Joshua Tolbert

About Joshua Tolbert

I am a seasoned Data Engineering leader with two decades of experience architecting, building, and optimizing large-scale data platforms. My work spans on-premise databases, big data systems, and modern cloud-native architectures across AWS, GCP, and Azure.Over the years, I have led data engineering initiatives for enterprises and high-growth organizations, delivering pipelines and platforms that power analytics, AI/ML, compliance, and business-critical decision-making.My expertise includes:• Enterprise data architecture, data modeling, and governance• Designing and scaling ETL/ELT pipelines across petabyte-scale systems• Distributed processing (Apache Spark, Hadoop, Kafka)• Workflow orchestration (Airflow, dbt, Luigi)• Cloud platforms: AWS (S3, Glue, Redshift, EMR), GCP (BigQuery, Dataflow, Pub/Sub), Azure Synapse• Data Warehousing: Snowflake, Redshift, BigQuery• Programming: Python (Pandas, PySpark), SQL, Scala, JavaI am passionate about building high-performing data teams, defining best practices for data reliability and security, and enabling organizations to unlock the full value of their data assets.

Experience

1. Data Engineer - Data Architect

   IBM

   Mar 2016 — Present

   Spearheaded the design of a multi-cloud data platform that supports billions of daily events, improving analytics speed and reliability for enterprise decision-making.Trimmed annual infrastructure spend by 30% by consolidating legacy ETL jobs into Spark and Airflow pipelines on AWS and GCP.Strengthened regulatory compliance by introducing automated data lineage and quality checks, cutting audit prep time nearly in half.Partnered with product and analytics teams to roll out real-time streaming pipelines (Kafka, Pub/Sub), unlocking 25% growth in customer engagement insights.Coached and developed a senior engineering team, establishing coding standards and data governance practices that elevated delivery quality across the org.

Education

• Full Sail University

  Associate of Science - AS