Ryen Gunning

LEAD - DATA ENGINEERING CHAPTER

What do you like most about your job?

It’s inspiring to see our data products live on the website, in marketing channels, and being used across the entire company. Knowing that the Data Engineering chapter wrote a lot of that software is very rewarding. It’s been an incredible first year for our team, and I’m looking forward to the many solutions we’ll build together moving forward.

What does your day-to-day look like?

Working remotely has provided some nice flexibility to integrate pieces of personal family life into the work day. The global nature of our team has taught me the importance of asynchronous communication, prioritization, and respecting everyone’s calendars by only booking meetings with a clear purpose and published agenda. Time is valuable!

What’s the biggest challenge you’ve overcome in your role/team/area?

Just one?! Data engineering solves multiple challenges every day. We are problem solvers! One solution I’m particularly proud of was the identification, evaluation, and implementation of CI/CD tooling for SQL based pipelines. It’s a good example of several teams (Data Engineering, Architecture, and Platform) working collaboratively, testing hypotheses and taking a data-driven decision.
Ultimately, we selected a great tool, DBT, which is now a fully supported offering by the Cimpress Data Platform. Many DnA data products now leverage this code-first solution. It has helped standardize and accelerate our ability to build reliable SQL based pipelines and ensure high data quality. We’re even seeing adoption by other Cimpress business units outside of Vista. Go team!

Why is Vista a great partner for small businesses?

Vista is so much more than a printing company. We’re driven by customer obsession and have a huge range of products and marketing expertise available for small businesses. Our services allow them to look and feel professional without breaking the budget. Simply put: Vista succeeds when our customers succeed, and we’ll do everything in our power to help those small business owners live their dreams.

What’s happening at the weekend?

My ideal day would involve hanging out with my two little boys, the BBQ, listening to music (classic rock, pop, hip-hop, and my guilty pleasure, yacht rock), and sipping delicious craft beer. Yum! On the nerdy side, I enjoy WWE wrestling and video games (although I barely get to play them these days).