Ex-Keurig analyst turned solo Snowflake + dbt consultant (Green Mountain Data Solutions, Vermont) who built a following through Snowflake cost-optimization content, a long run of technical posts on the SELECT blog, and recent open-lakehouse / Iceberg work. Index: [[snowflake-data-superheroes/index|index]].
Known for
- Snowflake cost optimization. LinkedIn headline brands him "$1M+ Snowflake Savings" / "Cut Data Stack Cost | dbt + Snowflake + Tableau Expert" (LinkedIn); guest on The Data Stack Show ep. 195 (2024-06-26) on Snowflake cost control via warehouse management (Data Stack Show); was a Sales Engineer at SELECT, a Snowflake cost-optimization vendor (SELECT author byline).
- Practical Snowflake feature guides on select.dev. Streams/CDC (2024-11-10), Secrets (2025-01-24), Cortex Search pricing (2025-10-10), BUILD 2025 recap (2025-11-21) and others (Streams, Secrets, Cortex Search, BUILD recap).
- Iceberg / open lakehouse with Snowflake Horizon. "The Iceberg Dream" (2026-07-07) shows dlt + dbt/DuckDB writing Snowflake Horizon-managed Iceberg tables with zero warehouse compute (select.dev), with a matching repo
horizon-iceberg-demo(GitHub) and a dbt Summit talk "Warming up to Iceberg: 2026 makes Iceberg easier" (dbt Summit).
Contribution channels
- Community answers: ? (no Snowflake Community or Stack Overflow profile found in this pass)
- User group: ? (no user-group leader page found)
- Blog: Prolific author on the SELECT blog, 2024-2026 (posts listed above plus Unpacking Snowflake's New User Type Property, 2024-09-22). Frequent Snowflake/dbt "tip of the day" LinkedIn posts from late 2023, e.g. Time Travel. No Medium/Snowflake Builders Blog posts found.
- YouTube / talks: The Data Stack Show ep. 195 (2024-06-26); "Lessons From 5 Years Of Consulting 1 Year Later" (YouTube, Seattle Data Guy consulting live stream, date ?); dbt Summit speaker on Iceberg (2026 per session title). No Snowflake Summit/BUILD speaker slot found.
- Open source: GitHub jeff-skoldberg-gmds:
ducklake-demo(42 stars),dbt-demonstration,snowflake-chatbot(Streamlit + LLM text-to-SQL),horizon-iceberg-demo,faker-to-snowflake. - Books: ?
- Certs: SnowPro Core, per LinkedIn (also AWS Cloud Practitioner, expired 2023). A search snippet claimed "multiple advanced Snowflake certifications" but no primary source lists advanced SnowPro certs; treat as unverified.
Path to recognition
- 2008 onward (12 years): Keurig. Started as a business analyst in 2008, grew into SAP HANA BI developer/architect and led the Tableau rollout (GMDS about; Data Stack Show).
- 2018: founded Green Mountain Data Solutions (GMDS about); by his own bio, roughly the last five years focused on Snowflake + dbt implementations for Fortune 500 through startups (dbt Summit bio).
- ~Late 2023: public Snowflake content starts. LinkedIn posts on a Streamlit + Snowflake LLM chatbot (approx. Aug-Sep 2023, shown as "3y" ago) and Snowflake/dbt tips around Nov 2023 (chatbot post; Time Travel post). LinkedIn following is now ~11K (LinkedIn).
- 2024: podcast + SELECT. Data Stack Show guest (June 2024), then SELECT blog posts from Sept 2024 onward as a Sales Engineer at SELECT (tenure dates ?) (SELECT).
- 2025: steady cadence of Snowflake feature write-ups incl. Cortex Search cost (Oct), Snowpark Container Services guide (Nov) and BUILD 2025 recap (Nov) on select.dev.
- 2026: first cohort (presumed) and Iceberg push. Iceberg Dream post (July), dbt Summit Iceberg talk, dltHub Gold partner listing for GMDS (dltHub).
- Pattern (inference): recognition came from about two years of consistent, practitioner-grade written content (cost optimization first, then new-feature explainers) amplified by a large LinkedIn audience and a vendor-blog byline, rather than from user-group leadership or Summit stage time.
Notes
- Directory card (scraped 2026-09-29): Consultant, Green Mountain Data Solutions, LLC (directory).
- Directory member-since tag: 2026.
- Existing contact: [[03-contacts/jeff-skoldberg]]
- Not on the 2025 Medium roster.
- 2026 membership is presumed from presence on the current directory; the directory (130) does not exactly equal the announced 2026 cohort (125). See [[_roster-notes]].
- Identity is solid: LinkedIn, GMDS site, dbt Summit, SELECT bylines and GitHub (
-gmdssuffix) all tie the same person to GMDS. A second GitHub accountYEM-1also shows the name "Jeff Skoldberg" (not reviewed). - GMDS is founder-led with a network of independent consultants; it is not confirmed as a Snowflake Services Partner, so
employer_typeis set to independent. - AI/GenAI focus: secondary, not core. Evidence: 2023 Streamlit LLM chatbot demo and Oct 2025 Cortex Search cost post; main themes are cost, dbt, and Iceberg/lakehouse.
- Relevance for Ben: he shows a written-content path (explainers + cost angle) works without Summit talks; a vendor/partner blog byline scaled his reach.
Sources
- Snowflake Data Superheroes directory (Americas)
- LinkedIn profile
- Green Mountain Data Solutions: About
- dbt Summit speaker page
- SELECT: Unpacking Snowflake's New User Type Property
- SELECT: Using Streams in Snowflake for CDC
- SELECT: Secrets Management in Snowflake
- SELECT: Cortex Search overview, pricing and cost monitoring
- SELECT: Snowflake BUILD 2025 Recap
- SELECT: The Iceberg Dream
- GitHub: jeff-skoldberg-gmds
- The Data Stack Show ep. 195
- LinkedIn post: Streamlit + Snowflake chatbot
- LinkedIn post: Snowflake Time Travel
- YouTube: Lessons From 5 Years Of Consulting 1 Year Later
- dltHub partner page: Green Mountain Data Solutions