Data Engineer & Automation Specialist

John Matthew
Fonacier

I build data infrastructure and automation: leveraging Azure, Databricks & MS Fabric for scalable data solutions, alongside n8n & Power Automate to streamline workflows using AI Agents.

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🏅 10× Microsoft Certified 🏅 10× Databricks Certified 🏅 5× Other Certifications

Background

Data engineer specializing in building and scaling modern data platforms across Azure and AWS. Core expertise spans end-to-end pipeline development, lakehouse and medallion architecture, and data quality tooling for large enterprise environments. Experienced leading cross-functional engineering teams in Scrum environments.

Currently consulting independently, focused on Microsoft Fabric architecture, Databricks-based data platforms, and AI automation using tools like n8n, Power Automate, and Zapier.

Focus Areas

🏗️
Data Architecture & Lakehouse Design

Medallion architecture design, Microsoft Fabric implementation, Databricks lakehouse buildouts, and data modeling for enterprise platforms.

⚙️
Data Pipeline Engineering

End-to-end ETL/ELT pipeline development using Azure Data Factory, Databricks, Microsoft Fabric Pipelines, and Apache Airflow across multi-cloud environments.

🤖
AI & Workflow Automation

Process automation using n8n, Zapier, and Power Automate. AI-powered extraction, classification, and integration workflows that eliminate manual data entry.

🔍
Data Quality & Observability

Configurable data quality frameworks covering accuracy, completeness, consistency, freshness, validity, and uniqueness — with alerting and dashboards.

📊
Analytics & Reporting

Power BI dashboard development, semantic model design, and self-serve analytics infrastructure for operational and executive reporting.

☁️
Cloud & DevOps Consulting

Infrastructure-as-code with Terraform, CI/CD pipeline setup, cloud cost monitoring, and cloud migration support across Azure and AWS.

Experience

Data Engineering & AI Automation IT Consulting Oct 2024 – Present
Data Engineering Manager → Senior Data Engineer Procter & Gamble Sep 2020 – Oct 2024
Senior Data Engineer
Jan 2023 – Oct 2024
  • Automated master data generation in Databricks with user approval workflows, improving data freshness and completeness to <1 day lag.
  • Automated merchandiser allocation across product and store hierarchies in Databricks, with Salesforce integration for mobile visibility.
  • Developed a configurable API Integrations tool in Databricks connecting to external partner APIs.
Technical Project Manager & Data Engineer
Oct 2021 – Dec 2022
  • Implemented Scrum across development teams, increasing velocity by up to 30% and reducing duplicate work.
  • Led development of a configurable Data Quality Tool in Databricks and Power BI, scaled to support over 200 data sources with email alerting via Logic Apps.
  • Built a documentation-as-code API Wrapper for Azure DevOps Wiki and Alation Data Catalog.
Data Engineer
Sep 2020 – Sep 2021
  • Led data pipeline development for APAC, Middle East, and Africa across Retail Executions and Supply Chain domains.
  • Automated file transfers (JSON, Excel, CSV) from SFTP and APIs to SharePoint and ADLSv2 via Power Automate, with quality checks and archiving.
  • Implemented Alation Data Catalog across Databricks workspaces, SQL Servers, and storage accounts — accelerating use case delivery and knowledge documentation.
Cloud Engineer Stratpoint Technologies Dec 2019 – Aug 2020
  • Part of the Cloud Center of Excellence (CCoE); onboarded teams to DevOps processes and supported cloud operations across internal and external partners.
  • Developed backend of an AWS Cloud Cost Monitoring tool using AWS SDK for JavaScript; deployed high-availability environment using EKS.
  • Implemented centralized logging using CloudWatch, CloudWatch Agent, and Papertrail; built CI/CD pipeline using GitLab.
Cyber Security Analyst SGV & Co. Jun 2019 – Sep 2019
  • Conducted passive reconnaissance and penetration testing on static and dynamic web applications.
  • Set up a local SFTP server for penetration test extracts; automated data processing (flattening, joining, cleaning) using pandas.
Software Developer & System Administrator Integrated Open Source Solutions Jan 2019 – Apr 2019
  • Supported day-to-day infrastructure operations; provisioned dev environments and monitored system performance.
  • Built automated scheduling and invoicing workflows integrating Calendly, Power Automate, Outlook, and Twilio for SMS notifications.

