Who I Am
I’m François Raymond Février (Ray) and I’ve spent more than 25 years solving the same problem in different guises: getting data from where it lives to where people—and increasingly AI systems—can make better decisions with it.
Today I’m a Lead Principal Data Engineer at Oracle, on the team that manages and forecasts Oracle’s own SaaS footprint on OCI. Before that, I led an EMEA-wide team of architects spanning data warehousing, lakehouses, data science, and data mesh. Earlier in my career, I spent a decade consulting across financial services, energy, retail, and manufacturing, following eight years in operational risk at Morgan Stanley.
Returning from leading architects to building pipelines was a deliberate choice. Architecture loses its edge when you stop working with the technology yourself. Being back in data engineering has also brought me closer to the rapidly evolving world of analytics, AI, and machine learning, where reliable data platforms are the foundation for everything that follows.
Outside of work, I’m a husband, father, and lifelong New York Yankees fan. I enjoy spending time with family and friends, sharing a glass of Malbec, Chenin Blanc or a Chimay, and traveling whenever we get the chance. My wife and I are both certified Open Water divers, and some of our favorite adventures happen beneath the surface.
Why BA Soapbox
Wikipedia describes a soapbox as a raised platform from which someone delivers an impromptu speech. The term comes from speakers elevating themselves on the wooden crates once used to ship soap and other dry goods.
BA Soapbox borrows that idea, but with a twist. It’s more than a place for me to share ideas, lessons learned, and the occasional tip or trick. My hope is that it becomes a platform where practitioners across the industry can share their experiences, challenge conventional thinking, and learn from one another.
I don’t consider myself an expert—and that’s intentional. Over the years, I’ve had the privilege of working alongside people who are true experts in their products, technologies, and domains. My strength has always been connecting those worlds: integrating systems, designing data architectures, and helping organizations turn data into something useful. I’m a data integration specialist at heart, an enthusiastic technologist, and above all, a data architect who never stops learning.
If you’ve ever thought about sharing your own experiences but found the idea of maintaining a website more trouble than it’s was worth, consider this your invitation. BA Soapbox is a place for practitioners to share ideas, experiences, successes, failures, and lessons learned—because our industry gets better when we learn from each other.
