I build AI-native data platforms — and multiply the teams that run them.
Matt Nelson · P.Eng · Berkeley MIDS · 10 years in data, 16 in engineering · Calgary, Canada
The path so far
2005–2010
University of Waterloo — BASc Chemical Engineering
2006–2010
Engineering Co-op — Lanmark · Olds Gas Plant · Pengrowth
2010–2014
Pengrowth Energy — Production & Exploitation Engineer
2014–2017
Centrica Energy — Exploitation / Development Engineer
2016–2018
Berkeley MIDS — Master of Information & Data Science
Master of Information and Data Science at UC Berkeley (3.89 GPA) — completed nights-and-weekends while working full-time. The pivot point where a decade of engineering turned into a data career.
2017–2022
Canlin Energy — Corporate Data Scientist & Reserves Manager
Drove the transition to self-service data: implemented Tableau company-wide (100+ data sources, 50 workbooks in year one) and owned the regulated annual reserves evaluation feeding audited financial statements.
2022–2024
Canlin Energy — Data & Advanced Analytics Lead
Designed, built, and ran Canlin’s modern data stack (dbt Cloud, Snowflake, DataRobot) and led IROC (remote operations centre) analytics — mentoring junior professionals into data roles along the way.
2024–2025
Paramount Resources — Senior Data Analytics Engineer
Senior IC on the Data Analytics and Integration team — corporate PowerBI dashboard suites, Streamlit optimization apps, and governance-level advocacy for a modern cloud data stack.
2025–2026
StackDX — Data Platform Engineer
Lead engineer on the US data platform rebuild: a legacy Python ETL stack replaced with a production Dagster architecture — 15 states, 945 transformation assets, a 3.8 TB source layer distilled to a 10.3 GB exposure layer serving 300M+ records — shipped AI-first with a custom Claude Code toolchain. Read more
2026–now
StackDX — Product Manager, Stack Maps & Public Data
Product Manager for Stack Maps and the Public Data team — a 6-person group across two countries — setting roadmap while still shipping in the codebases the roadmap depends on.
Flagship projects
2014
P.Eng designation — APEGA, 2014
Professional Engineer designation (APEGA) — the licensed-engineering rigor that underwrites every production system since.
2017–2022
Reserves evaluation ownership — +$730M technical revisions
Owned the externally-audited NI 51-101 reserves evaluation for five years — the board-level valuation of every corporate asset. Rigorous data and engineering work added +$730M (NPV10) in technical revisions. Read more
2021–now
twochannel.ai — 18k+ products · one engineer
Founder project: an AI-assisted HiFi catalog and system designer where LLM-in-the-loop pipelines maintain 18k+ products across 2k+ brands. The catalog is the size that would normally need a small data team behind it, and there is only me. Read more
2022–2024
dbt + Snowflake platform — Canlin’s data foundation
The dbt Cloud / Snowflake platform that became Canlin’s foundation for operational data, BI, and ML — automation from it saved 50+ hours per week across Operations. Read more
2022–2024
8,000-well forecasting — daily production ML
Modified XGBoost models forecasting the next 30 days of production for 8,000+ wells, inferring daily into corporate reporting — plus 2-year forecasts across the full well set. Read more
2022–2024
IROC analytics — remote operations centre
Real-time well status and production dashboards for Canlin’s Integrated Remote Operating Centre, with facility-outage impact auto-assessment built on networkx.
2023–now
Claude Code toolchain — skills · sub-agents · hooks · MCP
A cross-repo AI-native development practice: custom skills, sub-agents, hooks, and MCP servers — including profiling my own agent usage to find where the time was actually going, then promoting the dominant pattern into a first-class sub-agent.
2024–2025
Auto-Frac sequencer — optimization app
Streamlit app replacing a manual operations-scheduling task with a purpose-built optimization algorithm balancing efficiency, sequencing, and equipment-rotation constraints.
2024–2025
Modern-stack PoC — Python · dbt · cube.js · DuckDB
A fully-working local modern data stack (Python ingestion → dbt Core → cube.js → DuckDB → PowerBI, in Docker) that replaced legacy R + CSV flows and anchored the case for cloud analytics.
