Independent AEP, RT-CDP & Customer Data Architect
I help enterprise teams and implementation partners design, improve and deliver solutions on Adobe Experience Platform, Real-Time CDP and Customer Journey Analytics, from data model and identity to activation, validation and handover.
9+ years at Adobe Consulting EMEA · architecture, implementation and knowledge transfer
From data models and identity to ingestion, activation and technical handover, for a defined work package or as part of your delivery team. My core platforms are Adobe Experience Platform, Real-Time CDP and Customer Journey Analytics.
Events that never arrive, profiles that merge in ways nobody can explain, a destination that keeps failing, activation that does not match the data you expected.
We define one technical problem. I work through the data flow, the configuration and the assumptions behind them, and deliver findings with a prioritised remediation plan and a way to check that the fix holds.
Deliverable: findings with the evidence behind them, and concrete next steps within the agreed scope. Carrying out the repair can be part of the engagement when that is agreed up front.
See an example deliverable (fictional)
Describe the problemYou are starting a CDP implementation, want existing platforms to work together better, or are preparing a move to a different solution.
I help translate your use cases, data model, identity, consent and integrations into a design that can be built. We decide what stays, what changes and in what order a migration can happen, and during the build I help the team test design choices and validate the result. Concrete examples from my own work: Adobe Analytics to CJA, a legacy DMP or CDP to Real-Time CDP, tag-based collection to Web SDK.
Deliverable: a target architecture, the reasoning behind the design choices, migration steps and acceptance criteria, matched to your situation and the agreed scope.
Discuss a work packageYour team knows the business and needs to become confident with the platform. Generic product training does not cover your setup.
I work alongside your specialists on real use cases while the build is under way, combining technical guidance, implementation support and targeted workshops. We document the approach as we go, so the team can repeat it independently.
Subjects come from the work itself: XDM and identity, data collection with Web SDK, Analytics to CJA, audiences and activation, Destination SDK, consent and governance, APIs for developer teams.
Deliverable: agreed learning goals, working sessions on your own implementation, and documentation written for your architecture rather than a demo environment. I contribute hands-on to agreed work packages; your team or implementation partner retains overall project leadership.
Discuss a sessionMost engagements start with one question or one work package, at client teams and at implementation partners.
Architecture, focused technical support and handover, next to your own engineers and the vendors already on the programme. I can review a design or an implementation independently where my role in the engagement allows it.
Discuss your customer data challengeSpecialist support inside your existing project team: a difficult AEP component, a Destination SDK integration, a migration step, validation, or the technical handover at the end. Scope, responsibilities and the way we coordinate are agreed before the work starts.
Discuss specialist supportIndependent means my advice is not steered by licence sales. Where I am part of a partner team I say so, and I do not present my own work as an independent review of itself.
A selection of representative work. Specific client details shared under NDA where needed.
A governance-led migration. Stakeholders settled the measurement approach and the data model first, and the programme moved from debate to delivery.
Programme moved from months of debate to implementation-ready backlog in weeks. Measurement baseline validated. Identity and consent implications resolved.
Stabilised a high-risk programme by restoring decision clarity and governance. Delivery went from firefighting to predictable progress.
Decision velocity restored within 2 weeks. Clear escalation paths and quality gates in place. Programme continued independently after handover.
Built a custom Destination SDK connector for auditable activation and suppression. Compliance risk came down and delivery kept its pace.
Compliance risk under control, activation pipeline live, and governance checkpoints that keep configuration from drifting.
Bas conducted a full review and successfully resolved each use case. This restored client trust in our solutions and significantly improved the adoption of Adobe Target. This increase in client satisfaction served as a gate opener for further license negotiations.
Bas proved to be able to efficiently combine deep technical knowledge of Adobe Target with a keen understanding of client needs, providing tailored solutions that enhance digital optimization strategies. His ability to translate complex Adobe functionalities into actionable insights has been instrumental in driving measurable results.
Whether you are preparing a migration, building your first use cases or improving an existing implementation. Pick the situation closest to yours and it is written into the form below.
| Situation | Usually starts as | |
|---|---|---|
| The platform decision is made. Now your team needs to deliver.You are moving to a new customer-data or marketing platform, or from Adobe Analytics to CJA. The challenge is turning agreed use cases into buildable designs for data model, identity and integrations, with clear dependencies and a practical delivery sequence. | Architecture or migration | This is us |
| Your team knows the business, but is still learning the Adobe stack.You have capable specialists. They need practical guidance on real use cases, implementation choices and troubleshooting, not another generic training course. | Team enablement | This is us |
| Progress depends on decisions across marketing, IT and delivery partners.Data, access, testing and release responsibilities sit with different teams. You need technically grounded options, clear ownership and a workable route to decisions. | Architect on the programme | This is us |
| The platform is live, but data, activation and reporting do not line up.Identity, consent, audiences or integrations behave differently from what the business expects. You need to trace the problem, check the assumptions and establish what to fix. | Technical diagnosis | This is us |
| You need to prove an approach before committing to the wider build.A discovery phase or PoC needs a clear question, realistic test data that is approved for the purpose, and acceptance criteria that mean something. A convincing demo is not enough. | Defined engagement | This is us |
| Your delivery team needs additional AEP or CJA expertise.You have the client relationship and a team in place, but need a senior specialist for a defined architecture, implementation, migration or enablement work package. | Specialist support | This is us |
Not quite one of these? Discuss your use case
I reduce complexity until the decision is obvious, on a new build and on a programme that has drifted.
