Diego Lafuente
Systems-oriented builder with 12+ years architecting data pipelines, platform implementations, and autonomous workflow systems across insurance technology, benefits administration, and pension domains. Designing and orchestrating enterprise data solutions while building agentic workflow systems. Managed operations for 15 clients, directed teams of 20+ analysts and developers, and delivered $800K+ in change order revenue. Expanding deep data engineering expertise across wider architectural surfaces.
Operating Principles
- Build systems, not scripts. Every solution should survive the next person who touches it.
- Decompose before you build. Requirements are only as good as their breakdown into measurable, testable units.
- Data has provenance. Every metric should trace back to a source, method, and confidence level.
- Ship incrementally, govern continuously. STOP gates and evidence-based handoffs prevent drift without killing velocity.
- Expanding, not transitioning. The anchor discipline is data engineering. Everything else builds on that foundation.
Role Mastery
Managing parallel roles across insurance operations and data engineering, delivering cross-domain expertise in benefits administration and pension systems.
Integrations Analyst 3
Benefits Administration
Data integration role at benefits administration technology company. Promotion path to Data Architect (March 2026).
Data Consultant
Pension & Retirement
Data systems architect for retirement benefits platform serving 30+ institutional financial services clients. Designing cloud migration architecture (legacy hosting to AWS), building enterprise ETL platforms (RazorBridge, LogBridge, DataForge), and engineering data pipelines across AWS and Azure DevOps. Led complete reverse engineering of legacy data transmission ecosystem and produced two comprehensive knowledge bases.
Functional Manager
Pension & Retirement
Hired as Functional Manager for pension system implementation project.
Data/Cloud Engineer — Digital Evidence Migration
Insurance Technology
Engineered the digital evidence migration framework, tooling, and operational standards for migrating law enforcement agencies from legacy on-premises evidence systems to cloud Evidence.com platform. Built config-driven CLI tools, Azure Databricks loader scripts, and comprehensive Diataxis documentation.
Senior Solution Manager
Benefits Administration
Led modular implementation projects for pension and benefits clients including a multi-employer pension plan and a public pension fund for unionized workers. Delivered $600K+ in change orders while stabilizing complex benefit administration systems.
Analyst — Data Conversions
Financial Services
Data conversion analyst building ETL pipelines for 403B/401K/annuity/mutual fund data migrations. First exposure to structured data pipelines using Microsoft Access as a transformation layer between raw data and mainframe import formats. First agile experience as embedded analyst in customer portal build team.
Operations Manager — Data Integration Architecture
Benefits Administration
Designed and maintained data integration architecture for 15 enterprise clients, leading pipeline design across 20+ analysts, developers, and managers. Engineered SQL/SSIS pipelines for EDI 834, flat file, and position-based vendor integrations across ~70 concurrent data feeds. Led data conversions, digital transformations, and agile transformation initiatives. Delivered $800K+ in total change order revenue serving 1M+ benefit plan participants.
Intern — Pension Administration
Benefits Administration
Pension administration intern performing advanced pension calculations, actuarial evaluation support, and data analysis for multi-tenant pension customers. Managed pension data for major defense contractors — combined ~1M participant lives across pension retirees and active employees.
Certifications
Scaled Agile (SAFe) Product Owner / Product Manager
Scaled Agile, Inc. · 2021
Education
Associate of Arts — Valencia College