I write code to make databases faster, more reliable, and easier to operate at scale.
Most of my work is hands-on: real scripts, performance tuning, automation frameworks, and battle-tested patterns for database operations, migrations, monitoring, and high availability across PostgreSQL, MySQL, Cassandra, and distributed SQL systems.
I've spent 20+ years in production database trenches, automating upgrades for hundreds of servers, scaling databases through peak holiday traffic, and building frameworks that turn 3am emergencies into expert responses.
- 🗄️ Database automation: upgrade scripts, health checks, backup validation, cluster management
- 📊 Performance tooling: query optimization, capacity planning, load testing frameworks
- 🔧 Production ops code: monitoring integrations, failover automation, data migration scripts
- 🐳 Dev environments: Docker-based database clusters for testing and training
- 📈 Observability: custom metrics, alerting logic, telemetry integration
- 🔄 Data pipelines: ETL automation, replication management, CDC implementations
- 🛡️ Security & compliance: audit logging, encryption configs, access control patterns
- 📚 Runbooks as code: operational procedures that execute themselves
- Automated Cassandra cluster upgrades across 100+ nodes
- Built capacity planning models for predictive scaling
- Created Docker-based training labs for databases plus adjacent technologies
- Implemented online schema change tooling for zero-downtime migrations
- Wrote web scrapers and other automation for go-to-market activities
- Designed performance testing frameworks that changed vendor recommendations for production deployments
- Built monitoring integrations connecting exported metrics to Grafana, Prometheus, and custom alerting
🎯 Solutions Engineer at PlanetScale - partnering with customers through complex database migrations to PostgreSQL and Vitess (MySQL sharding). I design proof-of-value engagements, assess workload requirements, build migration tooling and automation, and translate technical database architectures into business outcomes for engineering leaders and executives. I create technical content (workshops, guides, scripts) that helps customers successfully adopt and scale on next-generation database infrastructure.
📝 Technical writing at valerieparhamthompson.com - deep dives into database internals, performance optimization, and operational best practices.
Databases: PostgreSQL • YugabyteDB • MySQL • Cassandra • MongoDB • MariaDB • Redis • Elasticsearch
Languages: Python • SQL • Bash • Go
Infrastructure: Docker • Ansible • Linux • Google Cloud • Azure
Observability: Grafana • Prometheus • JMX • Tableau • Custom metrics
Building database systems for production? Scaling beyond your current architecture? Automating database operations?
I'd love to hear about your database challenges and share what's worked (and what hasn't) in my 20 years of production database work.
"Deep empathy for ops teams forged in real-world war rooms, late-night releases, and critical database recoveries. My goal: help teams build confidence that their data layer is on solid ground."