Skip to main content
mvp program header graphic

Databricks MVPs

The Databricks MVP Program is our way of thanking and recognizing the community members, data scientists, data engineers, developers and open source enthusiasts who go above and beyond to uplift the data and AI community.

Whether they’re speaking at conferences, leading workshops, teaching, mentoring, blogging, writing books, creating tutorials, offering support in forums or organizing meetups, Databricks MVPs inspire others and encourage knowledge sharing while helping to solve tough data and AI problems.

Meet the Databricks MVPs

MVPs share their passion and technical expertise with audiences around the world. They contribute to a variety of open source projects, including Apache Spark™, Delta Lake, MLflow and others. Don’t hesitate to contact them on their channels to see what they’re working on.

UNITED STATES

Adi Polak

Data and AI Expert
LinkedIn - GitHub - X

INDIA

Ajay Kumar Pandey

Assistant Manager I Data Engineer
X - Community

UNITED STATES

Alex Wiss-Wolferding

Lead Data Architect
LinkedIn - GitHub

UNITED STATES

Andrew Sitz

Data Architect I Co-owner
LinkedIn

NORWAY

Awadelrahman M.A. Ahmed

Cloud Data and Analytics Architect
LinkedIn

FRANCE

Bartosz Konieczny

Freelance Data Engineer | Trainer
LinkedIn - GitHub - X - Stackoverflow - Web

CANADA

Behzad Nikzad

Principal Data Architect
LinkedIn

POLAND

Daniel Sahal

Senior Data Engineer
LinkedIn - Community

 

FRANCE

Derar Alhussein

Udemy Instructor | O’Reilly Author
LinkedIn - GitHub - Web - Udemy

UNITED STATES

Dip Kharod

Chief Technology Officer
LinkedIn

UNITED STATES

Doug MacWilliams

Director of Data
LinkedIn

UNITED STATES

Dylan Ford

Databricks Practice Lead
LinkedIn

UNITED STATES

Eddie Edgeworth

Chief Technology Officer
LinkedIn

UNITED STATES

Eloisa Elias T

Data Scientist | Data Analyst | Open Source Community Organizer |  Founder, PyData Seattle by NumFOCUS | Chair, PyLadies Seattle
LinkedIn - YouTube

UNITED KINGDOM

Gavita Regunath

Head of AI
LinkedIn - X

SLOVAKIA

Hubert Dudek

Leading Data Engineer
LinkedIn - YouTube

POLAND

Jacek Laskowski

Freelance Data Engineer 
LinkedIn - GitHub - X - Stackoverflow

NETHERLANDS

Jaco van Gelder

Staff Data Engineer
LinkedIn - GitHub - Community

CANADA

Jonathan Rioux

ML I Data Nerd
LinkedIn

UNITED STATES

Josh Adams

Data Architect | Co-owner
LinkedIn

UNITED STATES

Josue A. Bogran

Solutions Architect Manager | Technical Advisor
LinkedIn

NORWAY

Julia Førde

Data Warehousing | Consultant
LinkedIn - Sessionize

CHINA

Kent Yao

Apache Member | Apache Kyuubi PMC Chair | Apache Spark™ Committer
LinkedIn - GitHub - X - Stackoverflow

