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Donato Di Ferdinando

Now · Oct 2026

Donato
Di Ferdinando

Data Engineer and Business Intelligence LeadSan Diego, CA · Wedge Golf

I'm at my best working between business and technology. I figure out what teams are trying to accomplish and build things people actually use. Right now that's data platforms, AI tools the whole company uses, and a golf app I built end-to-end.

Donato Di Ferdinando, outdoors in front of green bamboo.
San Diego, CA

Currently

  • Leading Business Intelligence at PeopleConnect in San Diego.
  • Building tools that let the whole company ask Claude about the business.
  • Shipping steady updates to Wedge Golf on the App Store.
  • Using Claude for nearly everything, at work and at home.

About

I studied Industrial Engineering at Cal Poly SLO, then joined the Professional Development Program at General Dynamics NASSCO, the shipyard in San Diego. I was fresh out of college and got a ton of exposure to how a business actually runs. That's really where I learned I enjoy using data to solve problems and help teams make better decisions.

From there, I moved into data engineering at NASSCO, then BI at Maravai LifeSciences, a biotech in San Diego. Today I'm the Business Intelligence Lead at PeopleConnect, a San Diego company that owns several people-search sites and an identity-protection brand. It's a lean team, so I wear a lot of hats across data engineering, BI, machine learning, financial forecasting and internal apps.

I use Claude for nearly everything, at work and in my personal life. It's my favorite product. It's so intuitive, and the way it's trained is a big part of my why. I built Wedge Golf with it, and I really enjoy building apps end-to-end. It gives me a broader view of how data, AI and software come together to solve real problems.

2024 → now · 5 projects

Projects

No. 01 · Semantic Layer + MCP Server

600+Governed metrics

dbt MetricFlow

The whole company asks Claude and gets the same governed numbers.

I built a dbt MetricFlow semantic layer with 600+ governed metrics, plus the MCP server and Slack bot that serve it to Claude. The entire company uses it, from execs to marketing to product. I also wrote the guide that teaches Claude to pick the right metric, since most people asking aren't analysts.

  • dbt MetricFlow
  • MCP
  • FastAPI
  • Okta SSO
  • Google Cloud Run
  • Terraform
  • Slack
  • Claude

No. 02 · Snowflake + dbt Data Platform

~1BRows a day

300+ models · 900+ tests · Snowflake + dbt

The data platform I designed and built at PeopleConnect.

I designed and built PeopleConnect's data platform on Snowflake and dbt, orchestrated in dbt Cloud. It runs 300+ dbt models and processes about 1B rows a day. I wrote a custom Python ingestion layer for sources Fivetran doesn't cover, set up CI/CD in GitHub from staging to prod, and backed it with 900+ dbt tests, freshness SLAs on core tables and a daily AI job that checks our metrics for problems.

  • Snowflake
  • dbt
  • dbt Cloud
  • Python
  • Fivetran
  • GitHub CI/CD

No. 03 · 12 Claude Agents

12Agents, one per job function

Claude Managed Agents

Twelve agents, each covering its own job function.

I built 12 agents on Claude Managed Agents. Each one covers a separate job function and works alongside the human team. They run on Google Cloud Run and are integrated with Asana.

  • Claude Managed Agents
  • Google Cloud Run
  • Asana

No. 04 · Billing and Payments Data

The data Accounting uses to reconcile revenue.

I'm the data engineering lead connecting our order and subscription data with our payment processors and a collections partner. My data is what Accounting uses to reconcile revenue, tied out to the merchant statements, along with a deferred revenue model. I also dig into how we retry failed payments across our brands and recommend new retry strategies.

  • Snowflake
  • dbt

No. 05 · Forecasting and Lifetime Value

Forecasts used by marketing, FP&A and the exec team.

I built cohort-based models that predict customer lifetime value, retention and revenue, using XGBoost, Prophet and Snowpark. Marketing, FP&A and the exec team all use them. I also built a value-based bidding model for Google Ads.

