Microsoft Fabric is moving fast enough that documentation alone won’t keep you ahead. If you’re trying to design a real-world data platform (or build a career) on Fabric, the people you follow matter almost as much as the tools you choose.
This is where this list comes in.
Rather than rounding up generic “data influencers”, we’ve focused on hands-on Microsoft Fabric engineers – people who actually build lakehouses, warehouses, pipelines and governance frameworks on Fabric, and then share what they’ve learned.
You’ll see a mix of:
- Consultants and freelancers who spend their days fixing broken analytics stacks and delivering Fabric projects.
- MVPs and community leaders who publish talks, blogs, videos and Git repos.
- Former Microsoft product leaders who helped build Fabric itself and now help customers use it well.
- Boutique firms (like Simple BI) that specialize in Microsoft Fabric, Power BI and Azure for real-world industries like manufacturing.
A quick note on the term “Microsoft Fabric engineer”: job titles in the wild are messy. Some of the people on this list are labelled data engineer, analytics engineer, BI consultant, architect or CTO. What they share is that their day-to-day work sits firmly in the Fabric stack: Data Engineering, Data Factory, lakehouses, warehouses, governance and Power BI on top.
How we chose these 11
For each person or team, we looked for:
- Visible Fabric work – projects, talks or posts specifically about Microsoft Fabric (not just “we plan to look at it soon”).
- Depth over hype – real architectures, performance tuning, governance, DevOps, cost management, not just “Fabric is awesome!” slides.
- Learning value – after reading/watching them, a junior or mid-level Microsoft Fabric data engineer should walk away with something they can try on Monday.
- Variety – different geographies, backgrounds and angles (manufacturing-heavy vs enterprise platform design vs DevOps, etc.).
Yes, David Giraldo from Simple BI is on this list – and yes, we’re the company behind this article. To keep things fair, you’ll see the same structure and level of detail for David as for everyone else, plus clear “best fit” notes so you can decide objectively who’s right for you.
How to use this list
You can use these Microsoft Fabric engineers in a few ways:
- To learn – follow them on LinkedIn, YouTube, blogs and conferences to stay ahead of changes in Fabric.
- To benchmark – compare your current Fabric setup (or your own skills) against the patterns they recommend.
- To hire or partner – many of them (and their companies) offer consulting, training, staff augmentation or end-to-end project delivery.
In the next section, we’ll dive into each expert one by one – who they are, what they’re known for in the Fabric world, and when it makes sense to work with or learn from them.
Microsoft Fabric engineers you should know: deep-dive profiles
Below are the 11 Microsoft Fabric engineers and practitioners to pay attention to if you care about doing real work on the platform, not just passing an exam.
1. David Giraldo – Founder, Simple BI Inc (Fabric & Power BI for manufacturing teams)
David is a Microsoft Fabric consultant and Principal BI Consultant at Simple BI, a boutique analytics firm focused on Power BI, Microsoft Fabric and the Azure data platform.
He has led more than two dozen large analytics projects for organizations including Fortune 500 companies, with a particular focus on manufacturing and other Microsoft-first environments.
His recent work centers on helping companies migrate from fragmented BI setups into clean, scalable Microsoft Fabric foundations. Simple BI’s Fabric migration and “game-changer” content shows how he thinks: start with business outcomes, avoid architecture bloat, and keep costs under control from day one.
David writes and speaks about Fabric in a way that operations, finance, and IT leaders can all understand, connecting concepts like OneLake, lakehouses and Synapse Data Engineering with very concrete KPIs and use cases.
Best fit if you…
- Are a manufacturing or industrial company that needs both a Microsoft Fabric data engineer and someone who can translate plant-floor reality into a robust data model.
- Want a partner who can provide engineers, own project outcomes, and help you build governance so your Fabric setup doesn’t devolve into “dashboard chaos” again.
Follow David via Simple BI’s site and blog, and on LinkedIn.
2. Kathrin Borchert – Power BI & Fabric consultant, MVP and educator
Kathrin is a Power BI and Microsoft Fabric consultant who focuses on helping companies actually use their data to make decisions, not just produce reports.
Her public profiles highlight support for organizations adopting Power BI, Power Platform and Fabric together, with a strong emphasis on making complex concepts accessible.
She’s also a prolific content creator. Her GitHub repositories and blog cover topics like Power BI tips, JSON themes, REST API automation and “The Magic of Microsoft Fabric,” which demystifies the platform for non-specialists.
