---
author: ~tym
title: TYM CV
created: 2012-04-20
last_revision: 2022-01-16
---

# Thomas Yager-Madden

<https://yager-madden.com>

## Summary

20-plus-year veteran database administrator and data architect with a proven track record building data platform and business intelligence practices across a variety of industries. Strong open source contributor, maintainer, and advocate, with highly developed skills in PostgreSQL and Python. Accomplished ELT/ETL engineer with a deep background in data modeling and API integration.

## Experience

**BenchPrep**, Chicago, IL  
_Data Architect_ (October 2018 - Present)

- Solo database administrator, managing multiple highly-available PostgreSQL application databases averaging 4000 transactions per second (TPS) serving a 24x7 multi-tenant application with 9 million total users (50k active daily)
- Set up active-active database replication using Postgres-BDR and took system through multiple rounds of system upgrades with minimal downtime
- In first year, improved overall mean query time from 12ms to 4ms, effectively improving overall throughput threefold
- Managing a team of data analysts and engineers building the company's first data warehouse on Snowflake database, ELT/ETL pipelines using Fivetran and dbt, and reporting dashboards in Sisense and Tableau
- Designing data mart models for the Snowflake warehouse to meet reporting requirements

**OAO**, Chicago, IL  
_Data Architect_ (2015 - 2018)

- Migrated legacy databases from MySQL 5.1 at Rackspace to PostgreSQL on Google Cloud SQL
- Designed and built corporate information factory using BigQuery and Postgres
- Developed ETL processes and orchestration (Python Luigi) for populating data warehouse from Google Ad Manager and other external APIs
- Developed open-source microservice [Nerium](https://github.com/nerium-data/nerium) for delivering analytic query results as JSON endpoints
- In final year (2017 - 2018) was given management of all software engineers (a five-person team) and enterprise application architecture

**OptionsHouse**, Chicago, IL  
_Senior Database Administrator_ (2012 - 2015)

- Administered several highly-available, doubly-redundant (failover and off-site) PostgreSQL databases handling 15,000+ TPS during market hours


**Leapfrog Online**, Evanston, IL  
_Enterprise Data Architect_ (2006 - 2012)

- Newly-designed SSAS data cube allowed media buyers to save $2.5 million (a 20% reduction) in ad spend in a single year, while improving conversion rates and increasing revenue.


**Solucient**, Evanston, IL/Bellevue, WA  
_Business Intelligence Engineer and Data Modeler_ (1997 - 2006)

- Data modeling lead for UB-04 hospital inpatient repository on Oracle database, still in production use 15 years later

## Education

**St. John's College**, Annapolis, MD  
_Bachelor of Liberal Arts_, 1991