Professional Journey

With expertise in a wide range of technologies and platforms, I bring a comprehensive skill set to drive innovation and excellence in any project. Explore the depth and breadth of my experience below.

Oracle Corporation


oracle
Principal Cloud Architect

Cloud Engineering, Migrate 360
November 2020 - November 2023

  • Provided expert guidance on data integrations and architecture solutions for Autonomous Data Warehouse and analytics solutions for Oracle Analytics Cloud projects, supporting large-scale digital transformation efforts and improved application performance.
  • Leveraged machine learning and AI in Autonomous Database to enhance Oracle Analytics Cloud solutions, driving data-driven decision-making and predictive analytics.
  • Led quality assurance and development projects for an innovative internal database and virtual machine migration automation platform, mentoring teams, and ensuring high standards and reliability.
  • Managed bug tracking and ticketing systems, guiding teams through complex testing, data migrations, integrations, and product enhancements.
  • Led cross-functional teams through discovery briefings, demos, architecture design sessions (ADS), and proof-of-concepts (POCs) for enterprise clients, increasing sales revenue.
  • Reduced excessive team cloud spending by $1M yearly by identifying and eliminating excessive resource usage. Additionally, identified and addressed security vulnerabilities in Linux systems through proactive and automated log analysis.
  • Empowered teams through mentorship and training, enabling them to earn technical certifications, onboarded new hires, and delivered sessions on product training and productivity tools, improving skills and operational excellence.

Microsoft Corporation


microsoft
Senior Cloud Solutions Architect
Technology Solutions Professional
Senior Premier Field Engineer

Customer Success, Sales, Services
March 2008 - November 2019

  • Led successful digital transformation projects for federal and private sector accounts, and developed strong trusted-advisor relationships, enhancing customer retention of support renewals and client engagement by 30%.
  • Pioneered a comprehensive health check framework for Microsoft's Massive Parallel Processing (MPP) Data Warehouse Appliance PDW/APS (Synapse). Utilized reverse engineering techniques to solve complex system insight challenges, resulting in increased problem resolution, decreased data-related incident escalations, and substantial revenue growth.
  • Resolved mission-critical data and AI-focused technical issues and delivered proactive advisory services for on-premises and Azure Cloud environments, enhancing customer satisfaction and engagement.
  • Developed predictive machine learning models using Azure Machine Learning to enhance financial forecasting and risk management. Employed advanced algorithms to analyze large datasets, enabling accurate predictions of market trends, credit risk assessment, and investment performance.
  • Interviewed and onboarded new hires and mentored cross-functional teams with necessary tools and knowledge to excel in their roles. Cultivated a supportive environment that encouraged professional growth and teamwork.
  • Led pre-sales engagements, providing strategic and technical guidance through discovery briefings, demos, architecture design sessions (ADS), and proof-of-concepts (POC), advancing technology adoption across various departments and functions.
  • Developed critical NIST STIG revisions for SQL Server, ensuring compliance with data governance and security best practices.

InCharge Debt Solutions


incharge
Lead Database Administrator

Information Technology Group
December 2005 – August 2007

  • Optimized SQL Server management and storage solutions, reducing query processing time by 70% and achieving high availability and security for critical database systems.
  • Led successful migrations of complex, greenfield financial OLTP and Data Warehouse systems, ensuring data integrity and minimal downtime.
  • Supervised and mentored a junior database administrator team, fostering their growth and driving a 15% increase in team efficiency.
  • Developed and executed robust disaster recovery strategies, including successful offsite drills.
  • Streamlined software delivery lifecycle (SDLC) and release management processes in Visual Studio Team Foundation Server (VSTS) for database and application development.
  • Utilized Scrum methodology to facilitate efficient iterative planning, development, deployment, testing, and configuration management.

United Healthcare


uhc
Senior Database Administrator

Audit and Recovery System (ARS)
April 2003 – December 2005

  • Developed logical and physical database models as the database lead for the company’s mission critical internal audit and recovery system.
  • Identified bottlenecks and implemented performance optimizations of systems, managed data integrations and reporting requirements.
  • Proactively implemented security and data protection measures ahead of regulatory changes.
  • Managed backups of all Windows Servers and SQL Server Databases, disaster recovery and testing, and developed data migration plans.

