Balázs Sándor - Software and Data Engineer

Balázs Sándor

Software & Data Engineer

About Me

As a seasoned software and data engineer, I bridge the gap between technical innovation and business value across some industries. From automotive to e-commerce, I've navigated the wide spectrum of technological environments—from legacy systems to cutting-edge cloud architectures. My engineering philosophy centers on creating maintainable, thoughtfully designed solutions that deliver lasting impact.

My expertise spans the entire data lifecycle, transforming raw information into actionable business intelligence through well-architected pipelines and even intuitive dashboards. Beyond technical implementation, I've cultivated leadership skills through building and guiding cross-functional teams toward shared objectives.

With a passion for natural language processing (NLP) that extends into my personal projects, I'm currently immersed in the rapidly evolving AI landscape, tracking emerging trends and exploring innovative architectural and technical approaches. In 2024, my focus has expanded to include generative AI technologies and their practical applications within enterprise environments.

Core technical expertise:

Java Scala Python AWS Apache Spark
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Experience
VF Corporation, BMW, GRUBHUB, Porsche
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Education
Computer Science & Philosophy
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More
Interests & Hobbies

Experience

VF Corporation
Cloud Data Engineer
November 2021 - Present
vfc.com

Working for VFC as a contractor on VF Analytics Platform

Delivering AWS solutions for data pipelines. Building out a data lake in Redshift for brands like The North Face, Vans, Timberland, Dickies, Smartwool, icebreaker. Transforming data into value through dashboards, which can provide as a compass for business decisions.

In 2025 work is happening in both Azure Databricks and on the AWS front. I am focused on data engineering and generative AI.

BMW Group
AWS Data Engineer
April 2021 - October 2021
bmwgroup.com

Working for BMW as a contractor on Cloud Data Hub - Applied Connected Vehicle

BMW Group decided to re-architect and migrate its on-premises data lake to the cloud using Amazon Web Services (AWS) in order to innovate and scale for its global stakeholder demand. The company's Cloud Data Hub (CDH) processes and combines anonymized data from vehicle sensors and other sources across the enterprise to make it simple for internal teams to create customer-facing and internal applications.

AWS Case Study: https://aws.amazon.com/solutions/case-studies/innovators/bmw/

Delivering AWS solutions for data pipelines and exposing data over API-s. Writing Infrastructure as Code with Terraform, building API-s & ETL-s with Python, Scala & Apache Spark. Heavily using a set of the AWS resources: Lambda, Gateway, Athena, Glue, Step Functions / State Machines, DynamoDB, S3, CodePipeline, CodeBuild and more.

GRUBHUB
Senior Software Engineer
September 2017 - April 2021
grubhub.com

Worked for the biggest online food ordering company from the US as team augmentation and using microservices with Java 8 and data processing with Scala and Python together with Apache Spark)

Technologies, tools: Java 8, Scala, Python, Apache Spark, Amazon EMR, Amazon S3, Amazon SQS, Amazon Lambda, AWS Glue, AWS Athena, IntelliJ, Spinnaker, Jenkins, Git, Gradle, Splunk, Datadog, Guice, Guava, Lombok, Braze (AppBoy)

Built microservices, jobs and tools:

  • Braze API Monitor - Lambda running on a schedule reporting to Datadog the number of remaining requests in an hour to Braze.
  • Prospects - Microservice for managing prospect diners.
  • Codes Cache - Caching solutions for storing big amounts of promotional codes. Tech: Java 8, Spring, AWS SQS
  • Diner Loyalty - Migrate & transform data from an acquired food ordering company and bring it into our data lake (Scala, Apache Spark) - ETLs, batch processing
  • Recommendations Engine
    • Implement batch processing jobs with Apache Spark and Scala
    • Batch jobs run on Amazon EMR, data is stored on Amazon S3
    • Data modeling in Cassandra
    • REST web service implementation

Involved in growing the Java & Scala team with additional team lead responsibilities.