UNITED STATES

KyJah Keys

Solver of Problems | Product Engineer
LinkedIn - GitHub - X - Community

IRELAND

Kyle Hamilton

Ph.D. Candidate, TU Dublin
LinkedIn - GitHub

BRAZIL

Luan Moreno

Sr. Cloud Consultant | Data Engineer
LinkedIn

UNITED STATES

Mani Kandasamy

Technology Fellow | AI and Data
LinkedIn

NETHERLANDS

Maria Vechtomova

MLOps Tech Lead
LinkedIn - X - Medium

HUNGARY

Mate Gulyas

CEO I Data Engineering and Data Science
LinkedIn

INDIA

Maulik Dixit

Sr. Director — Data Engineering
LinkedIn

UNITED STATES

Michael Green

Director — Product Management
LinkedIn

INDIA

Phani Reddy Janga

Associate Principal — Data Engineering
LinkedIn - Community

UNITED STATES

R. Tyler Croy

Developer
GitHub - X - Stackoverflow

UNITED STATES

Rachel Sim

Senior Manager — Data and AI

UNITED STATES

Rajaniesh Kaushikk

Technology Director
LinkedIn

INDIA

Rishabh Pandey

Consultant
LinkedIn - YouTube - Community

GERMANY

Robert Pack

Cloud Native AI and Development Platforms
LinkedIn - GitHub

UNITED STATES

Ryan Shiva

Software Engineer
LinkedIn

UNITED STATES

Scott Davis

Managing Director I Data and AI
LinkedIn

UNITED STATES

Scott Haines

Distinguished Software Engineer
LinkedIn - GitHub - X

UNITED KINGDOM

Simon Whiteley

CTO | YouTuber | Spark Nerd
LinkedIn - YouTube - X

UNITED STATES

Skyler Myers

Head of Data Engineering
GitHub

UNITED STATES

Subramanian Iyer

Master Architect I Founder
LinkedIn

INDIA

Vishal Waghmode

Founder
LinkedIn - X

Alumni MVPs

UNITED STATES

Geeta Chauhan

Geeta leads AI/PyTorch Partnership Engineering at Facebook AI and focuses on strategic initiatives.
LinkedIn

POLAND

Maciej Szymkiewicz

Maciej is an Apache Spark™ committer. He is available for mentoring and consulting.
LinkedIn

JAPAN

Takeshi Yamamuro

Takeshi is a software engineer, Apache Spark™ committer and PMC member at NTT, Inc., who mainly works on Spark SQL.
LinkedIn

SWITZERLAND

Lorenz Walthert

Lorenz is a data scientist, MLflow contributor, climate activist and GSoC participant.
LinkedIn

CANADA

Yitao Li

Yitao is a software engineer at SafeGraph and the current maintainer of sparklyr, an R interface for Apache Spark™.
LinkedIn

Program Benefits

Becoming a Databricks MVP does more than help you grow your public profile and professional development. It also comes with some great benefits:

  • Free attendance at the Databricks Data + AI Summit

  • Peer networking and sharing through a private community channel

  • Access to Databricks and OSS subject matter experts via a private channel under NDA

  • A Databricks MVP badge that can be used on social media or websites

  • Recognition on the Databricks website and social channels

  • Amplification of some of your work on Databricks social channels

  • Custom Databricks MVP swag

  • Speaker opportunities at Databricks events

  • Sponsorship and swag for selected meetups

Membership Requirements

MVPs are first and foremost practitioners in the data and AI community. Their technology focus includes Databricks, MLflow, Delta Lake, Apache Spark™ and related ecosystem technologies. Throughout the year, MVPs actively build up others by teaching, blogging, speaking, mentoring, organizing meetups, creating content, answering questions on forums and more.

As a Databricks MVP, your responsibilities include a combination of the following:

  • Staying up to date on the latest Databricks developments 

  • Organizing Databricks meetups or webinars

  • Contributing to technical or thought leadership blogs

  • Participating in first- and third-party events

  • Being an active member of community.databricks.com

  • Promoting Databricks events and solutions through social and individual networks

  • Engaging with new community members to ensure a welcoming and inclusive environment

  • Fostering community engagement

  • Driving the growth and success of the Databricks developer community

  • Interviewing new potential members

  • Signing a personal NDA to ensure you’re added to our private channels

These responsibilities are crucial for creating a vibrant and thriving developer community. As an MVP, you’ll always follow the Databricks Code of Conduct.

Membership Renewals

The Databricks MVP Program is offered only to a select few. Membership is awarded annually and renewed at the end of the year. Qualification is based on member activity in the community compared to other members during the same period. New members are vetted through an interview with the Databricks DevRel team and a current Databricks MVP.

Nominate a Peer

We’d love to hear from you! Tell us who made continued outstanding contributions to the data and AI community. Someone in the community or a Databricks employee must nominate candidates. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis, and membership is valid for one year.

New members are selected based on their deep technical knowledge of Databricks solutions and community standing. They will generally focus on areas like data warehousing, data engineering, data analytics, data science, AI, MLOps and more.