About
Dana Rivkind

I am a technical strategist with operator depth — someone who doesn't stay at the slide layer.

With over 25 years of experience spanning Microsoft, Oracle, and the public sector, my career has been defined by one consistent pattern: moving between executive framing and hands-on implementation, between architecture principles and working code, between governance design and the operational realities that determine whether a system actually holds up. I specialize in the intersection where cloud infrastructure, data platforms, and security governance converge — turning complex technical and organizational challenges into systems that are resilient, accountable, and built for the real world.

My career at Microsoft began in the trenches of what would become Azure.

I was among the original field engineers on Microsoft's Parallel Data Warehouse (PDW) incubation team — the initiative that evolved into Azure Synapse Analytics and helped lay the architectural foundation for Microsoft Azure itself. Before joining that team, I secured the only PDW appliance sale within the U.S. Federal Government, leading to its direct deployment at the Pentagon. Working inside a massively parallel processing system with no documentation, I reverse-engineered the PDW engine and built the platform's first diagnostic health-check framework from the ground up. That work reduced escalations, accelerated issue resolution, and directly influenced the evolution of Azure's modern data services. I was recognized with Microsoft's Great People Great Performance Award for these contributions — and later won a company Hackathon for a VR-assisted PTSD treatment prototype, because solving hard problems doesn't stop at the data layer.

At Oracle, I led the technical architecture for one of the company's core cloud migration platforms.

As Principal Cloud Architect, I served as lead developer architect for Migrate360 — Oracle's internal automation platform for large-scale database and VM migrations — designing PL/SQL programs and Oracle APEX applications that handled workload planning, infrastructure provisioning, migration execution, and post-migration validation at enterprise scale. I also led integration work connecting Oracle Autonomous Data Warehouse with Oracle Analytics Cloud, enabling machine learning-driven predictive analytics for enterprise clients. I earned nine Oracle Cloud certifications during this period, drove more than $1M in annual cost reductions through cloud resource optimization, and led internal working groups on Metaverse and Web3 security architecture — because the next generation of data ownership and identity challenges requires people already thinking about them today.

My current role is in a high-stakes, highly regulated enterprise environment — the kind where governance gaps don't stay invisible for long.

I lead database security, cloud modernization, and governance for a large-scale, multi-agency organization where mission-critical systems run continuously and compliance is non-negotiable. Beyond managing that platform, I am building the enterprise DevSecOps initiative from the ground up — architecting it as a true enforcement model, not a documentation exercise. That means policy-as-code that systems actually obey, Zero Trust extended to platforms and management planes rather than just endpoints, CI/CD scaffolds with separation of duties and trust boundaries built in, and operating models that make accountability visible and verifiable rather than assumed. Alongside this, I identified and addressed deep structural misalignment across the environment — surfacing and eliminating millions in savings across licensing, over-provisioned resources, and inefficient infrastructure. The work is unglamorous, consequential, and exactly the kind I do best.

Leadership, to me, means raising the standard while making it easier for others to reach it.

Throughout my career, peers and managers have consistently noted that my leadership operates independent of formal authority — solution-oriented, willing to speak up, and focused on enabling the people around me to do their best work. I mentor engineers not by handing them answers, but by helping them build stronger mental models. I create frameworks teams can actually use. I communicate across the gap between deep technical work and executive decision-making, because both matter and they rarely speak the same language without someone who understands both. My most recent performance review rated me Outstanding overall — with Outstanding ratings in Job Knowledge, Initiative, and Work Habits — a reflection of the discipline I bring to every challenge: understand the real problem, build something that holds up, and don't stop at mostly right.

What sets me apart is not any single domain — it's the combination.

Many people can discuss cloud governance. Fewer can turn it into repositories, schemas, deployment pipelines, and operating models with real accountability behind them. Many cloud architects don't understand database operational realities at depth. Many database engineers don't deeply understand multicloud governance and control-plane design. I work across both — and across the security, automation, and organizational layers in between. I am most effective in the environments others find most difficult: where governance is weak, ownership is fragmented, and teams need someone who can connect policy to tooling and architecture to execution. That is where I do my best work.

My guiding principle has never changed: protect data, empower people, lead with integrity.

I am looking for roles where that principle isn't just a value statement — it's a mandate. Where platform architecture, security governance, and implementation authority are all in scope. Where the measure of success is not the size of the engagement or the prestige of the title, but whether the systems I build are genuinely better for the people who depend on them. Technology built without integrity isn't progress. That standard guides everything I do, and it is the foundation I bring to every organization I serve.

If you're looking for a technical leader who operates at the strategy layer and rolls up their sleeves when the work demands it — let's connect.