~/cjfravel.dev
scala · utf-8 · ● live
cj@fravel:~ $ whoami

$ CJ Fravel

trait DataEngineer extends Engineer with Pragmatist
problems.flatMap(decompose).map(build).filter(_.ships)

Data engineer focused on big data pipelines on Spark and Azure. Big proponent of agile, CI/CD, testing, and clean code — with a web/backend background from a previous life.

open to interesting problems based in the PNW spark · azure · scala
~/experience.log
tail -f · 3 entries

// experience — git log --oneline

Microsoft / Senior Software Engineer
Aug 2021 — Present

Build and operate a data platform at Microsoft — a contract-driven Spark/Synapse system processing 2+ TB/month of financial data representing $110B in revenue across multiple orgs. Drove the original migration off a legacy U-SQL stack: ~8× E2E speedup at 1/5 the cost.

Proposed and now own the declarative data contract system — the foundation of the platform's configuration-driven approach. Contracts define schemas, validation, and governance and generate pipeline orchestration, so teams ship data behavior without touching platform code. They've become a key surface for cross-team communication and a foundational piece of the platform's AI story. Mandatory reviewer for contract changes; coordinate cross-team rollouts and downstream impact analysis.

Ongoing focus on reliability and DX: faster local Spark workflows, SLA / quarantine / alerting, and self-service onboarding for new entities and teams.

Also helped move an existing big-data platform from the commercial cloud to a secure federal environment.

Applied Information Sciences / Software Engineer
May 2019 — Aug 2021

Lead developer on a Microsoft-funded POC for the Air Force Test Center, demonstrating how Azure Storage, Data Lake, Data Factory, and Jupyter notebooks streamline analytics across traditionally siloed test-wing data.

Technical team lead for a Data Integration Platform: secure cloud ingest, automated processing pipelines, and Power BI visualization.

Pixel LLC / Developer
May 2017 — May 2019

Software consulting in web and mobile technologies.

~/open-source/
1 repo · git: clean

// open source — things I build in the open

cjfravel-dev / ariadne Scala

A Spark utility for generating indexes in a data lake to reduce the amount of data included when joining across massive datasets. Useful when data is poorly partitioned (or not at all) and cannot be moved, or when duplication is too costly.

~/ai_workflow.md
cat · markdown

// working with AI — AI-first, expertise-led

I'm an AI-first engineer. Agents do real work on my projects — but the direction, the architecture, and the judgment calls are mine. The leverage comes from knowing how things work: I bring the experience and the vision, AI helps me implement it at a pace I couldn't hit alone.

  • Vision → implementation — I design the system; agents execute the well-scoped pieces
  • Design partner — sketch tradeoffs and pressure-test architecture before I commit
  • Codebase navigation — spelunking unfamiliar repos, mapping data flows fast
  • Docs & tests — first drafts I refine, with the bar set by what actually ships

// guardrails: review every diff, keep secrets out of prompts, sandbox before prod, and stay fluent enough to catch when the agent is confidently wrong.

~/education.yaml
yaml · read-only

// education & certifications

Wright State University / Bachelor's in Computer Science
Dayton, OH

Learned to effectively and efficiently develop software, analyze programs, and apply familiarity with real-world packages and tooling.

CompTIA Security+ · Jun 2019 — Jun 2022
Microsoft Certified: Azure Data Engineer Associate · Mar 2021 — Mar 2023