Work Log

Marketing Automation & Fabric–HubSpot Integration
2025–Present

Automated a marketing workflow using Power Automate and Zapier for file movement, archiving, and SharePoint backups. Built a Microsoft Fabric–to–HubSpot integration across dev/test/prod workspaces with medallion architecture, Power BI reporting, and n8n-driven LLM writebacks for intelligent field selection.

Power Automate Zapier n8n Microsoft Fabric HubSpot LLM Automation Power BI
n8n Business Hours & Holiday Routing System
2025

Built an n8n workflow that handles business-hours and holiday scheduling logic, automatically moving deferred events to the next valid business day while preserving the original time-of-day — accounting for real-world edge cases rather than naive date arithmetic.

n8n Workflow Automation Scheduling Logic Business Hours Holiday Routing
Shared Mailbox to Calendar Automation
2025

Investigated and resolved Microsoft 365 platform constraints around shared mailbox calendar invites not surfacing in personal calendars. Designed a Power Automate-based routing solution and documented the admin-level configuration requirements for reliable automation.

Power Automate Microsoft 365 Outlook Shared Mailbox Calendar Automation
Multi-Client Fabric Data Platform
2024–Present

Architected medallion data architectures in Microsoft Fabric (bronze/silver/gold) for clients across multiple industries. Designed a centralized metadata framework on Azure SQL Database for automated data lineage, unified documentation, and pipeline governance. Delivered coordinated implementations across distributed, cross-functional teams.

Microsoft Fabric Azure SQL Medallion Architecture Data Governance Data Lineage
Data Quality & Unit Testing Framework — Fabric Pipelines
2024–Present

Developed reusable data-quality validation and unit-testing modules for micro-batch pipelines in Microsoft Fabric, embedding in-flight checks across accuracy, completeness, and consistency dimensions to reduce issues before they reach downstream consumers.

Microsoft Fabric Data Quality Unit Testing Micro-batch Pipelines
Multi-Platform Data Integrations into Microsoft Fabric
2024–Present

Integrated third-party platforms — Xero, ShiftCare, Splose, Employment Hero, and Gensolve — into Microsoft Fabric using Lakehouse, Notebooks, and Data Pipelines, consolidating data into a unified medallion architecture for a services client.

Microsoft Fabric Lakehouse Xero ShiftCare Gensolve API Integration
HubSpot CRM Data Intelligence System
2024–Present

Designed and built a system to extract and operationalize HubSpot CRM data beyond what the UI easily exposes — including property history, deal/contact/company activity, notes via the Engagements API, call metadata, and a workflow-based workaround to capture AI-generated call summaries (Breeze) that have no direct public API endpoint.

HubSpot API Python Pandas n8n CRM Automation Engagements API
End-to-End Field Operations Workflow Automation
2024

Built a fully automated operations workflow for a field services client covering lead capture, crew scheduling, inspection data entry, quoting, and invoicing — replacing a 21-step manual paper-based process using Microsoft Forms, Power Automate, OneNote, Excel, and Azure Storage.

Power Automate Microsoft Forms OneNote Azure Storage Excel Process Automation
AI-Powered CRM Data Entry Automation
2024

Built an AI system for a professional services firm that automatically extracts key metrics from enquiry forms and conversation transcripts, then populates CRM properties without human intervention — enabling sophisticated tracking and detailed client reporting.

AI Automation HubSpot NLP Workflow Automation
Enterprise Data Integration Pipelines — APAC & EMEA
2020–2024

Designed and maintained multi-region data integration pipelines for a consumer goods enterprise, ingesting from SFTP, SharePoint, APIs, and ADLSv2 into a Medallion / Lakehouse architecture.

Azure Data Factory Databricks Logic Apps ADLSv2 Airflow Azure SQL Medallion Architecture
Text Classification Model
2019–2020

Built a text classification pipeline that ingests tweets directed at government accounts, processes the text, and classifies them into two categories using Naïve Bayes, SVM, and KNN models.

