The challenge
When FabFitFun’s head of data departed, the team lost the strategic direction needed to unify around a coherent roadmap. Work shifted toward ad hoc deliverables, and the value being created was hard to quantify without a clear framework. The underlying infrastructure — a mix of SaaS tools and homegrown legacy systems — kept the data model running, but wasn’t built for where the business needed to go next. Leadership needed a fast, credible way to restore direction without committing to a lengthy executive search.
What we did
Rather than deploying a platform, Paradox embedded as fractional data leadership with hands-on engineering support:
- Developed the company’s first data roadmap, shifting the team from firefighting to higher-value projects
- Onboarded dbt and trained the data engineering team on modern practices, including medallion-architecture pipeline design
- Assessed the ingestion stack and initiated a migration from managed ETL tooling to self-hosted alternatives, reducing long-term platform costs
- Took over day-to-day management of the data team, up-leveled engineers, and gave executives a single accountable owner for data
How we did it
The engagement prioritized stabilization first, then modernization:
- 1
Assess
mapped the existing Snowflake, Tableau, and Airflow environment and the legacy pipelines holding it together
- 2
Lead
stepped into the leadership gap immediately, setting priorities and restoring team direction
- 3
Train
introduced dbt and modern data engineering practices so improvements persist beyond the engagement
- 4
Modernize
roadmapped infrastructure changes that reduce cost and fragility over time
The results
- A team with direction — the first-ever data roadmap has the team focused on high-value deliverables instead of ad hoc requests and firefighting
- A modernized foundation — dbt adoption and medallion-architecture pipelines replace fragile legacy patterns
- Executive peace of mind — leadership no longer worries about the data function day to day, freeing focus for other priorities
Best fit
Mid-market companies that lose senior data leadership and need someone who can step in fast — bringing strategy, hands-on engineering depth, and team management without the cost or timeline of a full-time executive hire.