Opeyemi Fabiyi
About
I’m an Analytics Engineer with Data Culture, a Data Consulting firm where I use dbt regularly to help clients build quality-tested data assets. Before Data Culture, I worked at Cowrywise, one of the leading Fintech companies in Nigeria, where I was a solo data team member, and that was my first introduction to dbt and Analytics Engineering. Before that, I was doing Data Science and Analytics at Deloitte Nigeria. It’s been an exciting journey since I started using dbt and joining the community.Outside of work, I’m very passionate about Community building and Data Advocacy. I founded one of Nigeria’s most vibrant Data communities, “The Young Data Professional Community”. I’m also the Founder of the Lagos dbt Meetup and one of the organizers of the Largest Data Conference in Africa, DataFest Africa Conference. I became an active member of the dbt community in 2021 & spoke at Coalesce 2022. So when I’m not actively working I’m involved in one community activity or the other.
When did you join the dbt community and in what way has it impacted your career?
I joined the dbt Slack community in 2021, and it has been an experience getting to learn from thought leaders in the space and stay in touch with cutting-edge innovation in the data space. The community has helped me become a better engineer by reading different responses to questions on Slack, and seeing genuine support from community members help other members tackle and solve their difficult problems is inspiring and has allowed me to model my community (YDP & the Lagos dbt Meetup) through that lens. I randomly enter the dbt Slack daily to read and learn from different channels. I love the sense of community that resonates in the dbt Slack channel, and the good news is that I got my current role from the #jobs channel from a post from Data Culture Co-Founder. So you can stay glued to that page if you are looking for a job role.
The dbt community greatly impacted my previous role as a one-person data team. The community became the team I didn't have, providing all the necessary support and guidance I needed to deliver great value for the company excellently, and my experience with the community was the inspiration for my Coalesce talk in 2022 on how to leverage the dbt community as a data team of one.
What dbt community leader do you identify with? How are you looking to grow your leadership in the dbt community?
Many great leaders inspire me in the dbt community; Joel Labes for constantly interacting with new folks and providing that safe space for everyone to ask any question, no matter how dumb you may think your question may be. He will give a response that will solve your problem; Benn Stancil for his vast experience and how he communicates it well with humour in his Friday night Substack, a newsletter I look forward to, which helps me stay current with recent trends in the global data space.
Both of them resonate with the kind of leader I want to grow in the dbt Community; to be vast, experienced and readily available to provide support and guidance and help people solve problems and grow their careers.
What have you learned from community members? What do you hope others can learn from you?
I've learned how to show empathy as a data professional and be a great engineer from various best practices around working with data. I also want others to know that irrespective of their current level of expertise or maturity in their data career, they can make an impact by getting involved in the community and helping others grow.
Anything else interesting you want to tell us?
Maybe I will consider DevRel as a career sometime because of my innate passion and love for community and people. Several folks tell me I’m a strong DevRel talent and a valuable asset for any product-led company. If you need someone to bounce ideas off of or discuss your community engagement efforts, please feel free to reach out. On a side note, it was really exciting for me to attend Coalesce 2024 in Vegas in person, which allowed me not only to learn but, most importantly, to meet amazing persons I’ve only interacted with online, like Bruno, Kuberjain, Dakota and many more; shout-out to Zenlytic and Lightdash for making that possible and, most importantly, a huge shout-out to the dbt Lab community team: Amada, Natasha and everyone on the community team for their constant supports to helping out with making the dbt Lagos (Nigeria) meetup a success.