Hey there! 👋🏼
I’m Vaibhav Kalekar. Principal Data Engineer with 15 years of experience building the data infrastructure that powers the digital world — the pipelines, the platforms, the governance frameworks that make modern technology run. I’ve done this across three continents in cities like: Mumbai, Chicago, Munich, and now Sydney.
I know how the machine works. That’s exactly why I write about what it’s doing to us.
My writing sits at an uncomfortable intersection — between the technical and the human, the analytical and the lyrical, the world as it is being built and the world as it feels to live in. I write essays about technology, AI, and the slow erosion of things worth keeping. I write fiction to say the things that essays can’t. And I photograph the cities and landscapes I move through, because some moments deserve to be held still.
None of this is distinct and disconnected. It’s all the same question: what does it mean to be human in a world being redesigned faster than we can feel it?
I think about quitting and settling on a remote island once every quarter. I haven’t yet. Instead, I write.
What you’ll find here:
Essays on technology, AI, and digital culture — written with the insider knowledge of someone who builds these systems and the skepticism of someone who doesn’t entirely trust them.
Original Fiction — speculative, grounded, occasionally uncomfortable. Storytelling without filters.
Photography - From the road and shot on a Fujifilm X-E4, cities and landscapes from a life lived across continents.
Technical Skills
Programming Language: C#, TypeScript, Python, PL/SQL
Project Management & Collaboration: JIRA, Confluence, Monday.com, Trello, BaseCamp
Databases: MySQL, PostgreSQL, Microsoft SQL Server, Snowflake, DuckDB
Cloud Technologies: GCP, Amazon Web Services, Azure
ETL Tools: DBT, Airflow
Analytical Tools: Umami, Google Analytics
Data Visualization: Tableau, Looker, PowerBI, Streamlit
Open to contract and consulting engagements across Australia (on-site, hybrid, or remote).
To read about Data Engineering and Data Governance, please visit -