Piotr Koper

I came into data engineering the long way round. Over a decade in logistics and operations management — Halfords, DHL, Aston Martin Lagonda — taught me how supply chains actually work, how to lead cross-functional teams under pressure, and crucially, how to build tooling when the tools you're given aren't good enough. In 2021 I was selected for JLR's internal Data Engineering conversion programme, run with Infinity Works. It was competitive, it was intense, and it was the best decision I've made professionally. What followed wasn't a clean pivot into writing SQL — it was a gradual move toward the parts of the stack I find most interesting: infrastructure, automation, and the systems that make data teams actually function. Four years in, I lead working groups across GitLab CI/CD pipelines, Docker image management, and Terraform at JLR. I own the Workload Identity Federation rollout between GitLab and GCP. I spend more time thinking about authentication patterns and Terraform module design than I do writing pipeline code — and I'm completely fine with that. I'm interested in roles that sit at the intersection of data and platform engineering. Somewhere that values building things properly, documenting them well, and automating the things that shouldn't need a human. Rust is on the learning list. Opinions on tab width are strong.