This combination of deep technical skill plus friendly, highly visual explanations makes her particularly valuable if you’re trying to get a mixed-skill team comfortable with Fabric.
Best fit if you…
- Need a Microsoft Fabric data engineer who can also act as a teacher for your analysts and Power BI developers.
- Care about licensing, governance and adoption as much as pure engineering details
Follow Kathrin via her YoDaBI content, GitHub and social channels.
3. Annie Shahid – Microsoft Fabric strategist & writer on data culture
Annie combines hands-on Microsoft Fabric work with a strong focus on data culture and organizational change. On the Scient Solutions site, she writes about Microsoft Fabric, Power BI and strategy topics such as the cost of delaying technology adoption and building data-driven organizations.
Her content often bridges the gap between “we should use Fabric” and “how do we actually get people to use this?”—talking about adoption, communication and aligning Fabric workloads with executive priorities. That’s a perspective many pure engineers lack.
Best fit if you…
- Are a leader or architect working out how to introduce Fabric into an existing business without causing chaos.
- Want to follow someone who regularly connects Microsoft Fabric engineering decisions to high-level business strategy and culture.
Follow Annie via her blog posts on Scient Solutions and her community profiles (including the Microsoft Fabric Community).
4. Marius Daugela – Freelance Microsoft Fabric data engineer & community builder
Marius is a freelance data engineer and Microsoft Fabric specialist who works with organizations to build data platforms, warehouses and real-time analytics solutions.
His profiles highlight experience across Dynamics 365, data warehousing and BI, using tools like Power BI, PySpark and Azure Data Factory alongside Fabric.
He’s also very active in the community: speaking at Fabric-focused events such as FabCon Europe, sharing posts about building scalable solutions and championing Fabric as the future of the Microsoft analytics stack.
Marius tends to share concrete lessons learned from client work—metadata-driven frameworks, practical governance and keeping complex solutions maintainable—making his content especially useful for engineers building production Fabric environments.
Best fit if you…
- Want a Microsoft Fabric data engineer who can design and implement the full stack, not just a proof of concept.
- Prefer learning from “in the trenches” stories, patterns and anti-patterns rather than theory.
Follow him on LinkedIn and through community talks and precons.
5. Vicente Antonio Juan Magallanes – Microsoft MVP & Fabric/Power BI DevOps specialist
Vicente is a Microsoft MVP (Data Platform) with a profile that sits right at the intersection of Power BI, Microsoft Fabric and DevOps. His public speaker profiles describe him as a data engineer focused on Microsoft Fabric, Power BI and the Power Platform, delivering end-to-end analytics from data ingestion through visualization.
He creates a lot of educational content, including courses and live sessions on topics like Fabric Analytics Engineer (DP-700) preparation, Spark, lakehouses, CI/CD with Git and Azure DevOps, and real-time dashboards. This makes him particularly helpful if you’re trying to professionalize deployment pipelines around your Fabric and Power BI estate.
Best fit if you…
- Need guidance on how a Microsoft Fabric engineer should handle CI/CD, branching and deployments for analytics assets.
- Want Spanish-language content on Fabric, DevOps and Power BI delivered by a very active community speaker.
Follow Vicente on LinkedIn, his courses and his “La Cocina del Dato” content streams.
6. Andy Cutler – Principal cloud data solutions architect & Microsoft MVP (Fabric & Synapse)
Andy is a Principal Cloud Data Solutions Architect and long-time Microsoft MVP in the Data Platform category, with Fabric now explicitly part of his MVP profile alongside Azure Synapse Analytics. He blogs and speaks extensively about data platform architecture, including how to design modern analytics platforms on Fabric.
His writing often tackles thorny architecture questions: comparing Fabric to Synapse, designing multi-layered data platforms, and structuring enterprise reporting so Fabric and Power BI can coexist with existing systems. For engineering teams, his work provides both conceptual clarity and practical guidance on tenant design, capacity management and security boundaries.
Best fit if you…
- Are an architect or senior Microsoft Fabric engineer tasked with moving from “lots of data projects” to a coherent data platform.
- Need to understand Fabric in the wider context of Azure data services and existing Synapse investments.
Follow Andy via his MVP profile, personal blog and social posts.
7. Gerhard Brueckl – Lead data engineer & Fabric Studio/VSC advocate
Gerhard is a long-time Microsoft data platform expert and author of deep technical content for Microsoft Fabric engineers. His blog covers advanced topics such as using custom Python libraries in Microsoft Fabric Data Engineering, and he’s actively involved in community events focused on Fabric and Power BI.
