Lead / Principal Software Engineer | Data Engineering & AI
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/fszalewicz | Email: fszale@gmail.com| GitHub: github.com/fszale | Consulting: solidcage.com
Macomb, MI | Open to Remote Work
Lead/Principal Software Engineer with 20+ years of experience in data-intensive systems, specializing in ETL pipelines, data lakes/warehouses, reporting platforms, and analytics solutions. Proven record of hands-on software development across cloud ecosystems (Azure, AWS, GCP) while leading and mentoring engineering teams. Architected systems that reduced costs by millions, cut reporting cycles from weeks to hours, and operationalized AI/ML pipelines at scale. Known for high-velocity execution, delivering rapid engineering results, and shipping products at record speeds. Strong balance of technical leadership, solution architecture, and hands-on engineering in regulated industries including healthcare, fintech, and SaaS.
- Generative AI & LLMs – OpenAI, Anthropic, Antigravity, AI Agents
- Data Engineering – ETL/ELT pipelines, batch & streaming ingestion, Airflow, Spark, Data Fusion, Glue, Hadoop, Hive
- Data Warehousing & Lakes – Petabyte-scale data lakes, BigQuery, Redshift, Cosmos DB, SQL Server, PostgreSQL, MongoDB
- Reporting & Analytic – Tableau, Looker, Power BI, semantic layer design, KPI dashboards
- Programming & Frameworks – Python, SQL, Java, C#, Node.js, JavaScript/TypeScript, .NET Core, REST, Pub/Sub
- Cloud & DevOps – : Azure (Functions, Cosmos DB, DevOps), AWS (SageMaker, Lambda, Glue, S3), GCP (BigQuery, Vertex AI), Kubernetes, Docker
- Leadership – Led teams of 5–50 engineers; enforced coding best practices, CI/CD pipelines, architecture reviews
- Healthcare & Compliance – HIPAA, EDI 270/271/835/837, medical imaging (DICOM, SVS), healthcare SaaS systems
Solid Cage Inc – Macomb, MI
Principal Consultant & SaaS Founder | 2009 – Present
- Founded and scaled consultancy delivering 50+ SaaS and data engineering solutions with 95%+ client retention.
- Built vizly.ai, an enterprise GenAI SaaS data product, achieving record time-to-market through rapid prototyping and engineering excellence.
- Architected PathGnos for Mayo Clinic — Azure-based digital pathology archive supporting DICOM/SVS formats, Cosmos DB storage, and CI/CD pipelines. Reduced downtime, enabled 24/7 availability.
- Built and maintained Data Reaktor, a SaaS platform for AI-driven lead intelligence and outreach, integrating n8n, Grok, Gpt4o.
- Designed and deployed websites, web applications, data pipelines, data marts, and reporting dashboards for SMBs and enterprise clients.
- Mentored teams on cloud adoption, ETL best practices, and secure architectures.
Shoptelligence – Ann Arbor, MI
Vice President of Engineering | 2022 – 2025
- Architected 15+ TB data lake & warehouse, cutting analytics retrieval from 3+ weeks to 1 day.
- Built ETL pipelines (Airflow, Spark, Data Fusion, BigQuery) that boosted integration speeds by 75% and supported $1M+ ARR growth.
- Established data quality frameworks and CI/CD standards (GitLab), reducing support tickets by 500%.
- Expanded omni-channel SaaS with recommender systems for personalized retail campaigns.
- Mentored engineers, implemented EOS framework, and drove adoption of modern data-driven architecture.
West Monroe Partners – Chicago, IL | 2021 – 2022
Senior Architect
- Delivered data strategy and warehouse designs for private equity clients.
- Trained consultants in SQL, Python, and data architecture best practices.
Rocket Mortgage (Quicken Loans) – Detroit, MI
Principal Engineer / Team Lead, Data Science | 2017 – 2021
- Architected petabyte-scale data lake & ELT pipelines (AWS Glue, Spark, Cloudera), reducing annual costs by $1M+.
- Led enterprise-wide data fabric & MDM integrations, improving compliance and boosting loan volume by 10%+.
- Operationalized ML platforms on AWS (SageMaker, Lambda, Athena) for fraud detection and risk modeling.
- Mentored 50+ engineers on ETL, Spark, AWS, and CI/CD practices; recognized with “Automate All the Things” award (2020).
360ofme Inc – Royal Oak, MI
CTO / Principal Engineer | 2016 – 2017
- Designed high-volume SaaS platform (Node.js, MongoDB, Postgres, RabbitMQ) for secure personal data management.
- Established CI/CD automation and real-time monitoring across AWS and Heroku environments.
Earlier Roles (1993 – 2016)
- Healthmaster Holdings – Built SaaS medical software for K-12 schools (student health tracking, diagnosis codes) and EDI medical billing systems (837/835/997).
- imX Solutions – Lead developer for patented secure digital payments and authentication platform.
- LogicaCMG & JDM Systems – Enterprise Architect delivering large-scale reporting & integration frameworks for global clients.
- New Wave Software – Built ERP and plant floor reporting systems for steel industry.
Languages & Frameworks: Python, SQL, Java, Node.js, Next.js, TypeScript, JavaScript, C#
Generative AI & LLMs: OpenAI, Anthropic, Antigravity, LLMs, AI Agents
Cloud Platforms: AWS (EC2, Glue, S3, Lambda, SageMaker, Athena, Quicksight), GCP (BigQuery, Data Fusion, Vertex AI, Airflow, Looker, Kubernetes), Azure (Cosmos DB, Web Apps)
Data Technologies: Data Lakes, Data Warehousing, ELT/ETL (Airflow, Data Fusion, Spark), Hadoop, Hive, NoSQL (MongoDB, PostgreSQL, DynamoDB), SQL Server, MySQL
DevOps & Tools: Git, Jenkins, GitLab, Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform, Maven, CircleCI, Azure DevOps, TDD, Agile/Scrum
Analytics & BI: Tableau, Looker Studio, Power BI, semantic layer design
AI/ML: AutoML, H2O, SageMaker, Vertex AI, ML pipelines at scale
Compliance: HIPAA, CCPA, GDPR-aligned data practices
- System, Method, and Apparatus for Conducting Secure Online Monetary Transactions
- Optical Disc Design Patent
- AWS Certified Associate Developer (2018)
- AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate (2018)
- Microsoft Certified Professional: Requirements & Solution Architecture (2000)
- University of Phoenix - Bachelor’s in Information Systems Management (incomplete)
- Oakland Community College - Associate’s in Computer Information Systems
- Ongoing Professional Development - Udemy, acloud.guru (Cloud, ML, Data Engineering)
- Github Profile: https://github.com/fszale
- Published Thoughts : https://medium.com/@filipszalewicz
- YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@Control-The-Outcome
- Consulting Business: https://www.solidcage.com