Meeting Title: Brainforge Data Engineer Candidate Interview Date: 2026-03-17 Meeting participants: Kaela Gallagher, Hussein Diab
WEBVTT
1 00:00:03.860 ⇒ 00:00:05.829 Kaela Gallagher: Hi, how’s it going?
2 00:00:05.830 ⇒ 00:00:06.540 Hussein Diab: Boo.
3 00:00:06.710 ⇒ 00:00:08.290 Hussein Diab: All good, how are you?
4 00:00:08.290 ⇒ 00:00:22.119 Kaela Gallagher: Good! Thanks for… for taking some time to meet with me today. Apologies, I’m running a couple minutes behind, but I’m excited to get to know a little bit more about you, and yeah, curious, first off, like, how you found Brainforge.
5 00:00:23.420 ⇒ 00:00:24.510 Hussein Diab: You found me?
6 00:00:25.760 ⇒ 00:00:26.120 Kaela Gallagher: That’s amazing.
7 00:00:26.530 ⇒ 00:00:32.990 Kaela Gallagher: What’s, like, what has you kind of open-minded to something new?
8 00:00:35.040 ⇒ 00:00:41.499 Hussein Diab: So I’ve been doing consulting for the past 2 to 3 years?
9 00:00:41.680 ⇒ 00:00:47.270 Hussein Diab: I’m trying to explore my options, see what’s out there, what’s interesting.
10 00:00:47.950 ⇒ 00:01:00.000 Kaela Gallagher: Okay, okay, so that is, like, the experience, listed as analytic Vision on your LinkedIn. Okay, okay, so that’s been you consulting with, like, various clients?
11 00:01:00.300 ⇒ 00:01:01.090 Hussein Diab: Good.
12 00:01:01.090 ⇒ 00:01:04.299 Kaela Gallagher: Okay, okay. And is that your own…
13 00:01:04.800 ⇒ 00:01:08.479 Kaela Gallagher: company? Or, like, are you working with other people in that?
14 00:01:08.820 ⇒ 00:01:16.540 Hussein Diab: Yes, I’m working with other people. It’s a consulting company, and I’m a principal data engineer right now.
15 00:01:16.540 ⇒ 00:01:23.869 Kaela Gallagher: Okay, amazing, amazing. What kind of clients are you working with, and, like, what kind of projects are you guys typically handling?
16 00:01:25.870 ⇒ 00:01:27.550 Hussein Diab: All over?
17 00:01:27.800 ⇒ 00:01:34.290 Hussein Diab: Different industries, different, opportunity is there.
18 00:01:34.920 ⇒ 00:01:39.480 Hussein Diab: I can tell you a lot more, but I’m interested to know what…
19 00:01:40.110 ⇒ 00:01:43.470 Hussein Diab: Can you tell me about your company? What’s Brainforge?
20 00:01:43.750 ⇒ 00:01:44.310 Kaela Gallagher: Yay!
21 00:01:46.590 ⇒ 00:01:54.010 Hussein Diab: And then, maybe, maybe I will tell you a bit more about myself accordingly, so I will know how to tailor it, you know?
22 00:01:54.210 ⇒ 00:02:11.209 Kaela Gallagher: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, the reason I, reached out, actually, is because I was looking for data analytics engineers who have worked in a consulting setting before, because we are a data and AI consulting firm.
23 00:02:11.210 ⇒ 00:02:15.759 Kaela Gallagher: So our clients are mostly small to mid-sized companies.
24 00:02:15.760 ⇒ 00:02:24.339 Kaela Gallagher: across a lot of different industries, but we do have quite a few in kind of, like, the CPG, like, consumer goods industry.
25 00:02:24.340 ⇒ 00:02:26.140 Kaela Gallagher: So…
26 00:02:26.170 ⇒ 00:02:45.490 Kaela Gallagher: what we’re looking for right now, we have a data engineer opening and an analytics engineer opening. For both of those roles, we’re looking for engineers that, you know, are fairly high level, have led either, like, a team or projects before, and are comfortable communicating with clients, because we do have our engineers
27 00:02:45.490 ⇒ 00:02:47.599 Kaela Gallagher: On calls with clients as well.
28 00:02:47.600 ⇒ 00:02:48.450 Kaela Gallagher: Mmm.
29 00:02:48.590 ⇒ 00:03:03.399 Kaela Gallagher: So that’s kind of our main need right now. We don’t have, like, a specific, set of, like, tooling or a tech stack per se, but most of our engineers have experience with either, like, Python or TypeScript.
30 00:03:03.400 ⇒ 00:03:19.749 Kaela Gallagher: And then Snowflake is, like, the main data warehouse that we’re using. So I would say those are kind of our main technologies, but, like, somebody that has interacted with lots of different technologies would be important, because we’re oftentimes, like, adapting to maybe what our client already has.