His work is very much from the “serious engineering” angle: automation, VS Code integration (Fabric Studio), deployment strategies and maintainable data engineering workflows. This is ideal for teams that want Fabric to feel like a real software engineering platform, not just a UI-driven tool.
Best fit if you…
- Already have Fabric up and running and now need to improve engineering discipline (version control, reusable libraries, automation, tooling).
- Want to see what advanced Microsoft Fabric data engineering looks like in practice, from someone who has worked on complex BI/DWH architectures for nearly two decades.
Follow Gerhard via his blog and talks shared through community groups and conferences.
8. Aleksi Partanen – Microsoft Fabric MVP, data architect & community leader
Aleksi is a Microsoft Fabric MVP, data architect and team lead at Norrin, recognized specifically for his contributions to the Fabric ecosystem. He designs and implements modern data platforms on Microsoft Fabric and Azure, combining architectural thinking with hands-on data engineering.
He’s very active in public learning spaces: a YouTube channel focused on “Master Microsoft Fabric,” a dedicated Fabric community (including Discord), and frequent conference sessions and community talks. His content ranges from architectural patterns (multi-workspace deployments, item autobinding) to practical demos.
Best fit if you…
- Want to follow a Microsoft Fabric engineer who also thinks about platform-level design and long-term maintainability.
- Prefer structured learning via videos, community servers and live talks, rather than only reading documentation.
Follow Aleksi via his MVP announcements, Norrin insights, YouTube and Fabric community channels.
9. Anna Wykes – Solutions architect, trainer & Microsoft Data Platform/AI MVP
Anna is a Microsoft Data Platform and AI MVP, solutions architect and international speaker with deep experience in data engineering and analytics. She delivers sessions on topics like “Unlocking Data Potential: Microsoft Fabric for Software Developers” and MLOps in Azure, helping teams bridge software-engineering practices with modern data platforms.
Her Fabric-related content is particularly useful for engineering-heavy organizations: she shows how developers can reason about Fabric—workspaces, items, pipelines, notebooks—in familiar terms, and how to layer automation, testing and infrastructure-as-code on top.
Best fit if you…
- Have strong software engineers who are new to data platforms and need to understand Fabric without losing their engineering discipline.
- Want opinionated guidance on data engineering patterns, AI integration and long-term platform design.
Follow Anna via her MVP profile, conference talks and blog content.
10. Estera Kot – CTO at Clouds on Mars & former Microsoft Fabric product leader
Estera is Chief Technology Officer at Clouds on Mars and formerly a Principal Product Manager at Microsoft, where she worked on performance-critical components of Azure Synapse Analytics and Microsoft Fabric, with a focus on Apache Spark and high-performance analytics engines.
Her current role involves defining Data & AI strategy and leading implementations for clients, with Fabric as a central platform. She co-hosts and appears in Fabric Espresso episodes and various podcasts, where she explains how Fabric’s internals and compute management work, alongside broader topics like ethical AI and “Spark under the hood.”
Best fit if you…
- Need a Microsoft Fabric expert who understands the platform from both the inside (product & engine) and outside (client implementation).
- Care about squeezing maximum performance from Spark workloads and Fabric capacities while keeping governance and ethics in view.
Follow Estera via Clouds on Mars announcements, Fabric Espresso and her podcast appearances.
11. Stijn Wynants – Data engineer & former Senior Product Manager for Fabric Warehouse
Stijn is a data engineer and Microsoft Fabric expert who previously served as a Senior Product Manager for Fabric Warehouse at Microsoft. His work on the Fabric product team included features like dynamic data masking and utilization reporting for Warehouse and SQL Endpoints, along with deep dives into capacity metrics and performance.
Now active as a speaker, consultant and trainer, he leads preconference workshops such as “End-to-End Data Engineering with Microsoft Fabric,” teaching engineers how to build resilient, scalable data solutions on Warehouse and lakehouse.
Best fit if you…
- Want guidance straight from someone who helped design Fabric Warehouse itself.
- Need to understand how a Microsoft Fabric data engineer should think about security, capacity metrics, and operational reliability at scale.
Follow Stijn via his talks, blog and social channels.
How to work with a Microsoft Fabric engineer (or expert partner) for maximum impact
Hiring a Microsoft Fabric engineer (or bringing in a specialist partner) is only half the story. The way you structure the engagement will decide whether you end up with a shiny proof-of-concept… or a platform your business can actually run on.
Below is a practical playbook you can plug into your own context.
