Professional Journey

From mechatronics engineering to senior data platform architecture - a decade of building, learning, and leading

7+
Years Experience
15
Positions Held
2
Startups Founded
3
Qualifications
Current Role
Senior Data Engineer
Foxway GroupJune 2025 - Present (7 months)

Lead Kubernetes migration for ClickHouse and related services while co-architecting and building a group-wide Databricks lakehouse with platform best practices and tooling. Migrated 6 services to Kubernetes, reduced recovery time and improved p95 latency. Stood up Databricks platform, onboarding domains with daily freshness. Skills: Kubernetes, ClickHouse, Databricks (Delta), Terraform, Git, CI/CD, dbt, Mage, Glue/lineage, Helm/GitOps, observability, AWS, Azure DevOps.

Currently Active
Education
Master of Science in Engineering, Data Science
University of Tartu
September 2020 - June 2023
Mechatronics, Robotics, and Automation Engineering
Estonian University of Life Sciences
2015 - 2020
Vocational, Databases and Software Management
Tartu Vocational College
September 2008 - January 2012
1 MSc + 2 Diplomas
Certifications
IT Specialist I
Mechatronics Engineer level 6
ASSOCIATE - Mechanical Design
Certified Kubernetes Application Developer (CKAD) - In progress
Complete Career Timeline
Professional journey through the years

Data Engineer

Foxway Recommerce
January 2024 - June 2025 (1 year 6 months)

Executed architect-defined lakehouse components; designed/refined CI/CD for IaC and data transformations; automated platform delivery and modernized legacy systems. Implemented Glue Catalog onboarding and schema-change tracking; automated dbt docs. Built event-driven pipelines (DMS → dbt with SNS) with idempotent retries and DLQs. Containerized loaders and set up ECR/ECS/IAM via Terraform with approval-gated Azure DevOps pipelines. Migrated Lambda flows from Redshift to ClickHouse, improving query performance and reducing run cost.

Lecturer

TalTech – Tallinn University of Technology
June 2023 - February 2025 (1 year 9 months)

Taught courses on Programming, Algorithms & Data Structures, and Digital Logic - the pillars of Computer Science. Specialized in C++ and Python programming, algorithm design and implementation, and digital circuit fundamentals from boolean algebra to modern computing systems.

Visiting Lecturer

TalTech – Tallinn University of Technology
January 2023 - June 2023 (6 months)

Introductory lecturer role teaching foundational computer science concepts.

Junior Data Engineer

Creditstar Group
October 2023 - January 2024

Improved stability of ETL processes, automated report generation, and created a web application for real-time reporting. Optimized Airflow configurations and improved EMR data migration pipelines.

Private Tutor

Freelance
January 2021 - January 2024

Provided private tutoring in mathematics and physics for middle school, high school, and introductory higher education students. Helped over 30 students with exam preparation and curriculum support.

Founder

Pixie
August 2022 - June 2023

Founded a startup focused on sustainable houseplant care solutions.

Full Stack Developer

Pipedrive
June 2022 - June 2023 (1 year 1 month)

Software developer for payments and billing, support engineering, launchpad lead. Part of Industrial Master's Programme in IT by University of Tartu. Data Science Masters' thesis on Graph neural network based deep learning model for RDF knowledge graph materialization.

Founder

akvalabs
April 2019 - August 2020

Designed an MVP for an automated year-round greenhouse as part of the Mechatronics Engineering thesis. Participated in multiple startup competitions.

Electromechanical Technician

Sprayprinter (now Robot Muralist)
January 2018 - August 2018

Assembled, tested, upgraded, and maintained wall-painting robots. Collaborated with engineers to test and upgrade new features.

Engineering Technologist

HANZA Group
September 2017 - October 2017

Completed a Mechatronics engineering internship, edited and created assembly instructions, and conducted testing in a laboratory setting.

Software Development Intern

University of Tartu
July 2011 - December 2011

Worked on software development using Adobe Flash, PHP, and JavaScript. Took on additional tasks such as camera operation, customer service, and visual design.

Database Management Specialist Intern

Tartu Public Library
February 2011 - May 2011

Provided IT and customer support, managed databases, and assisted in system updates.

IT Specialist

Johannes Mihkelsoni Keskus, MTÜ
January 2010 - December 2010

Handled website development, server management, and updates.

Infrastructure Development Intern

Leenet OÜ
February 2010 - August 2010

Developed an automated system for database backup and logging.