety and format of data sources (structured and semi structured) using configuration tables
  • Build technical and implementation designs for optimal data pipelines architecture and data flows using Azure cloud data driven technologies - DataFactory, Databricks, Python
  • Write Pyspark and spark SQL transformation to perform complex transformations and operations
  • Strategize data migration and reengineering of existing pipelines/workloads to load from on-premises source system to Azure Cloud and ADLS
  • Create custom audit logging framework for ELT pipeline logging and auditing
  • Lead team of data engineers to estimate, design and develop new features and enhance existing data pipelines. Conduct technical and functional walk-through sessions of solution(s) and designs while conducting feature demos
  • Identify opportunities to enhance, streamline and optimize existing codebase
  • Strategize load, publish data extractions and wrangling ELT strategy across Staging, Interim, RAW, Cleanse, Certification layer with performance and cost considerations
  • Working with data/solution architects on PoC(s) and Design/Development of solutions for data encryption/decryption (using custom UDF), PII data governance, schema drift, stream analytics and API ingestions
  • Provide QA, UAT and implementation support including code deployment into azure platform using DevOps and transition to steady state
  • Engage with business SMEs to gather requirements, perform design visualizations, and convert them into technical flows (HLD/LLD)
  • Perform rigorous data analysis/profiling to discover source data content and quality to aid in understanding of data ingestion patterns

Senior Associate

Cognizant Technology Solutions
Dallas
05.2014 - 12.2020
  • Client Info :World’s largest fast-food restaurant company based out of DFW, Texas. Operates in over 135 countries and are pioneers in their field
  • Project – Working on critical migration of ETL processes from on premise database to cloud platform (Snowflake) and building new modern data ingestion routines using ELT/ETL
  • Liaise with business subject matter experts in analyzing business requirements, understand various data sources
  • Perform data source analysis, data sourcing and target specifications, ETL /ELT design, development & specification
  • Create conceptual, logical, and physical data models to define informational needs of DW
  • Collaborate and communicate with DBA, BA, and tech teams to correctly implement projects
  • Communicate with business users and source data owners to gather reporting requirements and to access and discover source data content, quality, and availability
  • Develop, modified, and optimized complex snowflake queries for data retrieval and modification including JSON flattening and ingestion with ETL tool orchestration
  • Architect and design process best fit process flows, deploying and populating staging area objects defining and populating Enterprise Model Warehouse using ETL/ELT and mapping documents
  • Data profiling and reverse engineering for orchestration of ETL process to new Amazon S3 and Snowflake cloud platform
  • Client Info: America’s largest commercial airline company based out of DFW, Texas. Founding member of one world alliance and among top-rated Fortune listed companies for best business turnaround
  • Project 1 – Enabled data migration and synchronization for a single digital marketing platform to consolidate various digital marketing tools. In addition, launched and implemented high profit
    margin loyalty product (~ $80 million) with multiple systems
  • Architected, designed and implemented a customized data integration process
  • Implemented scratch ETL layer for extraction and transformation of data from various source systems
  • Transformed data to target layer for a new email marketing platform
  • Drove the business objective end to end working with business SMEs and third-party stake holders
  • Mentored team members, defined day to day activities, scrum calls and successfully delivered the project
  • Project 2 – Redesigned and revamped batch components for the loyalty program of the client.
    Actively, involved in the paradigm shift from mileage model to revenue-based loyalty model. It was one of the largest loyalty implementation projects worldwide with the addition of customized tier and promotional system
  • Responsible for redesign of loyalty application batch integration framework to accommodate the partner platform and usher in revenue base loyalty model
  • Introduced new tier levels as a major overhaul
  • Tailor -made batch integration solution for the loyalty program into a single unified system converting business requirement into tech flow and their execution
  • Liaised with cross functional teams, assessed the requirements, analyzed the designs, built the batch solution and realized the final outcome
  • Project 3 – Client had a major merger with a well know US based airlines due to which loyalty programs where on different platforms. The business objective was to maximize the unified customer
    base on a single loyalty platform/program that enabled the client to implement revenue-based initiative with seamless transition and customer experience
  • Created and implemented a well thought customized and highly performant Batch Merge ETL process which enabled large volume of data and complex entities to be consolidated
    into a single system
  • Analyzed data and merger patterns, ran loyalty scenario analysis along with technical flow design to integrate with other upstream and downstream enterprise systems
  • Took responsibility of the cutover planning and performance initiatives
  • Managed communication amongst the key stake holders and team members
  • Mentored junior team with technical solutions, roles and responsibilities of the project

Consultant CRM

Cognizant Technology Solutions
Kolkata
11.2012 - 04.2014
  • Client Info: Pioneers in biotechnology and pharmaceuticals with a leading portfolio of medicines to treat neurodegenerative, hematologic, and autoimmune diseases
  • Project – Business had a complex yet modified direct facing call center application to provision the treatment cycle of a very specialized product which included financial assistance, insurance, and marketing modules. This application was significantly upgraded to incorporate a new product line (i.e.drug)

Consultant

Cognizant Technology Solutions
Kolkata
10.2009 - 10.2012
  • Client Info: Japanese pharmaceutical company with global presence in over 70 countries
  • Project – The client wanted to develop a detailed and advanced sample management system to replace the old system in order to record all sampling transactions efficiently


  • Client Info: Among the top 10 pharmaceutical companies in the world. They offer health solutions through its prescription medicines, vaccines, biologic therapies, OTCs and animal health products based out of NJ,USA
  • Project – Advancement of the existing Consumer Goods Trade Fund CRM system and the application to a new modern platform to leverage the latest technology and business process enhancements


  • Client Info: A large bio-pharmaceutical company based out of North America, their global portfolio includes medicines and vaccines as well as many of the world's best-known consumer health care products. They work on therapeutic areas of oncology, cardiovascular, pain, neuroscience and infectious diseases, including HIV/AIDS
  • Project – C linking the CVT and CPL tool to centralize the customer validation/assignment rules of multiple countries in a single standardized system
  • Actively involved in requirement analysis, technical designs and building entity relations in customized C-Link database
  • Developed ETL processes for C Link interface code using advanced tools for customer data integration using Siebel enterprise integration management
  • Managed code development, fixed issues and change request implementation during the SDLC cycle
  • Coordinated with data teams and POCs from different countries during testing phases

Education

B.Tech - Electronics & Communication

Sikkim Manipal University
India
01.2004 - 01.2008

Skills

    Azure Databricks

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Certification

Trained in Azure Databricks Fundamentals & Azure Cloud Data Solutions (DP200 certified)

Accomplishments

  • Client appreciation certificate Agile certified (internal)
  • PL-SQL/Datastage certificate (Cognizant)

Timeline

Trained in Azure Databricks Fundamentals & Azure Cloud Data Solutions (DP200 certified)

01-2021

Manager

Cognizant Technology Solutions
01.2021 - Current

Senior Associate

Cognizant Technology Solutions
05.2014 - 12.2020

Consultant CRM

Cognizant Technology Solutions
11.2012 - 04.2014

Consultant

Cognizant Technology Solutions
10.2009 - 10.2012

B.Tech - Electronics & Communication

Sikkim Manipal University
01.2004 - 01.2008

Soft Skills

  • Problem Solving Abilities
  • Adaptability
  • Teamwork/Collaboration
  • Critical Thinking

Soft Skills

  • Problem Solving Abilities
  • Adaptability
  • Teamwork/Collaboration
  • Critical Thinking

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Varun LakhotiaData Architect/Lead Data Engineer