VERITAS Software


veritas
Global Support Leader

Entitlement Services & Business Development
October 1999 – October 2003

  • Directed IT projects, mentored and coached new hires, supported onboarding, and performed ongoing team supervision during the Seagate Software merger reducing overhead and streamlining processes.
  • Spearheaded intranet website development and technology integration leading to an in-house ITSM system, managing support policies for over 100 products.
  • Led global training in California, Florida, and Ireland, teaching processes and procedures, applications, customer service entitlement, and managed all documentation critical to facilitating the merger of two disparate organizations.
  • Designed a project management system for the business development group to track and manage work assignments, priorities, and status.

Convergys


convergys
Technical Support Lead

Dell – Windows and PC
Prodigy Internet, Prodigy Web Hosting
October 1999 – October 2003

  • Provided comprehensive hardware, operating system support and troubleshooting for high-profile accounts such as Dell Tech Support, Prodigy Web Hosting, and Prodigy Internet.
  • Supervised teams and was responsible for handling escalations, ensuring timely and effective resolution of complex technical issues.
  • This role involved managing support operations, maintaining high standards of customer service, and optimizing team performance to meet and exceed service level agreements.
Profile
Peter J. Constantine
Consulting Technical Manager @ Oracle
I worked with Dana in Oracle's Cloud Engineering group supporting an innovative database and vm migration automation platform for over a year. We also collaborated on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure certification preparation for ourselves and our team. Dana is very organized and methodical in her approach to solving complex business problems. She demonstrates deep understanding of data integrity and security issues facing the digital world and is committed to finding new ways to safeguard against data manipulation and abuse. She possesses an enthusiastic persona with a 'can-do' attitude and I look forward to working with her again.
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Zaheer Tanveer
President @ OpenText Public Sector Solutions, Inc
Dana is a very unique technologist. She is smart, intelligent and extremely competent at her job. She is humble yet does not succumb to pressure. While working for me at Microsoft, she always demonstrated her desire to do what is right for the customer. Sometimes, this meant disagreeing with the customer but she had the skills to make her customers see the value in her architecture and overall benefits in the business solution she was recommending. I truly enjoyed working with her and highly recommend her for technical leadership positions. I am available for discussion with potential employers. Thank you, Dana. I, and your customers, remain indebted. -Z
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Danny Wunder
Customer Success Lead @ Lantern
I worked with Dana for just a short period of time, but in that time Dana showed great potential. She didn't hesitate to jump in to help lead and deliver for complex customers. She was respected by her team and her peers and would be a valuable addition to any team.
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Channa Wijesinghe
Data + AI Capability Lead @ Cognizant Microsoft Business Group
Dana is an amazing resource to any team. She has a solid background in database design and maintenance. She has been able to transfer those skills to Azure and Microsoft's modern data services, to help companies achieve their full potential in the cloud
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Patty Delafuente
Data Scientist, Solution Architect for Public Sector @ NVIDIA
I had the privilege of working with Dana in the trenches when we both were working on a project to implement enterprise level data management services at a federal agency. I was one of the database engineers for the federal agency and Dana was the solution architect for Microsoft. I was impressed with Dana's breadth of knowledge and and she had the deep knowledge of the Microsoft Platform that we needed to successfully plan out our strategy. I have found a kindred spirit in Dana as it is not often I come across fellow women in the technical arena. that has her level of expertise. I am honored to recommend Dana for any technical, complex data and analytical project that comes her way.
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Dana Piermarini
Industry Advisor, Workday Federal
Dana has a brilliant mind with the ability to solve complex problems.
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Tamer Farag
Global Partner Ecosystem Lead @ Microsoft Fabric
I've known data for more than ten years, she is an expert on the data platform and database technologies. She did an excellent job supporting some of the largest SQL Server and PDW customers in the world. Dana has amazing work ethics and deep technical expertise. She is a real team player and a great mentor for her coworkers. I would highly recommend her for any customers looking for an Data Architect.
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David McDonald
Technical Leader and Solutions Architect @ Microsoft
I've known Dana for many years at Microsoft. She's a rock star Data architect. She is well known to have deep technical knowledge and experience. She has unique skills in being able to connect technology and solutions to our customer's business needs. She's passionate about the Microsoft's Data platform. She brings energy along with great knowledge to solve our customer's most challenging problems.