MHP - A Porsche Company
Consultant (Java)
September 2014 - August 2017
mhp.com
Technologies, tools: Java 7, JAX-RS, REST Web Services, Apache Tomcat, SOAP Web Services, Struts, JSP, DB2, MySQL, LDAP, Unix, Ant, Maven, Gradle, Splunk, Nagios, ITSM Remedy, JIRA, Confluence, Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), SAML 2.0, SSO, Tortoise SVN, Eclipse, Windows

Client: Porsche AG

  • Implement new features for web applications
  • Implement web services, including internal SSO service with SAML 2.0
  • Fix bugs in legacy code
  • Migrate web services from SOAP to REST
  • Review the code of colleagues
  • Assist Service Providers to integrate their application to SAML 2.0
  • Train new colleagues on the project (Ludwigsburg, DE and Cluj, RO)
  • Write system specifications and documentations
  • Manage deployments/releases of pieces of software
  • Navigate and work with UNIX servers in our own infrastructure

Client: Heinrich Schmid GmbH

  • Implement SAP middle tier SOAP web services
  • Write system specifications and documentations
msg systems ag
Java Trainee
July 2014 - August 2014
msg.group

Java Training on AWT, Swing, JCF, JDBC, Hibernate, Java Servlet API, JSP, Ant, Maven, JavaEE, EJB, JPA, JPQL, AOP with AspectJ, Glassfish, WSDL, SOAP, JAX-WS, JUnit, Mockito, JSF

evoline (Accenture)
.NET Trainee
July 2013 - September 2013
accenture.com

Research & Development on Automatic UI Testing & Continuous Integration

Technologies, tools: Selenium, C#, NUnit, Jenkins, TFS

Put in practice the possibilities offered by Selenium on automated GUI testing.

Education

Babeș-Bolyai University
BSc Computer Science
2011 - 2014
Thesis: SplitBill - Application for Tracking Everyday Expenses By Taking Pictures of Receipts

Mobile app with REST API in backend.

Tech: Java, Spring Boot, MySQL, Apache Tomcat, Hibernate ORM, Tesseract OCR, Maven, Gradle, Swagger, Android, Retrofit 2
Competition

We've participated in Microsoft Imagine Cup - Games Competition in 2013 with "Team Impact" with a 3D game implemented in C# with XNA.

Fields of study
  • Computer science fundamentals (Fundamentals of Programming, Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science, Algorithms and Data Structures, Object-Oriented Programming, Advanced Programming Methods, Functional and Logic Programming, Algorithms of Graph Theory, Formal Languages and Compiler Design)
  • Fundamentals of mathematics (Mathematical Analysis, Algebra, Geometry, Probability Theory and Statistics, Numerical Calculus, Dynamical Systems)
  • Software engineering (Software Engineering, Team and Individual Project, Software Verification and Validation, Human-Computer Interaction, Mobile Systems, CASE Tools, Design Patterns)
  • Data modeling and processing (Databases, Transaction Management and Distributed Databases, Spatial Databases)
  • Computer systems and architectures (Computer System Architecture, Operating systems, Distributed Operating Systems, Computer Networks)
  • Artificial intelligence (AI, Intelligent Robots, Evolutionary Algorithms, Automated Theorem Proving)
  • Programming technologies (Programming Systems and Environments, Web Programming)
  • Interdisciplinarity (Multimedia, Image processing, Modeling and simulation)
Babeș-Bolyai University
BSc Philosophy
2008 - 2011
Thesis: "Human Relations Mediated By Technology"

Based on a rich English bibliography on theoretical projections of technology.

Fields of study
  • Research Methods and Text Production
  • Semiology - Theories of Sign and Interpretation
  • Aesthetics, Contemporary Theories of Art
  • Ethics, Applied Ethics
  • Theory of Argumentation
  • Symbolic Logic - Propositional Logic, Symbolic Logic - Predicate Logic
  • Political Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion
  • Philosophical Hermeneutics
  • Ontology, Theory of Knowledge, Metaphysics
Bolyai Farkas Theoretical High School
Baccalaureate - Mathematics & Intensive Informatics
2004 - 2008

I have attended several competitions in computer science and mathematics.

A Little More About Me

Alongside my interests in software engineering some of my other interests and hobbies are:

  • Scuba diving, skiing, trail running, kayaking/rafting, swimming
  • Guitar playing
  • Philosophy, sociology