2025–now
US Dagster platform — 300M+ records · 945 assets
Production-grade Dagster-native platform for US oil & gas data: Polars/DuckDB performance layer, Terraform-managed AWS, schema contracts, and CI — the case study in shipping a modern data platform AI-first. Read more
What it adds up to
Data platform engineering
Dagster, dbt, Snowflake, Polars, DuckDB — three generations of platform builds, each one the foundation its company still runs on.
ML & AI engineering
LLM-in-the-loop pipelines, structured outputs, MCP servers and Claude Code toolchains on the AI side, and forecasting, classification and anomaly detection actually deployed on the ML side — 8,000 wells inferring daily into corporate reporting, not notebooks.
Analytics engineering & BI
Tableau and PowerBI as corporate platforms rather than one-off dashboards, semantic layers over the warehouse, and reporting automated end to end — the weekly production report alone gave Operations back 50+ hours a week.
Data leadership
Team coordination, mentorship, and board-level ownership — currently a 6-person cross-border team, with a decade of turning analysts into data professionals behind it.
Live preview of Twochannel's system builder — a flagship AI-native monorepo designed and built end-to-end.
How I work
My Red Bull Wingfinder profile puts Autonomous and Reserved at the far end, with Achiever and Dutiful right behind, which reads about right: I do my best work with room to think and a standard of my own to hit, and I tend to see things through. Hover any scale for the detail.
Connections
how you manage relationships, and how well you work independently
You enjoy your own company and are self-aware. You like to self-reflect and usually find it easy to focus.
Succeeds through
- — your ability to reflect on your work
- — focusing and not getting distracted
- — your preference to work through things on your own
You have a very clear idea about how things should be done. You enjoy having the independence to really be yourself and take control.
Succeeds through
- — staying focused on your deliverables
- — doing what you believe in
- — playing your part
You're concerned with other people's needs and try to deal with conflict fairly. You hear what other people have to say and are honest in your own opinions.
Succeeds through
- — being able to see two viewpoints
- — getting your point across clearly
- — listening to others
You're good at dealing with stress. That doesn't mean you don't worry about things that matter, but you stay focused and rational.
Succeeds through
- — being rational about the challenges you face
- — staying in control
- — not being too laid back
Drive
level of ambition
You feel a deep sense of loyalty and you deliver on the tasks that you are entrusted with. You tend to be prompt to respond to requests, and you contribute positively to group efforts.
Succeeds through
- — your trustworthiness
- — your reliability
- — your team orientation
You're motivated and ambitious so you work hard to make a real difference. You expect a lot from yourself.
Succeeds through
- — your natural ambition
- — your determination
- — having clear goals
You care about consistency and details, but you don't lose sight of the bigger picture.
Succeeds through
- — being dependable and consistent
- — your ability to let go
- — careful planning
You're confident in yourself and your abilities but you realise that you're also human. You know what you're capable of and you're also realistic about your limitations.
Succeeds through
- — knowing when to step forward and when to let others take the lead
- — balancing your confidence with your cautiousness
- — understanding what you're good at and focusing on those areas
Creativity
how original the thinking is, against how logical and analytical
While you're open to new ideas, you also value your own experience. You enjoy the familiarity of routine but like to pepper it with spontaneity.
Succeeds through
- — your ability to balance the familiar with the unknown
- — your pragmatic approach
- — your originality
You have a pragmatic approach to problem-solving, and you're willing to embrace different ideas and approaches without losing sight of the task in hand.
Succeeds through
- — your flexible thinking
- — your structured approach
- — your ability to focus
You're good at coming up with ideas that are original but not far fetched. You believe innovation should be practical.
Succeeds through
- — using reasoning that may not be immediately obvious to others
- — your results-based approach
- — your openness to new solutions
Thinking
what you draw on when solving problems
You prefer to think through a situation before diving in. You use reason and logic to get to the heart of a problem.
Succeeds through
- — being able to learn quickly
- — remaining objective
- — taking time to think
Red Bull Wingfinder ↗ · 12 bipolar scales across 4 areas · completed 18 Aug 2026 · filled bars are the four flagged top strengths
Hiring for a data or AI team?
The fastest way to reach me is email — or the resume is one click away.