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Marty Larsen
Senior Service Delivery Manager @ Microsoft
Love my work with Dana. A great team player, very inclusive, resourceful and effective.
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James Herring
Principal Content PM @ Microsoft
I've had the pleasure to work with Dana on several tough customer projects during my time in product incubation at Microsoft. Dana is an engineer that is all about customer obsession and her ability to quickly establish technical credibility removed many barriers that could delay success by months. Dana exemplifies the type of resources I look for when building successful teams and is just an amazing person to work with.
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Abraham Samuel
Director Specialist, Cloud Solutions @ Microsoft
Dana is a seasoned technology professional with a understanding for relating technology to customers and clients. I had the pleasure of working with her on the Microsoft Services Support and Escalation team for data warehousing appliances. She is a team player, with a inclusive mindset. We supported similar customers for data warehousing and Azure data technologies and collaborated on a number of different customer and team projects. She always had a great attitude and it was a pleasure to work alongside her!
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Miro Flasza
Principal Development Lead @ Microsoft
I enjoyed working with Dana in her role as a technical support engineer for the SQL Server Analytics Platform System. Beyond being a seasoned professional, well versed in distributed data processing and cloud computing, Dana deeply cares about her customers and coworkers. Her commitment to understanding, translating and addressing customer requirements and issues is exemplary.
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Ka Wo Fong
Senior Software Engineer II, Generative AI @ Qarik Group
I have worked with Dana in the same team since I joined Microsoft for a year now. Coming from Premier Field Engineer background, she is equipped with deep technical expertise on the Azure data platform, SQL Server, and business intelligence technologies. Whenever I have questions on any of those areas, Dana is my go-to person. When I first joined the team, I learned so much from her through her active and periodic contribution of Azure best practices to the team. Moreover, she exhibited excellent leadership in hosting the "What The Hack" series for both internal and external audience. Most importantly, she is never afraid of stepping out of her comfort zone. When I was working with her, she was eager to learn continuously by volunteering herself to work on customer engagements where she knew she could learn from. It is difficult to find someone like Dana who has many years of technical experience while continuing to remain humble and learn. She was a true pleasure to work with.
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Devin Jaiswal
Principle Cloud Solution Architect @ Microsoft
While working with Dana, I have learned a lot about technology, she is a great teacher, who strives to share her knowledge and experience with her peers. Dana is very proficient with the Azure Data Service stack, SQL Server, NoSQL and many more.
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Aubrey Truex
System Administrator @ FFVA Mutual Insurance Co
Dana is a detail-oriented DBA who would listen to our needs and work on fulfilling the requirements until they were complete. She had a great attitude and was very personable. Plus, she knew her stuff! A great resource for anything related to SQL Server.
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Todd Albers
Information Security Engineer
I worked with Ms. Dana Rivkind at InCharge Institute where she worked as Database Administrator. She is knowledgeable and experienced in the area of Database Administration. Dana is also very easy to work with in the corporate setting. I always knew Dana as a friendly and professional co-worker during the time that we worked together.
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Esteban Garcia
CEO (US) - Microsoft Services @ Xebia
Dana is a strong DBA that is always looking for pro-active ways to improve existing processes and servers/databases. She is always willing to work with others to arrive at the best solution to a problem. She is also always looking to learn and understand new technologies, which makes her a valuable asset to any team.
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Tom Andraszek
Senior Software Developer @ Touchpaper
Dana is a committed database administrator. She is enthusiastic about her work, and she strives to be the best.
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Steven Schreiber
Senior Investment Consultant @ Newport Group
I would highly recommend Dana Rivkind. She distinguished herself from the rest of her group by being the most dependable person when work needed to be completed. Whenever I needed any type of IT help I would request to work with Dana. She was easy to work with and she always did what was necessary to get the job done on time and done correctly.
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Hubert H. Rivera
Executive, Bank Sales and Service @ USAA
Dana is a highly capable and experienced individual that would make an asset to any organization. Her ability to manipulate systems to retrieve the desired results was second to none. She was always willing to go the extra mile and was always courteous and very professional in every project she managed. I highly recommend Dana.

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