31 00:03:19.750 ⇒ 00:03:37.139 Kaela Gallagher: In place. So, yeah, that’s kind of the overview. Curious… oh, and just a couple other things, like, we are fully remote right now as an organization. Most of us are working either, like, Central or Eastern hours, so definitely U.S. time zones.
32 00:03:37.360 ⇒ 00:03:46.899 Kaela Gallagher: And we are hiring right now on, like, a 1099 basis, so as, like, a contractor. So that’s kind of the overview.
33 00:03:47.340 ⇒ 00:03:48.090 Hussein Diab: Okay.
34 00:03:48.090 ⇒ 00:03:48.510 Kaela Gallagher: Yeah.
35 00:03:49.090 ⇒ 00:03:51.580 Hussein Diab: So you are a consulting company?
36 00:03:51.580 ⇒ 00:03:52.380 Kaela Gallagher: Yes.
37 00:03:52.520 ⇒ 00:03:58.890 Hussein Diab: Alright, awesome. Okay, let me share my screen, let me show you a little bit about myself.
38 00:03:58.890 ⇒ 00:03:59.890 Kaela Gallagher: Amazing.
39 00:04:00.610 ⇒ 00:04:06.649 Kaela Gallagher: I think this is the first screen share that I’ve had from a candidate, so this is awesome.
40 00:04:07.970 ⇒ 00:04:08.920 Hussein Diab: So fun.
41 00:04:09.120 ⇒ 00:04:10.800 Hussein Diab: Alright, so this is me.
42 00:04:11.240 ⇒ 00:04:12.660 Kaela Gallagher: Amazing!
43 00:04:12.660 ⇒ 00:04:20.969 Hussein Diab: Originally from Lebanon. I’ve been in Dallas, Mansfield, Texas for the past 20 years or so.
44 00:04:21.300 ⇒ 00:04:31.489 Hussein Diab: My background is in biomedical engineering. I have around 18 years of experience, give or take.
45 00:04:31.620 ⇒ 00:04:44.680 Hussein Diab: But my journey started with automotive industry, and then to biomedical engineering, to medical diagnosis. I joined Abbott, I stayed there for around 10 years.
46 00:04:45.160 ⇒ 00:04:51.310 Hussein Diab: And, for the past 2 to 3 years, I’ve been consulting with Analytic Vision.
47 00:04:51.880 ⇒ 00:04:57.540 Hussein Diab: I’m married, I have two kids, I love soccer, I love…
48 00:04:57.540 ⇒ 00:04:59.750 Kaela Gallagher: Jimmy Milano.
49 00:04:59.750 ⇒ 00:05:01.660 Hussein Diab: Yeah, AC Milan, yeah. Awesome.
50 00:05:01.660 ⇒ 00:05:02.430 Kaela Gallagher: Awesome.
51 00:05:02.430 ⇒ 00:05:16.219 Hussein Diab: I play video games, I design video games, I love coffee, I love jiu-jitsu, love the beach, the mountains, and these motorcycles, I’ve built them myself, they’re custom-made.
52 00:05:16.220 ⇒ 00:05:23.729 Kaela Gallagher: Wow, awesome. Very cool. We actually have someone else on the team who’s, like, very passionate about jiu-jitsu as well.
53 00:05:23.730 ⇒ 00:05:24.380 Hussein Diab: Yeah.
54 00:05:24.380 ⇒ 00:05:26.400 Kaela Gallagher: Awesome. Awesome. Cool.
55 00:05:26.670 ⇒ 00:05:34.239 Hussein Diab: This is more of my professional experience with, overall
56 00:05:34.450 ⇒ 00:05:47.850 Hussein Diab: So I’ve served clients like Chick-fil-A, Delta, Kimberly Clark, big clients, like Fortune 500 companies. I’ve led multiple projects on each one of these.
57 00:05:48.600 ⇒ 00:05:53.919 Hussein Diab: I have a lot of certifications.
58 00:05:54.190 ⇒ 00:06:01.239 Hussein Diab: Snowflake, dbt, I’ve used Python, SQL, a lot of other languages.
59 00:06:01.440 ⇒ 00:06:13.349 Hussein Diab: I’m also certified in Google Cloud Platform and Snowflake, and for visualization, I’m certified in
60 00:06:13.950 ⇒ 00:06:21.829 Hussein Diab: Power BI and Sigma, and I use Tableau all the time. I’m experienced in Tableau.
61 00:06:22.000 ⇒ 00:06:22.730 Kaela Gallagher: Okay.
62 00:06:23.620 ⇒ 00:06:27.370 Hussein Diab: When I serve clients, I usually wear multiple hats.
