Data Engineering Central Podcast

In this episode of the Data Engineering Central Podcast, I sit down with David Jaitillake to explore the future of data engineering, analytics, and AI. David has spent nearly two decades working across data teams, from analyst roles in the early SQL Server days to leading teams, founding startups, serving as VP of AI at Cube, and now co-founding Quarry.
We discuss why semantic layers have suddenly become one of the most important concepts in modern data platforms, how tools like Claude Code are transforming engineering workflows, and why the core problems in data haven’t really changed despite massive advances in technology.
David shares his perspective on where agentic workflows are headed, what AI means for junior engineers entering the field, and why experienced practitioners may be more valuable than ever before. We also dive into the evolution of data platforms, lessons learned from startups, the promise of tools like DuckDB and MotherDuck, and how organizations should think about adopting AI responsibly.
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Whether you’re a data engineer, analytics engineer, engineering leader, or someone trying to understand where the industry is headed, this conversation offers a practical and honest look at what’s coming next.
What We Cover
* David’s journey from analyst to startup founder
* The rise of semantic layers and why they matter
* Why data modeling is still critical in the AI era
* How AI coding agents are changing engineering work
* What Claude Code is enabling today
* The future of agentic data pipelines
* Why DuckDB and MotherDuck are gaining traction
* The challenges facing junior engineers
* Career advice for data professionals at every stage
* Whether David is optimistic about the future of AI and data
Connect with David:
* LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-jayatillake/
* Substack:
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In this episode of the Data Engineering Central Podcast, I sit down with Ethan, a maintainer of delta-rs and an expert in modern lakehouse architecture working in the pharmaceutical industry.
We discuss Ethan’s journey into tech and data engineering, the evolution of open table formats like Delta Lake and Apache Iceberg, and what it actually takes to build scalable enterprise data platforms in highly regulated environments like big pharma.
We also dive into:
* delta-rs and the future of Delta Lake outside Spark
* Lakehouse architecture and open catalogs
* Rust in the modern data ecosystem
* Data platform governance and scalability
* Enterprise analytics and infrastructure
* The future of agentic analytics and AI-enabled data systems
* Lessons learned building large-scale data platforms
If you’re interested in modern data engineering, open source infrastructure, lakehouses, or the future of analytics engineering, this is a great conversation.
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Victor Moreno went from failing out of a top CS program to becoming a senior engineer at AWS, and his story says a lot about what actually matters in software engineering today.
In this conversation, we go deep into the reality behind the AI hype, what makes engineers valuable (it’s not writing more code), and why the future of the field looks very different from what most people think.
We talk about the shift from coding to system thinking, why fundamentals matter more in the age of AI, and how junior engineers will need to evolve as tools like Claude and ChatGPT take over the “grunt work.”
Victor also shares hard-earned lessons from teaching, startups, consulting, and building systems at AWS, along with practical advice for engineers looking to stand out in a crowded, uncertain job market.
This is not a hype conversation. It’s a real look at where things are going.
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🔑 What We Cover
* Why AI is making fundamentals more important, not less
* The biggest mistake engineers make is chasing promotions
* How to actually become a high-impact engineer
* Why does doing more Jira tickets not matter
* What’s broken about today’s interview process
* The future of junior engineers in an AI world
* Tactical vs strategic engineering (and why it matters)
* Why most AI-generated code is still “low quality.”
* How to think about career growth in a weird job market
💡 Key Takeaway
The best engineers aren’t the ones writing the most code—they’re the ones who understand systems, think long-term, and can drive decisions.
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This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dataengineeringcentral.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode of the Data Engineering Central Podcast, I sit down with Yordan Ivanov, Head of Data Engineering at a growing fintech company, to talk through what it actually looks like to build and run real data platforms in production.
Yordan’s story starts like many of mine, early programming, gaming, PHP, Linux servers—but what makes this conversation interesting is how he evolved from a generalist software engineer into a data engineering leader without even realizing it at first.
We spend a lot of time digging into what actually matters in modern data engineering, and it’s not the tools.
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We talk about:
* Why the industry went too far into complexity and is now swinging back toward simplicity
* The reality of running a data platform at scale (and why most teams waste time maintaining tools instead of delivering value)
* How to think about migrations the right way without breaking everything
* The difference between junior, mid, and senior engineers—and why ambiguity tolerance and impact matter more than coding ability
* Why “perfect” engineering is a trap and how to actually ship work that matters
We also get into AI, and Yordan has one of the more grounded takes you’ll hear right now. Most companies aren’t even close to ready for AI, and the idea that it’s replacing engineers anytime soon misses the bigger problem: messy data, unclear metrics, and weak foundations.
Check out Yordan’s Substack below!
We also talk about:
* How AI is actually used on real teams today (not Twitter hype)
* Why juniors with AI can be risky without strong processes
* How to think about code reviews, testing, and slowing down when it matters
On top of that, we dig into content creation, Substack, and what it takes to stand out in a world full of generic AI-generated content. Yordan’s approach is simple: write from real experience or don’t write at all.
This is one of those conversations that cuts through a lot of noise and gets back to fundamentals, how to think, how to build, and how to grow as an engineer in a rapidly changing space.
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This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dataengineeringcentral.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode of the Data Engineering Central Podcast, I sit down with Jacob Matson, Developer Advocate at MotherDuck, to unpack one of the most interesting shifts happening in data engineering right now.
Jacob didn’t start in tech the way most people expect. He began in accounting, working with Excel and financial systems, before slowly realizing that the real problem he loved solving wasn’t finance, it was data pipelines. That path eventually led him deep into SQL Server, data warehousing, and ultimately to DuckDB, a tool that fundamentally changed how he thought about processing data.
* What we get into is bigger than just tools, though.
We talk about why DuckDB exploded in popularity, what it gets right that traditional databases and even modern cloud warehouses struggle with, and why the industry may be swinging back toward simplicity after years of over-engineered “modern data stacks.”
There’s a really interesting thread here around how engineers accidentally created too much complexity, and now tools like DuckDB are winning by removing it.
We also go deep on the evolution of the data stack itself. From SQL Server’s “everything in one box” model, to the unbundled chaos of the modern stack, and now back toward a more unified, simpler approach. Jacob shares how MotherDuck is thinking about that shift and where things are headed next.
* One of the more important parts of this conversation is around AI.
There’s a strong argument here that AI doesn’t kill data engineering; it massively expands it. Instead of fewer queries being written, we may be heading toward a world where AI agents generate orders of magnitude more queries than humans ever could. That flips a lot of assumptions on their head, especially around things like data modeling, which suddenly becomes more important, not less.
We also talk about:
* Why most Spark workloads are overkill
* When single-node tools like DuckDB actually win
* The real tradeoffs behind Lakehouse architectures
* Why data modeling is still critical in an AI-driven world
* How engineers should think about building in 2026 and beyond
This is one of those conversations that helps you zoom out and see where things are actually going, not just what tools are trending this week.
If you’re building data platforms, experimenting with AI, or just trying to simplify your stack, this one is worth your time.
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This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dataengineeringcentral.substack.com/subscribe