Choose the right engagement model
There are three broad ways to work with Microsoft Fabric experts:
- Embedded engineer (staff augmentation)
You add a Microsoft Fabric data engineer to your existing team for a fixed period.
Best when:- You already have a BI/data team and need extra Fabric capacity.
- You want knowledge transfer into your internal developers.
- You have a clear roadmap but not enough hands.
- Project-based delivery
You bring in a consulting team to deliver a defined outcome – for example: “Implement a Fabric-based lakehouse and core reports for production, inventory and finance.”
Best when:- You need a working solution in months, not years.
- You want architecture, engineering and reporting handled together.
- Your internal team doesn’t yet have Fabric experience.
- Advisory & architecture review
A senior Microsoft Fabric engineer or architect regularly reviews your designs, code and roadmap.
Best when:- You have engineers already building in Fabric but want a second pair of eyes.
- You’re about to commit serious budget and want to avoid expensive rework.
A good partner will often blend these models – for example, a short advisory engagement to set the direction, followed by project-based work and then an embedded engineer to support your own team.
Scope the work around business outcomes, not features
Before your Microsoft Fabric engineer touches a workspace, agree on a one-page scope that answers:
- What business questions should we be able to answer?
e.g. “What’s our OEE by line and shift?”, “Where are we losing margin by customer?” - Which 3–5 KPIs must be trustworthy within the first release?
- Which systems are in scope? (ERP, MES, CRM, spreadsheets, cloud apps, etc.)
- What are our non-negotiables?
- Data refresh frequency (daily, hourly, near real-time).
- Regulatory/security constraints.
- Must-have integrations (Teams, Excel, etc.).
Your Microsoft Fabric engineer can then translate this into technical scope: lakehouse structure, pipelines, semantic models, security model, and capacity needs.
Set collaboration patterns early
To get real value from a Microsoft Fabric engineer, treat them as part of the business—not just IT.
- Give them a business co-pilot.
Pair each Fabric engineer with a product owner from operations, finance or sales who can make decisions and clarify priorities. - Define decision rights.
- Architect/engineer: owns technical implementation decisions.
- Product owner: owns “is this useful?” and prioritization.
- Leadership: owns budget, scope trade-offs and timelines.
- Use simple rituals.
- Weekly show-and-tell: engineer demos what’s been built in Fabric using real data.
- Fortnightly backlog check: re-prioritize features based on what users actually use.
- Monthly architecture review: check performance, costs, and new Fabric features that might simplify things.
This keeps the Fabric work grounded in reality, instead of drifting into “cool pipelines nobody uses”.
Insist on “production-ready”, not just “it works on my machine”
A strong Microsoft Fabric data engineer will push for production-grade practices. Encourage this. At minimum, ask for:
- Reproducible setup
- Workspaces, security groups and items named and structured intentionally.
- Documented process to recreate environments (even if not full IaC yet).
- Basic DevOps
- Use of Git integration where appropriate.
- Clear promotion path: dev → test → production.
- Rollback strategy for major changes.
- Operational hygiene
- Monitoring of refresh failures and pipeline runs.
- Clear ownership for fixing issues.
- Cost and capacity checks baked into regular reviews.
If a candidate or partner can’t explain how they handle these, they’re not truly operating as a Microsoft Fabric engineer—they’re just building one-off reports.
Plan for handover and capability building
Even if you work with an external expert partner, your internal capability shouldn’t be an afterthought.
Ask your Microsoft Fabric engineer or partner to:
- Run hands-on workshops for your BI and IT staff using your own workspaces.
- Leave behind architecture diagrams, runbooks and onboarding docs.
- Pair-program with internal developers on key features so they see how decisions are made.
- Help you define roles going forward: who owns Fabric admin, data engineering, semantic models, and Power BI.
Where a partner like Simple BI fits
For many manufacturing and Microsoft-first organizations, the sweet spot is:
- A partner who can design the Fabric architecture,
- Provide Microsoft Fabric engineers and Power BI developers,
- Deliver the first wave of solutions, and
- Leave you with a governed, maintainable platform your own team can grow.
That’s exactly the model firms like Simple BI use: combining project delivery with staffing and advisory, so you don’t just “have Fabric”—you have a Fabric-based analytics foundation that keeps paying off.
To explore what that could look like for your organization, you can book a short discovery call with Simple BI. Share where you are with Microsoft Fabric today, where you’d like to be in 6–12 months, and we’ll map out whether you need a dedicated Microsoft Fabric engineer, a focused project, or a mix of both—so you’re not guessing your way through your next data platform decision.