63 00:06:27.590 ⇒ 00:06:32.479 Hussein Diab: So, sometime I will be developing, sometime I will be leading.
64 00:06:32.630 ⇒ 00:06:44.179 Hussein Diab: Sometime I will be, the solution architect, sometime I will have a team internally, externally. It differs from one client to another, but… Okay.
65 00:06:44.330 ⇒ 00:06:48.430 Hussein Diab: My whole mission is to make the complex simple.
66 00:06:48.860 ⇒ 00:06:55.759 Hussein Diab: And… To be others-focused, serve the client, to teach them how to fish.
67 00:06:55.910 ⇒ 00:07:04.440 Hussein Diab: This is an example from the CFO of one of the clients that I’m serving, and he’s pretty much saying that
68 00:07:04.640 ⇒ 00:07:07.050 Hussein Diab: There’s a huge difference between
69 00:07:07.240 ⇒ 00:07:14.980 Hussein Diab: companies, and I was able to teach them how to fish, and teach them how to use their platform and data stack.
70 00:07:15.490 ⇒ 00:07:21.289 Kaela Gallagher: Very cool. I’m curious, like, at this point, what has you on the market for something new?
71 00:07:22.350 ⇒ 00:07:27.849 Hussein Diab: As I said, I’m just trying to explore what my options are, if I have out there, you know?
72 00:07:28.040 ⇒ 00:07:35.400 Kaela Gallagher: Are you, like, actively… are you, like, actively interviewing right now? Like, anything kind of on your plate yet?
73 00:07:35.730 ⇒ 00:07:40.590 Hussein Diab: I’ve been getting a lot of interviews, but I don’t have anything concrete.
74 00:07:41.150 ⇒ 00:07:42.429 Kaela Gallagher: Okay. Okay.
75 00:07:42.560 ⇒ 00:07:47.380 Kaela Gallagher: Got it. What is, like, the compensation range that you’re targeting?
76 00:07:48.320 ⇒ 00:07:52.199 Hussein Diab: I’m looking anywhere between 180 and 220.
77 00:07:52.490 ⇒ 00:07:53.860 Kaela Gallagher: Okay, okay
78 00:07:54.150 ⇒ 00:08:13.839 Kaela Gallagher: Cool. Yeah, I think… I think your experience would be really, like, relevant for what we’re doing. I’m curious, these, like, larger, corporate organizations that you served, was that within this, like, consulting company, or was that, like, within previous roles as well?
79 00:08:14.800 ⇒ 00:08:20.420 Hussein Diab: Most of them are… In the past 2 to 3 years.
80 00:08:20.710 ⇒ 00:08:22.920 Kaela Gallagher: Okay, okay, mostly, mostly recent.
81 00:08:22.920 ⇒ 00:08:23.550 Hussein Diab: Yeah.
82 00:08:23.550 ⇒ 00:08:31.889 Kaela Gallagher: Okay. Are you working mostly with those enterprise… large enterprise clients, or do you have, like, small and medium-sized companies as well?
83 00:08:31.890 ⇒ 00:08:33.029 Hussein Diab: All of the above.
84 00:08:33.179 ⇒ 00:08:35.939 Kaela Gallagher: Okay, a wide range. Awesome.
85 00:08:36.089 ⇒ 00:08:37.029 Kaela Gallagher: Cool.
86 00:08:37.149 ⇒ 00:08:50.919 Kaela Gallagher: Yeah, I would love to have you meet with our team. Do you consider, like, your experience to be more aligned with, like, a data engineering position, or an analytics engineering role?
87 00:08:52.670 ⇒ 00:08:54.309 Hussein Diab: I would say data engineering.
88 00:08:54.480 ⇒ 00:08:55.829 Kaela Gallagher: Okay. Okay.
89 00:08:56.030 ⇒ 00:09:07.349 Kaela Gallagher: Awesome. Yeah, I can definitely, move you forward to our interview process. What it would look like is we do 3 rounds. The first one,
90 00:09:07.660 ⇒ 00:09:14.729 Kaela Gallagher: Is kind of, like, cultural, about your experience, maybe starting to dive into some technical topics.
91 00:09:14.730 ⇒ 00:09:36.449 Kaela Gallagher: The second round is more technical. No, like, live coding or anything like that, but, just diving, like, deeper into technical topics. And then the third round is a challenge that we would send you, so you can, like, take it home, prepare it ahead of time, and then you come to the final round with, like, your solution ready to show the panel, so…
92 00:09:36.580 ⇒ 00:09:39.970 Kaela Gallagher: It’s kind of how we do it, but yeah, curious if you have any questions.
93 00:09:40.680 ⇒ 00:09:44.669 Hussein Diab: Can you tell me more about the 1099? Why is it non-W2?
