Christopher Fort

AWS Data Engineer with 15+ years of experience across data engineering, databases, data analysis and software development, including five years in dedicated Data Engineering roles. Hands-on experience designing and optimising scalable AWS data pipelines and ETL/ELT processes using AWS Glue, Python, PySpark, SQL, Amazon S3 and Athena. Experienced in distributed processing and the ingestion and transformation of large volumes of structured and semi-structured data.

Skilled in building reliable, scalable data workflows, optimising Spark performance, and implementing data-quality, validation and reconciliation controls across S3-based data lake and lakehouse architectures. Comfortable working collaboratively in Agile environments, with experience of Azure DevOps, Git, code review and deployment processes. Currently working towards AWS Certified Data Engineer certification.

DATA ENGINEER at FFT Education (2021-10 – 2026-07)

• Designed, developed and maintained production ETL/ELT pipelines using AWS Glue and PySpark, processing 1bn+ attendance records weekly for 9,000+ schools.
• Led the expansion of the data engineering platform from 30–40 to 150+ Glue jobs/scripts across multiple workflows, supporting rapidly increasing data volumes and evolving business requirements.
• Optimised Spark-based pipelines through code review, Spark UI, performance analysis and targeted changes to partitioning, caching/persistence, broadcast joins and predicate/projection pushdown, reducing workflow runtime by 15–20% and eliminating recurring process failures.
• Introduced automated Spark SQL data-quality and QA workflows to validate pipeline integrity and production outputs, identifying issues in third-party source data including UUID mismatches across slowly evolving datasets.
• Developed PySpark solutions using boto3, AWS Wrangler and Pandas, supporting data integration, S3 I/O and data-processing requirements across the platform.
• Supported application and data teams with PostgreSQL and SQL Server development, including stored procedures, database functions and curated Athena/SQL Server analytical datasets for analysts and downstream reporting.
• Worked within Azure DevOps for source control, pull requests, deployment processes, database schema versioning using EF Core, and Agile software development. Provided code review and technical support to a junior Data Engineer.

DATA MANAGER at National Foundation for Educational Research (2019-01 – 2021-09)

• Developed and maintained the company's flagship education data analysis platform using VB.NET, ASP.NET, HTML and CSS, providing full-stack development across the application.
• Administered and optimised SQL Server databases across development and production environments, including database migrations and management of education and client datasets.
• Developed bespoke SQL queries and reports against sensitive pupil-level datasets, maintaining strict data security and integrity controls.
• Led the company's successful Cyber Essentials accreditation, developing security policies and supporting alignment with ISO 27001 requirements.

DATA AND IT SYSTEMS MANAGER at Learning Plus Data UK (2013-09 – 2018-12)

• Developed and maintained the company's flagship education data analysis platform using VB.NET, ASP.NET, HTML and CSS, providing full-stack development across the application.
• Administered and optimised SQL Server databases across development and production environments, including database migrations and management of education and client datasets.
• Developed bespoke SQL queries and reports against sensitive pupil-level datasets, maintaining strict data security and integrity controls.
• Led the company's successful Cyber Essentials accreditation, developing security policies and supporting alignment with ISO 27001 requirements.

SCHEME DATA ANALYST at Capita Employee Benefits (2011-01 – 2013-09)

• Migrated private pension scheme data to in-house administration platforms, developing bespoke SQL queries for data mapping and transformation using SQL Server and MS Access.
• Conducted data audits, validation and QA checks, including control totals, to ensure integrity throughout multi-stage migration processes.
• Produced handover documentation and provided post-conversion support to administration teams and clients.

MA in Western Esotericism – University of Exeter (2008 – 2010)

BA in Philosophy – University of Hertfordshire (2002 – 2006)