Chris Waddell

Director of Cloud and Data Engineering

Clear direction.
Better systems.

I’m Chris. I lead cloud and data engineering, bring clarity to technical decisions, and build systems that make the business work better.

Cloud, data, and teams moving toward delivery Three orange paths connect cloud infrastructure, data engineering, and teams into one shared direction: delivery. 01 / CLOUD 02 / DATA 03 / TEAMS DELIVERY
Different disciplines. One direction.
Technical depth. Business perspective.A few things I’ve made better

01 / Selected work

Less friction.
More forward motion.

Good engineering changes what a business can do. Here’s what that has looked like in my work.

DATA ENGINEERING / MODERNIZATIONCASE 01

From ten hours
to a few minutes.

I led a rebuild of core ETL pipelines, replacing complex, scheduled AWS Glue jobs with simpler, event-driven Lambda transforms.

The result: faster processing, lower costs, and integrations that could ship in weeks.

80%

lower processing costs

From up to 10h to 3m

pipeline processing time

2 weeks

to deploy new integrations, down from 10 months

Inside the rebuild

The challenge

Long-running jobs and overlapping schedules left data unprocessed. Unnecessary steps increased cost and made changes difficult.

The decision

Use event-driven, serverless transforms for relatively simple processing. Make schema changes and new integrations configuration-driven.

Why it mattered

The system became simpler to operate and easier to extend. Processing that took up to ten hours finished in a couple of minutes.

INDEPENDENT PRODUCT / APPLIED AICASE 02

MarketMoodz

A personal question.
A production platform.

I wanted a better way to make sense of the information behind my investment decisions. So I built one.

MarketMoodz brings news, social signals, and market data into AI-powered analysis. I own the product, architecture, data pipelines, automation, and day-to-day operation.

Explore MarketMoodz (opens in a new tab)
FROM SIGNAL TO INSIGHT
  1. 01
    Collect the signals

    News · Social · Market data

  2. 02
    Make sense of the data

    Standardize · Analyze · Summarize

  3. 03
    Bring the context together

    Stock insights · Morning briefings

Built and operated end to end
Why I built it

I’ve always been interested in investing. I passed the Series 65 exam, but chose to stay in engineering. MarketMoodz gave me a way to combine that interest with a practical question: what does it take to run an AI pipeline as a real product?

That means working through the whole system, from data ingestion and analysis to delivery, user experience, and ongoing improvement.

02 / The person behind the systems

A wider lens.
A hands-on approach.

I’m a Director of Cloud and Data Engineering who likes understanding how the whole thing works.

My background spans infrastructure, software delivery, data platforms, and business systems. That breadth helps me connect decisions that are often made in separate rooms.

I work with technical teams and business leaders to set priorities, resolve tradeoffs, and keep delivery moving. I’m just as interested in why someone approaches a problem a certain way as I am in the solution.

CURRENT ROLEDirector of Cloud and Data Engineering
01

Cloud & data platforms

AWS architecture, data pipelines, observability, and operational reliability. Systems designed to be understood and maintained.

02

Teams & technical direction

Priorities, delivery planning, and decisions that connect engineering work to business needs. Clear ownership across teams.

03

The wider technical picture

Business systems, internal IT, and security and compliance, including SOC 2 efforts. The work around the platform matters too.

03 / How I lead

Make the work clear.
Give people room.

Teams need a shared direction and the context to make good decisions. My job is to help create both.

01

Start with the why.

Understand the business problem before choosing the technology. Make the tradeoffs visible.

02

Keep it understandable.

Build systems people can operate, change, and take ownership of. Complexity should earn its place.

03

Stay close to the work.

Give people autonomy and be available when they need technical depth, a decision, or a second perspective.

04 / Keep the conversation going

Good work starts
with a conversation.

Cloud and data platforms, engineering leadership, or something you’re building. I’d enjoy comparing notes.

Connect on LinkedIn (opens in a new tab)