Assessment
Two to six weeks. Inventory sources, clarify decisions and KPI needs, produce a sequenced roadmap.
Independent data consulting
Data architecture, modeling, and governance
RDM Datalab is the independent consulting practice of Michael Walker. 25 years in data, including 13 leading enterprise data management at Wells Fargo, and earlier delivery work for Salesforce, Google, Expedia, and Hotwire.
I work with organizations that need senior data architecture depth without hiring for it, and with consulting firms that need a senior practitioner on a client engagement.
Available for direct engagements and subcontract work with consulting partners. South Bay Area or remote.
What I do
Three areas of work. Most engagements start with an assessment and move into modeling or governance from there.
Data architecture and modeling
Conceptual, logical, and dimensional modeling. Master data management and identity resolution, including match strategy, survivorship rules, and key generation. I built a custom party matching engine in Ab Initio and Teradata before packaged MDM was a market, and the fundamentals have not changed.
Governance foundation
Domains, ownership, common terms, and a governing council that functions from month one. Sequenced so early wins land while the structural work is still underway, rather than asking an organization to wait a year for value.
Data strategy and AI readiness
An assessment of what the data function delivers today against what the business needs, ending in a sequenced roadmap someone can fund. Covers decision and KPI alignment, ownership, operating model, and adoption.
Most AI readiness work stops at data quality. The harder gap is semantic. Models and agents need to know what a business means by its own terms, and that context lives in the conceptual and logical layers most organizations never built.
Background
I started in data engineering and technical lead roles in 2001, delivering data architecture and integration work for Salesforce, Google, Expedia, and Hotwire. Consulting work with Wells Fargo turned into a full-time role, and I spent 13 years there in data management positions of increasing scope across payments, risk, and corporate functions.
- Owned product strategy for four golden source datasets serving 5,000 users
- Rebuilt sourcing and pipeline design, cutting data latency from 48 hours to under 12
- Established governance and metadata controls that reduced data quality incidents by 25 percent
- Led analytics and AI initiatives delivering roughly $30M in measured business value
- Built and managed analyst teams of 14 to 24 people
What I bring to an engagement is technical depth alongside business context. I can work through a data model in the morning and sit down with a CFO in the afternoon to talk through what their organization actually needs from its data. I care about whether the model holds up, whether the definitions survive contact with the business, and whether anyone can maintain the result after I leave.
How engagements work
Build
Design and deliver models, governance structures, or pipelines, with QA and documentation included rather than promised.
Advisory
Ongoing architecture and governance support, usually alongside an internal team or a partner delivery team.
I work on dedicated monthly capacity or fixed-scope engagements. Documentation and handoff are part of the work, not an add-on.
Data products
RDM Datalab publishes data products built from federal economic sources. Each one ships with a documented data model, a data dictionary, and a schema that works in analytics tools without cleanup.
Market Terrain: CFO Benchmarking Dashboard
County-level economic intelligence in a ready-to-use Power BI dashboard.
View product pageU.S. Economic Signals Dataset
A curated dataset integrating ABS, QCEW, and BEA GDP into a consistent, analytics-ready schema.
View product pageData sources
Products are built from authoritative U.S. public sources:
| Source | Publisher | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Annual Business Survey (ABS) | U.S. Census Bureau | Firm counts, receipts |
| Quarterly Census of Employment & Wages (QCEW) | Bureau of Labor Statistics | Employment, payroll |
| GDP by County | Bureau of Economic Analysis | GDP, output |
Contact
Reach out for access, custom data products, or a quick scoping call.