Data Berlin #17
A cozy pre-Christmas edition with data news, reads, and reflections
![Berlin at Christmas Time | Festive Things To Do [2025] - The Girl On The Move](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!hpVT!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Faf52427f-b2b2-4805-88ff-27be01cf0849_795x530.jpeg "Berlin at Christmas Time | Festive Things To Do [2025] - The Girl On The Move")
Christmas is getting closer, advent calendars are almost finished, and the city is slowly shifting into that familiar end-of-year rhythm. Some meetings disappear, others turn into “let’s pick this up in January,” and inboxes feel just a little quieter.
In this in-between moment, this issue is meant to be a light check-in with the Berlin data scene: a snapshot of what’s moving, what’s opening up, and what might be worth a look as the year wraps up.
📖Interesting Readings
A deep dive into Model Context Protocol (MCP), explaining what it is, why it matters, and how it could change how LLMs interact with tools and systems. Worth reading if you want a clear mental model beyond the hype around agent architectures - Building MCP servers in the real world
A practical take on what it really means to get your data ready for AI, focusing on quality, structure, and governance instead of treating models as magic - What it means to get your data ready for AI
A classic Reddit rant asking “what even is data governance?”, with answers ranging from sensible definitions to collective trauma caused by vague policies, endless meetings, and nobody actually owning the data - Wtf is data governance
A bit of Christmas-time reading where data engineers reflect on passion, burnout, and whether they’re in it for the love of the craft, the paycheck, or both - How many people here would say they’re “passionate” about Data Engineering?
☕ Upcoming Meetups & Events
Data Berlin — Santa’s Data Workshop
📍 December 18
🎄 Last Data Berlin meetup of the year
Join us for the final meetup of the year, where we’ll explore how modern teams use MCP to better support analytics users, improving discoverability, governance, and the flow from data to insights.
👉 Event link:
https://luma.com/z6tpy43a
🎄 Christmas Time Learning
If the end of the year gives you a bit of breathing room, it’s a great time to catch up on learning. Here’s a small selection of online trainings and resources you can explore from the couch, with a mug of Glühwein in hand:
A hands-on course that teaches the fundamentals of dlt, from building simple pipelines to understanding how modern data ingestion actually works. - dlt Fundamentals
A short, practical course on Model Context Protocol (MCP) that shows how to build AI apps with richer context using Anthropic’s tools. Good if you want to move beyond toy demos and understand how context actually flows into LLM-powered apps - MCP: Build Rich-Context AI Apps with Anthropic
A practical guide to data modeling for startups, focusing on getting the basics right early without overengineering. Worth reading if you want models that evolve with your product instead of becoming technical debt from day one - Data Modelling for Startups
💼This Week’s Job Picks
🔍 Data Analyst
Senior Data Analyst — Deel → apply here
Data Analyst — Mercell → apply here
Data Analyst – Dashboard Owner — RIB Software → apply here
Senior Data Analyst — Zenjob → apply here
📐 Analytics Engineer
Senior Analytics Engineer — HelloFresh → apply here
Analytics Engineer – Marketing Data — BARFER’S → apply here
Analytics Engineer – Marketing & Growth — PERGOLUX → apply here
Principal Analytics Engineer — AutoScout24 → apply here
🛠 Data Engineer
Senior Data Engineer — Aroundhome → apply here
Data Engineer — Grammarly → apply here
Data Engineer — Globant → apply here
Senior Data Engineer – ZMS — Zalando → apply here
🤖 AI / ML / LLM
AI Data Engineer — Zendesk → apply here
(Senior) AI & Automation Engineer — Fleetlery → apply here
Proteomics Data Scientist — BIOWEG → apply here
Senior Data Scientist — N26 → apply here
That’s all for this issue.
If any role caught your attention, feel free to explore it now or save it for later, the right moment doesn’t always have to be today. And if you’re in Berlin, don’t forget that Santa’s Data Workshop is coming up: the last Data Berlin meetup of the year and a great chance to reconnect before the break.
See you next week,
– The Data Berlin Team