Zach Liu
Principal Software Engineer at Kepler Group
New York, New York, United States
Summary
👤
Senior🎓
Top SchoolZach Liu is a Principal Software Engineer in New York with a decade of experience building data-driven systems for advertising and marketing. He combines a Ph.D. in Electrical & Computer Engineering with hands-on expertise in Python, Apache Spark, C++, and distributed data platforms to design robust pipelines and optimize backend services. At Kepler Group he progressed from senior engineer to principal, leading architecture and delivery of large-scale data solutions. His open-source contributions include backend improvements to Redash and AWS-related fixes in Apache Airflow—work that underpins query reliability and production workflow resiliency. Earlier research roles produced novel 3D face-recognition and computational archaeology tools, reflecting a knack for turning academic innovation into practical systems. Known among peers as "The Trainman" on GitHub, he blends deep algorithmic roots with production-grade engineering.
10 years of coding experience
13 years of employment as a software developer
Master’s Degree Electrical Engineering, Master’s Degree Electrical Engineering at Temple UniversityDoctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) Electric Engineering, Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) Electric Engineering at Drexel UniversityBachelor’s Degree Electrical Engineering, Bachelor’s Degree Electrical Engineering at Huazhong University of Science and Technology
Stackoverflow
1reputation
0reached
2answers
0questions
Github Skills (29)
aws-redshift10
postgresql10
athena10
amazon-ecs10
python10
data-engineering10
amazon-redshift10
aws10
airflow10
orchestration10
orchestra10
sql9
database-design9
etl9
data-pipeline8
Programming languages (17)
Github contributions (5)
apache/airflow
Dec 2019 - Mar 2025
Apache Airflow - A platform to programmatically author, schedule, and monitor workflows
Role in this project:
Data Engineer
Data EngineerContributions:12 reviews, 12 PRs, 196 comments in 5 years 3 months
Contributions summary:Zach primarily contributed to the AWS-related components within the Apache Airflow project, specifically concerning the Amazon ECS operator. They implemented bug fixes related to retries on Elastic Network Interface (ENI) provisioning failures, and updated the operator code to handle potential task startup issues and improve logging. The user also made modifications to documentation and configuration, enhancing the Google Cloud Secret integration instructions within AWS Secrets Manager.
monitorpythonschedulerapacheprogrammatically
getredash/redash
Nov 2018 - Oct 2024
Make Your Company Data Driven. Connect to any data source, easily visualize, dashboard and share your data.
Role in this project:Backend Developer
Backend DeveloperContributions:7 reviews, 14 PRs, 48 comments in 6 years
Contributions summary:Zach primarily contributed to the backend functionality of the Redash project. Their commits involved adding data type support for various query runners (Redshift and Athena), improving error messages for token validation, and optimizing query execution. They also worked on implementing size calculation for in-memory data and configuring schema refresh timeouts.
pythondatacompany-datavisualizebusiness-intelligence
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