Data Engineering Central Podcast

The creator of Pandas and co-creator of Apache Arrow , Wes McKinney , joins the Data Engineering Central Podcast for an in-depth conversation about how modern data engineering came to exist, where AI is taking software development, and why good engineering still matters more than ever. We start with Wes’ journey from building GoldenEye fan websites as a teenager to creating Pandas while working at...

What happens when someone who started programming on a Commodore 64 watches AI reshape the entire data industry? In this episode of the Data Engineering Central Podcast, I sit down with Dave Langer to explore nearly three decades of experience across software engineering, business intelligence, analytics, data science, and AI. Dave’s career spans COBOL programming on IBM mainframes, enterprise arc...

In this episode of the Data Engineering Central Podcast, I sit down with David Jaitillake to explore the future of data engineering, analytics, and AI. David has spent nearly two decades working across data teams, from analyst roles in the early SQL Server days to leading teams, founding startups, serving as VP of AI at Cube, and now co-founding Quarry . We discuss why semantic layers have suddenl...

In this episode of the Data Engineering Central Podcast, I sit down with Ethan , a maintainer of delta-rs and an expert in modern lakehouse architecture working in the pharmaceutical industry. We discuss Ethan’s journey into tech and data engineering, the evolution of open table formats like Delta Lake and Apache Iceberg, and what it actually takes to build scalable enterprise data platforms in hi...

Victor Moreno went from failing out of a top CS program to becoming a senior engineer at AWS, and his story says a lot about what actually matters in software engineering today. In this conversation, we go deep into the reality behind the AI hype, what makes engineers valuable ( it’s not writing more code ), and why the future of the field looks very different from what most people think. We talk...

In this episode of the Data Engineering Central Podcast, I sit down with Yordan Ivanov , Head of Data Engineering at a growing fintech company, to talk through what it actually looks like to build and run real data platforms in production. Yordan’s story starts like many of mine, early programming, gaming, PHP, Linux servers—but what makes this conversation interesting is how he evolved from a gen...

In this episode of the Data Engineering Central Podcast, I sit down with Jacob Matson , Developer Advocate at MotherDuck , to unpack one of the most interesting shifts happening in data engineering right now. Jacob didn’t start in tech the way most people expect. He began in accounting, working with Excel and financial systems, before slowly realizing that the real problem he loved solving wasn’t...

In this episode of the Data Engineering Central Podcast, I sit down with Ben Rogojan to talk about the real story behind data engineering careers, Big Tech, and what’s changing right now. Ben shares how he went from working in kitchens… to data engineering… to Facebook… and eventually walking away from it all to build his own consulting business. And yeah, it wasn’t all glamorous. “I was making th...

Most companies don’t have a tooling problem. They have a foundation problem. In this episode, I sit down with Matthew Housley , a famed co-author of Data Engineering Fundamentals and former CTO of Ternary Data, to talk about what actually makes data teams successful and why so many organizations get it wrong despite having modern stacks, cloud platforms, and expensive dashboards. * Matthew’s path...

AI isn’t just changing how we write code. It’s changing what it even means to build software. In this episode of the Data Engineering Central Podcast, I sit down with Neil Roberts — a developer who’s been through every major wave of the web, from BASIC on an Atari to modern TypeScript, and now deep into LLMs and agentic workflows. This is not another surface-level “AI will change everything” conve...

In this episode of the Data Engineering Central Podcast, I sit down with Andreas Kretz to break down what is really happening in the industry right now. We go far beyond surface-level AI hype and talk about how data engineering actually works in the real world, what skills still matter, and where most engineers are wasting time. Andreas shares his full journey from industrial IoT and working at Bo...

Most data teams think they’re building value. In reality, they’ve become ticket queues. In this episode, Chris Gambill explains his storied career in tech and data through the years, dealing with data at Fortune 500 company scale, and breaking out on his own. We cover career growth, what separates senior engineers from true strategic operators, and the biggest mistakes people make early on. We dis...

In this episode, Robert Pack walks through his journey from engineering and simulation work to building large-scale data systems across 900+ plants at BASF. We break down what those systems actually looked like, including ingestion, modeling, and the realities of batch vs real-time in industrial environments. We also dive into: * AI Workflows for Developers * His work as a committer on Delta Lake...

