Burak Colak

Passionate data engineer 3+ years of experience with a focus on building scalable, high-impact data solutions, currently pursuing an MSc in Applied Data Science. Bringing experience from MSCI, BlackRock and entrepreneurial ventures. Passionate about leveraging data to drive decision-making and innovation.

✉ Say hi!

About Me

I am a highly motivated data engineer with a passion for developing scalable, efficient data solutions. Currently pursuing an MSc. in Applied Data Science at the University of Göttingen, I bring extensive experience from my work at MSCI Inc., where I contribute to large-scale cloud migration projects and CI/CD pipeline development. My work spans database optimization, cloud platforms like Google Cloud and Azure, and tools such as Docker, Kubernetes, and Apache Airflow.


In addition to my engineering work, I have entrepreneurial experience as the founder of an Estonian e-residency company focused on data science in the farming sector, aiming to optimize agricultural efficiency using satellite imagery and advanced analytics. My strong technical background is complemented by a commitment to improving processes and delivering high-impact results, whether in corporate or academic settings.


Here are some technologies I have been working with:

  • Python
  • SQL
  • C/C++
  • AWS
  • Linux
  • API
  • Docker
  • CD/CI
  • ETL
  • Apache Airflow
  • Kubernetes
  • Golang
  • Elasticsearch

Experiences

Data Engineer Full-Time @ MSCI

Oct 2023 - Sept 2024

  • • Process bond data with Azure Data Factory, Databricks, and Snowflake, handling parquet files from Azure Blob Storage.
  • • Support cloud migrations for Oracle SQL databases and GoogleCloud services.
  • • Contribute to CI/CD pipeline improvements via Azure Pipelines.
  • • Enhance deployment workflows using Docker and Kubernetes.
  • • Transition data processes from Autosys to Apache Airflow.
  • • Build Grafana dashboards for infrastructure and cloud product metrics.
  • • Optimize EFK stack for managing 60M+ documents daily, reducing storage by 80%.

Data Engineer Part-Time @ BlackRock

Sept 2022 - Sept 2023

  • • Contribute to audit automation development using Python and Snowflake under BlackRock's Aladdin Data Product.
  • • Create and manage datasets for a financial data lake, streamlining access and usability.
  • • Develop REST APIs for seamless machine-to-machine communication, enabling data automation.
  • • Build SQL queries and processes for Snowflake to enhance data operations and reporting.
  • • Developed and implemented a petabyte-scale data-driven audit system for financial records in Snowflake, improving accuracy by 95% and reducing audit time by 80% annually.

Cyber Security Automation Engineering Werkstudent @ Nokia

Jan 2022 - July 2022

  • • Designed a security vulnerability framework for Nokia's Modular Private Wireless product, reducing incidents by 30%.
  • • Worked with Cloud Native Communication software, leveraging Kubernetes and Docker for secure deployment.
  • • Conducted container malware scans and penetration testing to ensure network security.

Backend Engineer Freelance @ Devkit

May 2021 - Present

  • • Develop web applications using FastAPI, Docker, and Celery for scalable and efficient data processing solutions.
  • • Implement web scraping techniques (Beautiful Soup, Scrapy) while managing backend infrastructure with Nginx and SQL databases.
  • • Optimize system performance through orchestration (Apache Airflow) and implement visualization tools like Grafana, Elasticsearch, and Kibana.
  • • Manage PostgreSQL and InfluxDB for time-series data, ensuring reliable database operations.
  • • Utilize RabbitMQ for messaging queues and design scalable API logic with FastAPI to handle high-traffic workloads.

Projects

United | Onboarding tool for teams

PythonReactJSFastAPIMLMongoDBAWS LambdaDynamoDBAPIGateway

1st place in a hackathon. Introduced an AI-driven feedback analysis for real-time insights.

View Project

Saving Nest

Meta AIML(ARIMA) modelPythonNumpy / Pandas

Our algorithm calculates the most stable currencies in timeline and suggests the most stable currencies for you to save. Now you can save your money without worrying about inflation.

View Project