Python pandas scikit-learn NLP Bag-of-Words TweetScraper
Air Conditioning Automation System
2018–2019

IoT system that automates air conditioner operation using schedules pulled from a campus information system, with an Android interface and REST API backend.

Raspberry Pi Python CodeIgniter Android MariaDB REST API
Soil Attribute Tester
2017–2018

Hardware and mobile application that tests soil sample attributes and recommends cultivatable plants based on measured values.

Arduino Android MariaDB
Student Attendance Automation
2016–2017

Automated student attendance checking using ESP8266 microcontrollers with an Android companion app for real-time logging.

ESP8266 Android MariaDB IoT

Skills & Tools

Data Engineering
ETL / ELT Pipeline Design
PySpark
SQL
Data Modelling
Data Warehousing
Medallion Architecture
Apache Airflow
Microsoft Fabric & Azure
Microsoft Fabric (Notebooks, Pipelines, DWH, Lakehouse, SQL DB, Dataflow Gen2)
Azure Data Factory
Azure Synapse
Azure Data Lake Storage
Azure SQL Database
Azure Logic Apps
Event Grid
Databricks & Analytics
Databricks (Workflows, Delta Lake, Unity Catalog)
Power BI
Alation Data Catalog
Data Quality Frameworks
Data Observability
AI & Automation
n8n
Zapier
Power Automate
AI Workflow Design
NLP / Text Classification
Generative AI Integration
Cloud & DevOps
Azure
AWS (EKS, CloudWatch, SDK)
GCP
Terraform (IaC)
CI/CD (GitHub, Azure DevOps)
Docker / Kubernetes
Languages & Frameworks
Python
SQL
JavaScript / Node.js
Bash / Shell
REST API Design
API Integrations
Salesforce
HubSpot
Xero
ShiftCare
Splose
Employment Hero
Gensolve
Profisee
FluentCRM
ConnectSecure
Halo
SentinelOne
NCentral

Certifications

Microsoft
Fabric Data Engineer Associate (DP-700)
Issued Nov 2025
Azure AI Engineer Associate (AI-102)
Issued Nov 2024
Security, Compliance, and Identity Fundamentals (SC-900)
Issued Oct 2024
Fabric Analytics Engineer Associate (DP-600)
Issued Jul 2024
Power BI Data Analyst Associate (PL-300)
Issued Jul 2024
Azure Data Engineer Associate (DP-203)
Issued Jul 2024
Power Platform Fundamentals (PL-900)
Issued Mar 2021
Azure AI Fundamentals (AI-900)
Issued Oct 2020
Azure Data Fundamentals (DP-900)
Issued Oct 2020
Azure Fundamentals (AZ-900)
Issued Apr 2020
Databricks
Certified Generative AI Engineer Associate
Issued Oct 2025
Certified Data Engineer Professional
Issued Jun 2024
Certified Data Engineer Associate
Issued Jun 2024
Certified Associate Developer
Issued Jun 2024
Azure Platform Architect
Issued Jun 2024
AWS Platform Architect
Issued Jun 2024
GCP Platform Architect
Issued Jun 2024
Generative AI Fundamentals
Issued Sep 2023
Lakehouse Platform Fundamentals
Issued Sep 2023
Platform Administrator
Issued Sep 2023
SQL Analyst Associate
Issued Apr 2022
Others
Site Reliability Engineering Foundation — DevOps Institute
Issued Mar 2022
DevOps Foundations Certification — DevOps Institute
Issued Mar 2022
Professional Scrum Master 1 (PSM1) — Scrum.org
Issued Jul 2021
Terraform Associate (HCTA0-002) — HashiCorp
Issued Aug 2020
AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (CLF-C01)
Issued Jan 2020

Academic Background

🎓
National University — Asia Pacific College (NU-APC)
Bachelor of Science, Computer Science
2016 – 2019
Cum Laude · 3.41 GPA · Best Project Award

Let's Connect

Feel free to reach out — whether it's about a project, a question, or just to connect.