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Senior Analytics Engineer

MetricMend

An end-to-end Analytics Engineering case study combining modern data engineering, semantic modeling, and AI-driven decision support..

Every analytics request deserves more than a dashboard. It deserves context, trusted metrics, and confidence.

Analytics Engineering Lifecycle

01

Business Discovery

02

Requirements Engineering

03

Source System Assessment

04

Lakehouse Architecture

05

Data Engineering

06

Dimensional Modeling

07

Semantic Layer

08

AI Decision Intelligence

09

Executive Experience

Engineering Observation

Why I Built
MetricMend

Throughout my career, I worked on modern analytics platforms, building data models, semantic layers, dashboards, and reporting solutions for business teams. While analytics technology continued to evolve, I noticed a recurring challenge: business users still relied heavily on analytics teams to interpret metrics, investigate trends, and answer follow-up questions before they could make confident decisions.

Around the same time, AI-powered analytics platforms began reshaping how users interacted with data. Rather than viewing those products as competitors, I saw them as validation that the industry was moving in an exciting direction. I wanted to explore the same problem from my own Analytics Engineering perspective and validate my own architectural ideas from end to end.

MetricMend became that exploration. I designed the project as a complete Analytics Engineering case study—starting with business discovery, requirements engineering, source system assessment, lakehouse architecture, data engineering, dimensional modeling, semantic governance, and finally an AI-driven decision experience. The application itself is simply the interface that brings those engineering decisions together.

Business Challenge

Modern dashboards answer
questions.
They rarely guide decisions.

The Problem

Traditional BI platforms answer questions only after dashboards are built. Business users still depend on analysts to interpret data, define metrics, and explore follow-up questions.

Design Objective

Design an Analytics Engineering platform that unifies trusted data, governed metrics, and AI-assisted decision support into a single analytical experience.

Discovery

Every analytics platform
begins with understanding
the business.

01

Business Goals

Understand the decisions stakeholders need to make before defining KPIs or reports.

02

Stakeholder Interviews

Capture expectations, reporting pain points, ownership, and success criteria.

03

Requirements

Translate business conversations into measurable analytics requirements and governed metrics.

04

Source Assessment

Identify available systems, data quality, relationships, and integration opportunities.

Source Systems

Trusted analytics
begins with
trusted data.

Source

CRM

Customer interactions, accounts, opportunities and sales activity.

Source

ERP

Orders, invoices, inventory, procurement and financial operations.

Source

Marketing

Campaign performance, attribution, traffic and customer acquisition.

Source

Finance

Revenue, expenses, profitability and executive financial reporting.

Source

Support

Customer tickets, SLAs, satisfaction and operational performance.

Source

Operations

Business processes, fulfillment and operational KPIs.

Solution Architecture

Turning business
questions into
trusted decisions.

Business UsersExecutive QuestionsExecutive ExperienceDashboards • Insights • ConversationsDecision IntelligenceIntent • Planning • SQL • ValidationSemantic LayerGoverned Metrics • KPIs • Time IntelligenceDimensional ModelFacts • Dimensions • Star SchemaLakehouse PlatformGold • Silver • BronzeSource SystemsCRM • ERP • Finance • Marketing • Operations

Architecture Layers

01 Sources

02 Lakehouse

03 Modeling

04 Governance

05 Intelligence

06 Experience

Analytics Engineering

Engineering a scalable lakehouse using the Medallion Architecture.

Bronze

Raw Data Ingestion

Ingest raw data from business systems while preserving lineage, history, and auditability.

Silver

Transformation & Quality

Standardizing schemas, validating business rules, cleansing records and enriching datasets for analytics.

Gold

Analytics Ready

Deliver analytics-ready datasets optimized for dimensional modeling, semantic models, reporting, and AI.

Data Modeling

Transforming raw data
into business-ready
analytical models.

01

Business Events

Identify measurable business processes and translate them into analytics-ready fact tables.

02

Fact Tables

Capture transactional events, measures and business activity that power reporting and AI insights.

03

Dimension Tables

Design reusable dimensions including Customer, Product, Date, Geography and Business Units.

04

Star Schema

Build performant analytical models with clear relationships that simplify reporting and improve query performance.

Semantic Layer

One business language
across reporting,
analytics, and AI.

Governed Metrics

Revenue
Gross Margin
Profit
Average Order Value
Year over Year
Month to Date
Year to Date
Rolling 12 Months

01

Consistent Definitions

Business metrics are defined once and reused across dashboards, reports, and AI-generated answers.

02

Reusable Logic

Time intelligence, calculations, and business rules are centralized instead of recreated in every report.

03

Governed Access

Metric ownership, approved dimensions, and calculation logic create a trusted analytical contract.

Decision Intelligence

AI should understand
your business,
not just your prompt.

01

Business Question

02

Intent Detection

03

Context Planning

04

Semantic Validation

05

SQL Generation

06

Execution

07

Visualization

08

Decision Support

Executive Experience

From business
question
to confident decision.

01

Ask

Business users ask questions naturally without needing dashboards, SQL, or technical knowledge.

02

Understand

Questions are interpreted using governed metrics, business definitions, and organizational context.

03

Analyze

Relevant datasets are retrieved, validated, and transformed into meaningful analytical insights.

04

Explain

AI summarizes findings, highlights trends, surfaces anomalies, and recommends where to investigate next.

05

Decide

Executives receive trusted answers that improve confidence in every business decision.

Technology Decisions

Every technology
solved an engineering
challenge.

Databricks

Designed as the analytics foundation to support scalable ETL, Medallion Architecture, and analytics-ready datasets.

Delta Lake

Selected to provide reliable storage, versioning, ACID transactions, and trustworthy analytical data.

FastAPI

Implemented as the orchestration layer connecting AI workflows, business logic, and semantic analytics.

Next.js

Built a fast, responsive executive experience focused on decision making rather than dashboard navigation.

Supabase

Managed authentication, user access, persistence, and multi-workspace security.

OpenAI

Enabled natural language understanding while grounding every response in governed business metrics.

Business Outcomes

Engineering that
enables better
business decisions.

Trusted Business Metrics

A single governed source of truth for KPIs, calculations, and executive reporting.

Reusable Analytics Foundation

Semantic models, dimensional design, and business logic created once and reused everywhere.

AI Grounded in Business Context

Every AI response is backed by governed metrics instead of isolated prompts or raw data.

Executive Self-Service

Leaders can explore questions, investigate trends, and make decisions without relying on static dashboards.

Scalable Architecture

A modular foundation designed to evolve as business requirements, data sources, and AI capabilities grow.