Christopher Oakley-Smith
Staff Engineer - Data Platform @Atom Learning
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WORK HISTORY
Staff Engineer - Data Platform @Atom Learning
Hired as one of the first Data Engineers, and led the implementation on a complete overhaul of Atom’s data stack, from MySQL to a modern cloud-native solution utilising Google BigQuery, dbt and Airflow.Led the data function within the business- Advocated for the role of analytics and data-powered features with stakeholders- Grew the team from just myself to a team of four, taking on line-management responsibilities. Kept the data stack consistent and reliable as the team and business scaled- Built components in a modular way so code and components could be reused instead of rewritten- Defined best practices, delivered training, and contributed to code reviews- Created testing and alerting frameworks, alongside an on-call runbook so that operational knowledge became spread around the team instead of becoming siloed.Evolved into a backend/data hybrid role owning the architecture and development of Atom’s data platform, including- Front and Back-end event streaming and change-data-capture pipelines, managed via Terraform to sync with our weekly release process into Production and Pre-Production environments- This enabled the business to power applications and services with real-time, production-grade data as we scaled, creating personalised and responsive application experiences
EDUCATION
Lochaber High School
Standard Grades
Edinburgh Napier University
Bachelor's Degree, Multimedia and Interactive Systems
UHI
HNC, Computing
ABOUT CHRISTOPHER OAKLEY-SMITH
l’m a well-rounded engineer with a background in data engineering and a focus on backend and platform work.I began my career in product analytics, developing strong product sense and collaborating closely with stakeholders to understand and solve business problems with data. This experience gave me a deep appreciation for how data informs decision-making and drives product outcomes, and honed my ability to translate business questions into actionable technical solutions.Over time, my focus has evolved beyond analytics into backend and data platform engineering. I design and build end-to-end systems and infrastructure that make data accessible, reliable, and reusable across applications and services. By thinking about how data is used beyond reporting, I help teams deliver scalable, data-powered products and features, turning data into a foundation for real-world impact across the business.
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