Where did you start your career?
I’m Kulasangar, 33 years old, from Sri Lanka. I have been living here in the Netherlands for over a year and have enjoyed the journey so far. I currently hold a bachelor’s degree in software engineering from the University of Westminster and have been working as a developer for the last nine years. Professionally, I started as a software developer with Java backend development, and then, ever since big data became a vital role in most organisations, I wanted to switch my career to data engineering since my passion was always learning and growing. This also enabled me to expand my knowledge in developing ETL pipelines by learning about multiple Cloud platforms and services.
What are you doing now?
I’m currently working as a data engineer for ASML, a leading provider of photolithography equipment essential for semiconductor manufacturing. Their advanced machines, particularly those utilising extreme ultraviolet (EUV) technology, are critical for creating modern microchips.
If I put my role in a nutshell, it would be to build Data Pipelines to extract Data from specific sources, perform transformations based on business requirements, and ingest them into the respective targets. This was my core task and duty. But apart from this, I also had other tasks such as working with the team in designing the architecture for the solution, coming up with appropriate Data Models for storage and querying, implementing and maintaining the infrastructure pipelines to accommodate the Cloud Platform resources, designing, implementing, and managing CI/CD pipelines for data ingestion and processing workflows, and ensuring that the best practices are being followed when developing.
What are your ambitions?
I do have a couple. First, I want to solidify myself on what I’m doing. For example, since I’m doing Python backend development these days, I want to become good at it and share this expertise with the community. On top of this, I have a huge desire to learn more about Spark and its optimisation mechanisms since this has become the key to reducing cost and reading terabytes of data within a short span of time.
Also, the stars that I’m shooting for are:
– write more articles and become a top contributor in a channel on Medium
– become a Mod on Stack Overflow
What can we wake you up for in the middle of the night?
Well, if you spot the Northern lights, please wake me up or let me know when you see a JDM car passing by! 😀
