Professional
Anthony C Johnson — Houston-based Senior Data Engineer, Database Developer, and AI Engineer on the Microsoft Azure stack.
About Me
I am an AI-focused data leader and business-minded technologist with 7+ years spent turning strategic objectives into data and AI solutions that actually move the number — revenue up or cost down. I bring the P&L awareness of someone who has run their own ventures and the technical depth to architect the platform underneath.
That combination is the whole point. I have built and operated businesses across professional services and e-commerce, so stakeholder management, ROI-driven decisions, and the cost of getting it wrong are not abstractions to me. I bring that instinct to the architecture work: cloud data platforms and AI-orchestrated workflows, designed end to end.
Most recently I led the AI-driven modernization of an enterprise data platform on Azure Data Factory, Copilot Studio, Azure AI Foundry, and n8n — setting technical direction for the team, quantifying the monthly cost savings, and presenting those outcomes directly to leadership to secure continued investment in AI. Along the way I architected an intelligent schema-drift framework that self-adapts during ingestion, which ended a category of recurring production incidents outright.
The work I do best happens embedded alongside client teams inside their own environments. I scope ambiguous requirements on the fly, prototype against real data to prove feasibility before anyone commits to a full build, and iterate on live feedback instead of waiting on handoff cycles. I own the solution from the pre-sales conversation through production deployment — there is no separate delivery team I pass it to.
I translate in both directions. I gather requirements from business stakeholders and explain engineering trade-offs in plain business language, across healthcare, insurance, and manufacturing. Underneath the AI work sits a deep foundation in T-SQL performance tuning, ETL/ELT design, and Python — the unglamorous fundamentals that decide whether the impressive layer on top holds up under load.
Outside of client work I mentor engineers, evangelize responsible AI adoption, and create A.I Build with AJ on YouTube, where I share practical guidance on AI, agents, and modern data engineering. I also build browser games as a way to keep shipping finished, polished things end to end — you can play them on the Games page.
I am a continuous learner who leads by staying hands-on, solving problems as part of the team rather than from the sidelines. Strong ownership, sharp business intuition, and a relentless pursuit of excellence — held to the standard on my front page: do it right the first time, you won’t have to do it again.
Career Experience
-
Cloud Data Engineer / A.I Engineer
Jan 2025 – Aug 2026Apex Health Solutions · Healthcare
- Led AI-driven modernization of the enterprise data platform, setting technical direction and translating executive objectives into scalable Azure Data Factory solutions.
- Served as primary technical liaison for new client onboarding — designing end-to-end ingestion, transformation, and reporting solutions with business stakeholders.
- Architected an intelligent schema-drift handling framework that self-adapts during ingestion, eliminating recurring production incidents.
- Spearheaded AI-powered processes delivering measurable monthly cost savings; quantified ROI and presented to leadership to secure continued AI investment.
- Transformed legacy manual processes into AI-orchestrated workflows with Copilot Studio, Azure AI Foundry, and n8n, mentoring teammates on the tooling.
- Engineered Python notebook solutions inside Azure Data Factory pipelines to operationalize analytics previously inaccessible through legacy tooling.
-
Data Integration Engineer
Aug 2023 – Oct 2024QAT Global Technologies (Health E Systems) · Insurance / Workers’ Comp
- Automated repetitive CRUD task tickets with advanced T-SQL, cutting manual workload and lifting operational efficiency.
- Debugged and optimized complex legacy stored procedures using Red Gate and SSMS; applied performance tuning to critical data-capture procedures.
- Led cross-functional projects through Jira and BitBucket; architected database designs and schema changes with expert-level production support.
- Automated KPI tracking across multiple Jira workloads using JQL and Power BI for real-time stakeholder insight.
- Partnered with software engineers to debug T-SQL embedded in Java applications and establish JDBC connections to customer-facing procedures. HIPAA compliant.
-
SQL Developer
Sep 2022 – Feb 2023Echo Health Inc · Healthcare Payment Processing
- Built and maintained system reports and responded to ad-hoc data requests across 300+ databases in SSMS and Azure.
- Analyzed, maintained, and monitored ETL processes in SSDT/SSIS; troubleshot Active Batch scheduler errors.
- Tuned report performance using SQL Profiler traces and execution plans in SSMS and Red Gate.
- Scripted daily data cleansing tasks in PowerShell.
-
Reports / SQL Developer
Jul 2018 – Sep 2022Cast Nylons Limited · Manufacturing
- Developed Power BI reports surfacing key business indicators, plus research-driven reports used to win new clients and increase company value.
- Devised database solutions ranging in size and complexity, increasing productivity and improving data sharing across business functions.
- Maintained complex T-SQL queries, views, and stored procedures in a multi-database environment with little supervision.
- Assisted other developers with the integration framework and delivered technical training and documentation on internal applications.
-
Data Analytics Consultant & Instructor
Jun 2018 – Jun 2023LTV Academy · Technology Education
- Trained professionals and K–12 students in Microsoft SQL Server — developer through DBA curriculum.
- Built complete schemas with tables, relationships, stored procedures, views, clustered and non-clustered indexes, and triggers.
- Created ETL solutions reading product, vendor, and order data from network CSV files into SQL Server with validation and job-completion notifications.
- Authored, deployed, and managed SSRS reports with automatic subscription-based delivery.
Technical Skills
AI & Automation
Data & Cloud
Development
Tooling & Process
Education
- Eastern Kentucky University — Business Administration, 2010–2011
- Lake Erie College — Business Administration, 2009
- Riverside High School — Graduated 2008
Recruiters — Get in Touch
Actively open to senior Data Engineer, Database Developer, and AI Engineer roles on the Microsoft Azure stack — and to consulting engagements. Send the details and I will come back to you directly, usually within a day.