Michael Plunkett
About Me
I'm a Director of Analytics with 10+ years leading data, marketing analytics, and business intelligence. At Transformco (Shop Your Way / Sears Home Services), I built the analytics practice from scratch. I believe in AI as a tool for leverage, not a magic solution—and I only got good at AI enablement because I was running our analyst team and felt every operational friction point firsthand.
My career has tracked the evolution of the field itself: from GA360 tag setups and Tableau reporting, through Snowflake data warehousing and BigQuery migrations, to building MCP (Model Context Protocol) servers. These tools didn't come from a whiteboard; they exist because I knew exactly which questions my analysts spent hours answering by hand, and I wanted to clear those bottlenecks.
I specialize in advanced measurement—bridging external media and CRM data, building multi-touch attribution pathways, UTM persistence, and cohort-based propensity models. At Transformco, I simultaneously led two major platform transformations: a complete SYW.com redesign and a credit card migration. By designing frameworks that automate manual tasks, I enable analysts to deliver faster, build rigorous forecasting models, and focus on high-value business strategy.
AI & Agentic Tools
Analytics & Measurement
Engineering & Cloud
Marketing Tech & Strategy
The Analytics Evolution
Four phases. Four compounding layers of capability. One team, built from scratch.
Founded the SYW Analytics practice and established the team's operating model from day one. Led the full migration from Adobe Analytics to GA4 across SYW.com, the SYW MAX app, and the PYW app. Stood up GCP BigQuery as the team's analytics data warehouse with Composer-managed ETL. Architected the Sailthru purchase API integration and UTM auto-tracking framework that still powers behavioral email personalization today.
Scaled BigQuery reporting across SYW.com, app, and financial services data. Built member transaction dashboards segmenting Members vs. Card Members. Expanded the analytics practice to support a key partner business unit, building weekly Snowflake-to-BigQuery data pipelines and executive reporting that has run without interruption for over two years.
Led analytics for two simultaneous major initiatives: the flagship credit card migration to a new issuer, and the full SYW.com redesign (Lovable.ai + Builder.io architecture). Architected GTM tagging strategy for the new site, designed UTM persistence across non-linear multi-platform user paths, and launched next-best-action attribution for early card member onboarding.
Faced with scaling constraints, began integrating secure AI enablement tools to solve operational bottlenecks. Deployed production MCP servers connecting Claude AI to live BigQuery and Snowflake — enabling the team to query production data in natural language. Simultaneously modernized the underlying GCP infrastructure: migrating legacy VM-based pipelines and managed Airflow to a serverless Cloud Functions + Cloud Build CI/CD model. Designed a 3-layer agentic framework to automate repetitive query cycles, establishing guardrails for safe, compliant AI data access.
What I've Built
Key initiatives from 5 years at Shop Your Way
Credit Card Program Migration
Full Analytics Rebuild · Issuer Transition
Led the complete rebuild of measurement infrastructure for a flagship credit card program as it transitioned to a new issuer. Designed the GA4 acquisition funnel dataset tracking the full customer journey from web visit to card approval. Built cohort segmentation tables powering win-back and lifecycle targeting. Identified and escalated a critical data integrity issue in the application flow with documented query analysis. Replaced manual encrypted file delivery with zero-touch automation.
SYW.com Complete Redesign
GTM & GA4 Measurement Leadership
Partnered with engineering to maintain measurement continuity across a full site overhaul — from monolithic codebase to multi-platform architecture (Lovable.ai + Builder.io + SYW app webviews). Led GTM auditing and resolved tag-firing-too-early bugs with delayed triggers. Designed UTM persistence for non-linear user paths. Stood up waitlist GA4 tracking within 24 hours of launch.
AI Integration & Enablement
MCP Stack & Agentic Analyst Tooling
Designed and deployed one of the earliest Model Context Protocol (MCP) server stacks to act as a multiplier for a lean analyst team. Connected LLMs securely to live production Snowflake and BigQuery data pools to automate repetitive analysis requests. Established structural guardrails by migrating access controls to GCP Secret Manager and trusted service-level configurations, proving AI as a tool for sustainable team scale.
GCP Infrastructure Modernization
CI/CD Architecture · Agentic Platform Foundation
Led the architectural decision to migrate legacy VM-based pipelines and managed Airflow (GCP Composer) to a serverless Cloud Functions + Cloud Build CI/CD model. Identified and documented the deprecation risk of Cloud Source Repositories (sunset June 2024) and designed a phased migration ladder to GitHub + Cloud Build, enabling the team to scale without inheriting technical debt. Audited and re-homed all production pipeline jobs to Cloud Scheduler for observability and retry logic. Migrated credentials from hardcoded scripts to Secret Manager. Built the 3-layer agentic framework architecture — Directives, Orchestration, Execution — that serves as the operating model for AI agent deployment on top of the existing data infrastructure.
Career History
20 years across media, agencies, enterprise, and fintech
Built SYW Analytics from scratch → Advanced measurement & AI enablement
KPI frameworks, reporting automation, Tableau standardization
Built Snowflake DW; supported $22M national media buy
SEO, media & creative analytics for major brand accounts
GA360 migration across 1,400 affiliates; 2x eComm growth via A/B testing
Earlier Agency & Media Experience
BBA, Advertising & Promotions
Western Michigan University
Google Analytics (GAIQ) · Google Tag Manager · DePaul CIMA · Python for Data Science
Get In Touch
Open to conversations about analytics leadership, AI-native data infrastructure, MCP architecture, or building measurement systems for complex platform transformations.
The best way to reach me is directly through LinkedIn. Feel free to send me a connection request or a direct message!
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