Bjorn Claessens

Senior Data Engineer

Senior Data Engineer specializing in distributed systems and real-time data pipelines. Passionate about building scalable data platforms that power enterprise decision-making.

Professional Experience

Freelance Data Engineer @ Hoppenbrouwers

06/2026 - Present

Data engineering for all company data in Microsoft Fabric.

PySpark Python Fabric Azure DevOps OpenAI (Codex)
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Context
Udenhout, NL - Freelance role building data solutions on Microsoft Fabric.
Tasks
  • Create, improve and migrate data pipelines.
  • Introduce engineering best practices.
  • Agentic engineering (AI).
  • Prepare and manage onboarding of new talent.
Environment
Medallion architecture of company data in Microsoft Fabric.

Freelance Data Engineer @ ASML

04/2023 - 06/2026

Data engineering for complex machine data processing.

PySpark Python Azure Snowflake Databricks Kubernetes Azure DevOps Linux
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Context
Eindhoven, NL - Freelance role within ASML's data migration art.
Tasks
  • Complex machine data parsing using medallion architecture.
  • Data engineering for real-time and batch-based solutions.
Environment
Azure hosted Datalake, using medallion achritecture.

Senior Data Engineer / Tech Lead @ Nike

10/2019 - 04/2023

Technical lead for a data squad building scalable, reusable data pipelines.

PySpark Airflow AWS Python Linux Jenkins
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Context
Laakdal, Belgium - Senior Data Engineer and Tech Lead for a data squad within Nike.
Tasks
  • Built scalable and reusable data pipelines to provide foundational data aligned to a global data model.
  • Core commit to an inner-sourced ETL framework built on PySpark, infrastructure as code, and metadata-driven patterns.
  • Defined and upheld squad best practices as technical lead.
  • Ran proofs of concept for new technology stacks and solution patterns.
  • Contributed to communities of practice and architectural decision making.
  • Drove cross-team data integrations.
Environment
AWS hosted data piplines running on in-house Spark framework, orchestrated by Airflow and deployed through Jenkins.

Big Data Consultant @ Dynapps N.V. (client Johnson & Johnson)

04/2016 - 10/2019

Consultancy for Big Data projects - ETL at scale (batch and NRT).

Kafka Hadoop Hive Scala Python Linux Jenkins
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Context
Geel / Beerse, Belgium - Consulting role at Dynapps working with Johnson & Johnson on large-scale Big Data projects.
Tasks
  • Built ETL at scale across batch and near-real-time workloads.
  • Worked on machine learning pilots.
  • Supported AB deployment of datasets.
  • Contributed to cost management across the platform.
Environment
Data pipelines on Cloudera Distrubtion of Hadoop (CDH), working with ServiceNow data.

Big Data Consultant @ Cronos

07/2014 - 03/2016

Development, Operations & DevOps consultancy for Big Data projects.

Hadoop Cloudera Python Apache Spark Titan Distributed Graph HBase Solr MapReduce Java Linux
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Context
Kontich, Belgium - Consultancy covering the full stack of Big Data project delivery. Also developed a B2B content asset management service for Belga providing a searchable, aggregated source of live news feeds, public domain media, and archives.
Tasks
  • Handled Cloudera cluster deployment and administration.
  • Delivered DevOps support for Big Data infrastructure.
Environment
T-shaped data engineering.

Cloudera Hadoop Cluster Administrator @ [Cronos] Telenet

10/2014 - 03/2016

Administrator of Cloudera Hadoop cluster for Telenet, Belgium's largest cable broadband provider.

Cloudera Hadoop Puppet HP ILO Linux
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Context
Belgium - Managed enterprise Hadoop infrastructure for a major telecom provider.
Environment
Administering Cloudera Hadoop cluster on-prem.

First Line Service Desk Agent @ Hewlett Packard (HP)

07/2010 - 07/2011

First line IT support and service desk operations.

IT Support ITIL
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Role
First line IT support and service desk operations.
Education

Bachelor in Applied Informatics (Cum Laude) @ Thomas More Kempen

2011 - 2014
Specialty: Internship in Beijing, China

Bachelor in Teaching - IT and Biology @ Thomas More Kempen

2007 - 2010