  • XGBoost
  • Prophet
  • Snowpark
  • Snowflake
  • Google Ads

2026 · Jan → Sep · 1 business

Wedge Golf

Jan 2026

Started building

Wedge Golf

Free · iPhone · Wedge Pass in-app

Download on the App Store (opens in a new tab)wedge-golf.dev (opens in a new tab)

Track.Compete.Connect.Improve.

Wedge Golf is my own company. It's a free multiplayer golf companion app for iPhone. I started building it in January 2026, launched it on the App Store that September, and I've shipped steady updates since. I built the whole thing end-to-end with Claude, from the iOS app to the backend, website and infrastructure.

  • GPS shot tracking with no clip-on sensors
  • Nassau and match play money games that settle themselves
  • Rounds post straight to GHIN for an official handicap
  • Live scoring, a friends feed and tournaments
  • A Wedge Pass subscription through Apple In-App Purchase, verified server-side
  • SwiftUI
  • FastAPI
  • Google Cloud Run
  • Postgres on Cloud SQL
  • Next.js
  • Firebase sign-in
  • Terraform
  • Apple In-App Purchase
  • Claude
6 screens from Wedge Golf
  • Wedge Golf home screen with a profile, official GHIN handicap index and handicap trend chart.

    Home

  • Wedge Golf GPS map of a hole with yardages to the front, middle and back of the green.

    GPS map

  • Wedge Golf Nassau money game screen showing front, back and overall bets.

    Nassau

  • Wedge Golf tournament leaderboard.

    Tournament

  • Wedge Golf hole scoring screen for a group.

    Hole scoring

  • Wedge Golf stats screen with scoring average, best and high rounds, and match record.

    Stats

Sep 8, 2026

Launched on the App Store

2016 → 2026 · 11 entries

Timeline

work education business milestone

Education: 2016 – 2020

B.S. Industrial Engineering

Cal Poly San Luis Obispo

Where it all started. I earned my B.S. in Industrial Engineering and graduated in June 2020.

Work: Jun – Sep 2018

Industrial Real Estate Intern

Savills

A summer in industrial real estate. I worked on database management, research projects and marketing analysis.

Work: Jun – Sep 2019

Operations Intern

Callaway Golf

I optimized inventory slotting and the warehouse layout, and built an MS Access inventory management system for a new subsidiary.

Work: Jul 2020 – Jul 2021

Professional Development Program

General Dynamics NASSCO

A year rotating through every production, support and engineering department, building dashboards for process improvement. That's really where I learned I enjoy using data to solve problems.

Work: Jul 2021 – Jul 2023

Data Engineer

General Dynamics NASSCO

I built pipelines and Tableau dashboards, created and ran the BI Center of Excellence, mentored analysts, and made a manufacturing line overview with a Python unplanned-demand algorithm for Production Control.

Education: Sep 2021 – 2023

MBA

National University

Earned my MBA alongside my data engineering role at NASSCO, finishing in 2023.

Work: Jul 2023 – Feb 2024

Senior Business Intelligence Analyst

Maravai LifeSciences

A San Diego biotech. I built an executive sales dashboard leadership reviewed monthly, plus a consumption-planning dashboard driven by a Python ML forecast, all in Snowflake and Tableau.

Work: May 2024 – Mar 2026

Principal Business Intelligence Analyst

PeopleConnect

Joined a San Diego company that owns several people-search sites and an identity-protection brand. It's a lean team, so I wear a lot of hats across data, BI and ML.

Business: Jan 2026

Started building Wedge Golf

Wedge Golf

Started building a free multiplayer golf companion app for iPhone. I built it end-to-end with Claude.

Work: Mar 2026 – Present

Business Intelligence Lead

PeopleConnect Now

Promoted to BI Lead. I own the BI roadmap and our dbt, data modeling and SQL standards, and support 50+ stakeholders across the company.

Milestone: Sep 2026

Launched Wedge Golf on the App Store

Wedge Golf

Wedge Golf went live on the App Store on September 8, 2026. I've shipped steady updates since.

Now · Oct 2026

Say hello.

I'd love to hear from you, whether it's about data, AI, golf or something you're building. You can also find some of my templates and experiments on GitHub.

LinkedIn (opens in a new tab)GitHub (opens in a new tab)