Methods, systems, and computer programs are presented for scheduling and executing request plans using an opportunistic approach. An opportunistic scheduler generates a request plan for a request on a cloud data platform, the request plan comprising a plurality of operations and identifies a plurality of contingent operations from the plurality of operations of the request plan. The opportunistic scheduler schedules the plurality of contingent operations for execution and sets the scheduled plurality of contingent operations to execute at a specific position in the request plan. The opportunistic scheduler sets remaining operations for execution by any available thread as threads that are processing the request plan become available and processes the request plan according to the scheduled plurality of contingent operations.