Use cases, current state and constraints, written down. What identity, consent and data quality actually allow, before anyone recommends anything.
Which responsibility belongs in which system, and what that means in AEP when that is the platform. Options and sequencing your stakeholders can sign off.
Implementation guidance while it gets built, quality gates, documentation and the handover. I stay for as long as an architect next to your team still adds something.
Usually with one question or one work package. Scope and price are agreed before the work begins, and the engagement grows only if there is a reason for it.
| Short call30–45 minutes, at no cost | Defined engagementScope and price agreed in advance | Architect on the programmeUsually two to three days a week | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | A focused conversation about your situation. | One diagnosis, one review, or one piece of implementation work, written down before it starts. | Fractional, part-time design authority for programmes that need experienced technical leadership but not a full-time architect. |
| What you get | Within 24–48 hours after the call: whether there's a fit and what a sensible next step looks like. | What is in scope, what you get, and how we check the result. An architecture or migration work package with an agreed cap on days or hours is also possible. | Help with design decisions, a consistent architecture and hands-on validation of critical parts of the build, inside your own team or a partner's project team. Depending on the engagement, outputs can include implementation-ready use-case blueprints, validation plans, documented decisions and working sessions that help your team deliver independently. |
| Agreed up front | Technical investigation itself is part of a scoped engagement, not of the call. | Scope, dependencies and how we handle changes are settled before it starts. | Which responsibilities I take on, design authority included where that is the role, when I am available and how knowledge and ownership move to your team. Lighter involvement can be agreed depending on scope and phase. |
| Schedule a short call | Discuss a defined engagement | Request support |
A focused conversation about your situation, at no cost. Within 24–48 hours after the call I'll let you know whether there's a fit and what a sensible next step looks like. Technical investigation itself is part of a scoped engagement, not of the call.
One diagnosis, one review, or one piece of implementation work, written down before it starts: what is in scope, what you get, and how we check the result. An architecture or migration work package with an agreed cap on days or hours is also possible; scope, dependencies and how we handle changes are settled before it starts.
Senior architecture support for programmes that need experienced technical leadership but not a full-time architect. I help the team make design decisions, keep the architecture consistent and validate critical parts of the build, inside your own team or a partner's project team. Depending on the engagement, outputs can include implementation-ready use-case blueprints, validation plans, documented decisions and working sessions that help your team deliver independently.
Up front we agree which responsibilities I take on, design authority included where that is the role, when I am available and how knowledge and ownership move to your team. Usually two to three days a week; lighter involvement can be agreed depending on scope and phase.
When this works well
When another engagement model may fit better
Not sure which model fits? In a short call we work out whether your question is best set up as a project, a specialist work package or part-time architecture support.
For nearly a decade I worked within Adobe Consulting EMEA as a senior consultant and architect for analytics, customer data and activation, across telecom, finance, media, retail, and regulated industries. Since then I do the same work independently, from the client side.
Adobe Experience Platform, Real-Time CDP and Customer Journey Analytics: XDM data modelling, Identity Service with namespaces and identity graph, Real-Time Customer Profile, Web SDK, Mobile SDK and Edge Network, batch and streaming ingestion, Destination SDK, APIs and enterprise integration, audience strategy and activation, consent and data governance, data quality.
Adobe Journey Optimizer is adjacent to that: I design and review how journeys connect to Real-Time CDP, audiences and activation, and can oversee AJO delivery alongside a dedicated specialist where deeper build expertise is needed. The same holds for enterprise data warehouses and event streaming platforms.
I'm Bas Bartholomeus. Nine years at Adobe Consulting EMEA as a senior consultant in analytics, CDP and activation architecture, across telecom, finance, media, retail and regulated industries. Since early 2026 I do that work independently, on the client side.
The architecture work comes out of implementation. I have built, validated and debugged the things I now design, which is what lets me tell an architecture that will hold from one that only looks good in a diagram.
I also design and build furniture and integrated systems in my own workshop. Same rule in both places: understand the structure before you build anything, and stay accountable for the result long after delivery. Wood is less forgiving than software, which is a useful discipline to keep. Studio work →
Notes from the work: data models and identity, activation, governance, and the question of what belongs in AEP in the first place.
Master end-to-end testing of Adobe Experience Platform Destination SDK with practical insights, common pitfalls, and a free testing tool to validate your entire activation chain.
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Read on business.adobe.com ↗How to design, validate and operationalise derived fields without breaking reporting trust downstream. The governance guardrails that keep them reliable as the data model evolves.
Coming soon — get notified below ↓Yes. I can contribute to requirements, customer data architecture, identity, integration choices, migration planning and the review of an implementation, also when other platforms are involved.
My deepest build and configuration knowledge is in Adobe Experience Platform, Real-Time CDP and Customer Journey Analytics. For platform-specific work outside that specialism I work with your own experts or your implementation partner. We agree up front which part I carry out myself and where additional expertise is needed.
A few lines about the situation and the result you are after is enough. I take on a limited number of engagements at a time and reply personally within 24 hours with a clear next step.
