S1 - 08 | How DBT is a bridge between analysts and engineers with Jonathan Brooks

Analytics engineering is about delivering high quality data transparently to everyone comfortable with SQL. This episode is about the big ideas behind the modern data stack.

Today I speak with Jonathan Brooks about data transformations. Jonathan works as a lead solutions architect at 4Mile analytics, an end-to-end data consultancy company in the Bay area. We speak about the role that a dedicated data modelling layer plays in modern data platforms, the case for a declarative SQL-based layer, the principles of analytics engineering and how these are embodies in Data Built Tool (DBT) an open-source project led by the team at Fishtown analytics, which has become the de-facto tool to manage ELT pipelines at scale. We talk about how DBT changes the analytics workflow, how it simplifies finding models and understanding how they are built and how they impact the business as a whole. We also compare this to legacy data platforms to understand how the tech is changing the way we think about data, how it affects the global metric of "time-to-value" and how it changes how we hire, the difference between information and data management, outstanding roadblocks to data fluency, and other topics.You can follow Jonathan onLinkedIn.