diff --git a/plugins/ingest/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/ingest/Data.java b/plugins/ingest/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/ingest/Data.java
index d27360c0380..690dad062bb 100644
--- a/plugins/ingest/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/ingest/Data.java
+++ b/plugins/ingest/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/ingest/Data.java
@@ -19,8 +19,13 @@
 
 package org.elasticsearch.ingest;
 
+import org.elasticsearch.common.Strings;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.support.XContentMapValues;
 
+import java.lang.reflect.Array;
+import java.util.Arrays;
+import java.util.HashMap;
+import java.util.List;
 import java.util.Map;
 
 /**
@@ -47,9 +52,30 @@ public final class Data {
         return (T) XContentMapValues.extractValue(path, document);
     }
 
-    public void addField(String field, Object value) {
+    /**
+     * add `value` to path in document. If path does not exist,
+     * nested hashmaps will be put in as parent key values until
+     * leaf key name in path is reached.
+     *
+     * @param path The path within the document in dot-notation
+     * @param value The value to put in for the path key
+     */
+    public void addField(String path, Object value) {
         modified = true;
-        document.put(field, value);
+
+        String[] pathElements = Strings.splitStringToArray(path, '.');
+
+        String writeKey = pathElements[pathElements.length - 1];
+        Map<String, Object> inner = document;
+
+        for (int i = 0; i < pathElements.length - 1; i++) {
+            if (!inner.containsKey(pathElements[i])) {
+                inner.put(pathElements[i], new HashMap<String, Object>());
+            }
+            inner = (HashMap<String, Object>) inner.get(pathElements[i]);
+        }
+
+        inner.put(writeKey, value);
     }
 
     public String getIndex() {
diff --git a/plugins/ingest/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/ingest/DataTests.java b/plugins/ingest/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/ingest/DataTests.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..bafc0c92356
--- /dev/null
+++ b/plugins/ingest/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/ingest/DataTests.java
@@ -0,0 +1,71 @@
+/*
+ * Licensed to Elasticsearch under one or more contributor
+ * license agreements. See the NOTICE file distributed with
+ * this work for additional information regarding copyright
+ * ownership. Elasticsearch licenses this file to you under
+ * the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may
+ * not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+ * You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
+ * software distributed under the License is distributed on an
+ * "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
+ * KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
+ * specific language governing permissions and limitations
+ * under the License.
+ */
+
+package org.elasticsearch.ingest;
+
+import org.elasticsearch.test.ESTestCase;
+import org.junit.Before;
+
+import java.util.HashMap;
+
+import static org.hamcrest.Matchers.*;
+
+public class DataTests extends ESTestCase {
+
+    private Data data;
+
+    @Before
+    public void setData() {
+        data = new Data("index", "type", "id",
+                new HashMap<String, Object>() {{
+                    put("foo", "bar");
+                    put("fizz", new HashMap<String, Object>() {{
+                        put("buzz", "hello world");
+                    }});
+                }});
+    }
+
+    public void testSimpleGetProperty() {
+        assertThat(data.getProperty("foo"), equalTo("bar"));
+    }
+
+    public void testNestedGetProperty() {
+        assertThat(data.getProperty("fizz.buzz"), equalTo("hello world"));
+    }
+
+    public void testSimpleAddField() {
+        data.addField("new_field", "foo");
+        assertThat(data.getDocument().get("new_field"), equalTo("foo"));
+    }
+
+    public void testNestedAddField() {
+        data.addField("a.b.c.d", "foo");
+        assertThat(data.getProperty("a.b.c.d"), equalTo("foo"));
+    }
+
+    public void testAddFieldOnExistingField() {
+        data.addField("foo", "newbar");
+        assertThat(data.getProperty("foo"), equalTo("newbar"));
+    }
+
+    public void testAddFieldOnExistingParent() {
+        data.addField("fizz.new", "bar");
+        assertThat(data.getProperty("fizz.new"), equalTo("bar"));
+    }
+}