Max Mena
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Writing on data engineering

Thoughts, guides, and lessons learned from building cloud-native data pipelines and analytics platforms.

Cover image for Building the Modern Data Stack from Scratch
May 12, 2025·8 min read

Building the Modern Data Stack from Scratch

A practical walkthrough of the tools and architecture decisions behind a scalable, cloud-native analytics platform.

ArchitecturedbtSnowflake
Cover image for Testing Strategies That Actually Catch Bugs in dbt
March 28, 2025·6 min read

Testing Strategies That Actually Catch Bugs in dbt

Move beyond generic tests and learn how to design assertions that surface real data quality issues before they reach production.

dbtData QualityTesting
Cover image for Cutting Snowflake Costs Without Slowing Down
February 10, 2025·7 min read

Cutting Snowflake Costs Without Slowing Down

Concrete techniques for reducing warehouse spend while keeping query performance high for your team.

SnowflakePerformanceCost
Cover image for Where AI Genuinely Helps in Data Pipelines
January 18, 2025·5 min read

Where AI Genuinely Helps in Data Pipelines

Cutting through the hype to look at the places where machine learning meaningfully improves data engineering workflows.

AIPythonAutomation

CONTACT

If you'd like to discuss a project or just say hi, you can find me on any of these platforms.

2026 Max Mena. Built with Next.js and Tailwind CSS.