In this episode of Data Engineering Central, I sit down with Kevin , who spent 13 years working at Apple before walking away at the end of 2025. * Not to jump to another job. * Not to start a company. * But to take a step back from everything. Kevin shares his full journey—from growing up in the suburbs of Atlanta to building a career at Apple, and ultimately reaching the point where he could walk...

In this episode of Data Engineering Central , I sit down with the founder of DataFlint , Daniel Aronovich , to talk about the realities of working with Apache Spark, distributed data systems, and the future of data engineering . We start with his early journey into tech—how he first discovered large-scale data systems and the lessons he learned from working with real-world Spark workloads. * The c...

In this episode, I sit down with Matt Martin , Staff Engineer, data architect, ETL practitioner, and author of a new book on DuckDB coming soon, to talk about the past, present, and future of data engineering . Matt has spent decades building and architecting data platforms across technologies such as  SQL Server, Oracle, DB2, Hadoop, Redshift, and BigQuery , and now focuses on modern tools such a...

In this episode of Data Engineering Central, I sit down with a veteran Software Engineer John Crickett ; with decades of experience in the industry to unpack what really matters in building a long and successful engineering career. We talk about how he first got into software, the early jobs and tools that shaped his thinking, and the massive technology shifts he’s witnessed across decades of engi...

In this episode of the Data Engineering Central Podcast , I sit down with Yuki ( Yuki Kakegawa ) to talk about his journey into tech, the tools and platforms he’s worked with, and where he thinks data engineering and AI are headed next. We cover: • How Yuki got into tech • Early career lessons and pivots • Tools and technologies he’s worked with over the years • How data engineering has evolved •...

In this episode of Data Engineering Central, I sit down with Bart Konieczny — data engineer, distributed systems expert, and well-known author in the Data and Spark ecosystem — for a deep technical conversation about modern data engineering. We cover: * How Bart got into tech and distributed systems * His journey through different engineering roles * Spark internals and why they still matter * The...

In this episode of the Data Engineering Central Podcast , I sit down with Maxine Meurer , DevOps engineer, author, and educator behind I Love DevOps , for a wide-ranging conversation about careers, infrastructure, automation, and what it actually means to build systems that last. This isn’t a buzzword-heavy DevOps chat. It’s a grounded, honest discussion between two engineers about how people real...

In this episode, I sit down with industry veteran  Robin Moffatt  — Sr. Principal Advisor in Streaming Data Technologies (Kafka, etc.) and a longtime voice in the data engineering community, to unpack the journey from  old-school data architectures  to today’s  real-time streaming ecosystems . From early mainframe data processing and COBOL through the rise of Apache Kafka, streaming ETL, and event...

In this episode of the Data Engineering Central Podcast , I sit down with R. Tyler Croy for a wide-ranging conversation on the present—and future—of modern data platforms. Tyler is a long-time open-source contributor to projects such as delta-rs.  You can watch him on YouTube ,  read his blog , or work directly with him through his consultancy, Buoyant Data . Tyler has spent years deep in the open...

In this episode of the Data Engineering Central Podcast , I sit down with Hoyt Emerson , founder of The Full Data Stack and Early Signal , for a wide-ranging conversation on data, analytics, and creating content in the tech world. We talk candidly about: * What actually matters in modern data and analytics * Why so much “data content” misses the mark * The difference between noise and real signal...

In this episode of the Data Engineering Central Podcast , I sit down with Andy Leonard — someone who’s been building systems long before “data engineering” was even a job title. Andy’s career didn’t start in software at all. It started with physical circuits, literally wiring systems as an electrician, before moving into programming, databases, and eventually decades of hands-on data engineering w...

In this episode of the Data Engineering Central Podcast, I interview a Data OG, someone who’s been around the data space forever, and we talked about all things data, past, present, and future. I’m joined by Thomas Horton a longtime friend and one of the most well-rounded data professionals I know. Over the course of his career, Tom has worn just about every hat in data: developer, DBA, analyst, a...