94 00:09:44.930 ⇒ 00:10:00.740 Kaela Gallagher: Yeah, we actually don’t have anybody in the organization that is W-2 yet. I was recently brought in to lead people in recruiting efforts, so that is one of my main focuses right now, is to get people converted over to W2.
95 00:10:00.740 ⇒ 00:10:07.670 Kaela Gallagher: But, like, at this point in time, as we’re hiring and looking to fill, you know, these positions in the next couple weeks.
96 00:10:07.670 ⇒ 00:10:11.290 Kaela Gallagher: It’s, like, not something that we can just promise off the bat yet.
97 00:10:11.500 ⇒ 00:10:12.260 Hussein Diab: Okay.
98 00:10:12.260 ⇒ 00:10:12.980 Kaela Gallagher: Yeah.
99 00:10:12.980 ⇒ 00:10:14.089 Hussein Diab: How big is the team?
100 00:10:14.640 ⇒ 00:10:27.159 Kaela Gallagher: So right now, we’re 25, about, and most of our business, like, most of our team members are falling, into, like, 3 service lines that we offer clients.
101 00:10:27.160 ⇒ 00:10:36.899 Kaela Gallagher: So one is strategy, one is AI, and one is data. So, obviously, you would be on the data team. But yeah, 25 in total.
102 00:10:38.670 ⇒ 00:10:40.700 Kaela Gallagher: How big is your current company?
103 00:10:40.700 ⇒ 00:10:43.120 Hussein Diab: Around the same, around 25, 30, yeah.
104 00:10:43.240 ⇒ 00:10:51.119 Kaela Gallagher: Okay, okay, cool. Are you fully remote, now as well? Okay, okay, so this wouldn’t be, anything crazy new.
105 00:10:51.120 ⇒ 00:10:52.700 Hussein Diab: Where are you guys based?
106 00:10:53.030 ⇒ 00:11:01.739 Kaela Gallagher: We are kind of all over. We have some talent actually outside of the US, but they do work U.S. time zones.
107 00:11:01.740 ⇒ 00:11:15.940 Kaela Gallagher: There’s actually, like, 4 or 5 of us in LA, including myself, and then our CEO is based in Austin. So actually, like, Texas is kind of a hub we’re looking at right now in terms of
108 00:11:15.970 ⇒ 00:11:17.659 Kaela Gallagher: Growing our team there.
109 00:11:18.870 ⇒ 00:11:19.460 Kaela Gallagher: Yeah.
110 00:11:19.590 ⇒ 00:11:20.370 Kaela Gallagher: Cool.
111 00:11:20.370 ⇒ 00:11:24.360 Hussein Diab: Yeah, I have a lot of questions, how much time.
112 00:11:24.360 ⇒ 00:11:25.760 Kaela Gallagher: Yes. Yeah, yeah.
113 00:11:25.780 ⇒ 00:11:31.490 Hussein Diab: Go ahead. What type of clients do you serve?
114 00:11:32.310 ⇒ 00:11:49.680 Kaela Gallagher: Yeah, so mostly small to mid-sized companies. I don’t think I’m allowed to name names, but, like, a lot of, like, CPG brands found in, like, Target or Walmart, for example. We also have, like, a big, like, healthcare client, and
115 00:11:49.680 ⇒ 00:11:54.180 Kaela Gallagher: I think, like, a financial one as well. So, kind of all across the board.
116 00:11:56.100 ⇒ 00:11:57.750 Hussein Diab: Awesome. Cool.
117 00:11:57.990 ⇒ 00:12:00.979 Hussein Diab: When am I expected to hear back from you?
118 00:12:01.520 ⇒ 00:12:18.450 Kaela Gallagher: So I can send you the invite for the first round, like, right after this, so we can get you on calendar soon, and, we can move pretty quickly, like, through all three steps. Like, I would say, maybe in the next couple weeks, we would have a final decision.
119 00:12:19.690 ⇒ 00:12:25.639 Hussein Diab: And, is the salary expectation within your range?
120 00:12:26.320 ⇒ 00:12:30.219 Kaela Gallagher: Yeah, yeah, I think that’s definitely something that we could meet, for sure.
121 00:12:32.130 ⇒ 00:12:33.110 Hussein Diab: Sounds good.
122 00:12:33.820 ⇒ 00:12:47.900 Kaela Gallagher: Okay, awesome! Yeah, I’ll follow up via email shortly, and if you think of any other questions, even if it’s, like, throughout the interview process, I’m here to help, so, yeah, let me know if I can help in any way.
123 00:12:48.220 ⇒ 00:12:49.069 Hussein Diab: Sounds good.
124 00:12:49.070 ⇒ 00:12:52.439 Kaela Gallagher: Okay, thanks so much for your time. Nice meeting you. Bye.