Brian Lavery
About Brian Lavery
Brian Lavery is a Staff Software Engineer at The New York Times, recognized for developing a Great Expectations plugin for Apache Airflow to improve data quality checks for BigQuery. He has extensive experience in data engineering and software development, with a career spanning over two decades across various organizations.
Current Role at The New York Times
Brian Lavery currently serves as a Staff Software Engineer at The New York Times, a position he has held since 2021. In this role, he focuses on enhancing data quality and automation processes. He has developed a Great Expectations plugin for Apache Airflow, which improves automated data quality checks specifically for BigQuery. Additionally, he conducts hands-on training sessions aimed at configuring and automating Airflow clusters, as well as setting up data alerts using a self-service data alerting system called Snitch.
Previous Experience at The New York Times
Brian Lavery has extensive experience at The New York Times, where he worked in various capacities over several years. He served as a Reports Developer and Server Admin from 2009 to 2014, followed by a role as a Senior Data Engineer from 2016 to 2021. His contributions included building a self-service data alerting system and creating illustrative documentation to aid in understanding advertising data sets and micro-service designs.
Work History at AXA Equitable
Brian Lavery's career includes significant positions at AXA Equitable. He began as an IT Trainee from 1998 to 2000, then progressed to Developer from 2000 to 2004. He later served as Lead Developer from 2004 to 2007 and as a Systems Analyst for a brief period in 2008. His roles involved various aspects of software development and systems analysis.
Education and Expertise
Brian Lavery holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University at Albany, SUNY, which he completed from 1989 to 1994. He furthered his education with a Master of Business Administration in Information Systems from the same institution, graduating between 1996 and 1998. His academic background supports his expertise in data engineering and software development.
Community Engagement and Leadership
Brian Lavery actively participates in the tech community by organizing the NYC Apache Airflow Meetup group. He leads the Airflow community of practice at The New York Times, fostering collaboration and knowledge sharing among professionals in the field. His leadership in these initiatives highlights his commitment to advancing best practices in data engineering.