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About Me

I'm an Analytics Engineer born and raised in Cali, Colombia. But I lived in the Netherlands for most of my adult life. In 2026, my family and I relocated to Connecticut, US.

I have a decade of experience working with data, mostly as an implementation consultant. Thanks to my clients I have been involved in most of the analytics lifecycle, from defining objectives and architecture to data modeling and reporting.

Besides consultancy, teaching and community building are a core part of what I do. I've written a book, run meetups, built courses, and spoken at conferences around the world. The common thread: making analytics engineering more accessible to everyone working with data.

Juan Manuel Perafan

What I'm Up To

📚
Teaching dbt

Freelance instructor for dbt Labs, running live dbt Cloud training for data teams around the world.

🏫
Building Query Academy

Growing Query Academy, an online platform for data engineering courses and hands-on SQL learning.

✍️
Writing a Second Book

The Data Consultant's Handbook, covering the business side of consulting that most technical content skips.

🎤
Speaking at Conferences

Regularly showing up and speaking at data meetups and conferences across the world.

Around the World

I've lived in four countries and spoken in many more.

Where I've Lived

Colombia Born and Raised
United Kingdom 1 year
Netherlands 15 years
United States Since 2026

Where I've Spoken

USA
Europe
South America

Previous Experience

Data Work

Analytics Engineer
Xebia
20202024

Analytics engineering, dbt, and data modeling for clients across the Netherlands.

Analytics Consultant
Biztory
20182020

30+ clients in 4 countries, covering the full analytics lifecycle from architecture to reporting.

Marketing Intelligence
Justlease.nl
20172018

Data analysis with Python and R, MS SQL database marketing, and internal Tableau champion.

Teaching

Technical Instructor
dbt Labs
2026now

Live dbt Cloud training for data teams around the world.

Zoomcamp Instructor
DataTalks.Club
2025now

Analytics engineering module in the Data Engineering Zoomcamp.

Founder & Instructor
Query Academy
2024now

Online platform for SQL and analytics engineering education.

Head Coach
Nimbus Intelligence
2025

Designed and delivered a 3-month data engineering bootcamp for new hires.

Guest Lecturer
University of Groningen
20212022

Hands-on course covering each step of the data lifecycle for honours students.

Teaching Assistant
University of Groningen
20142016

Taught 5 different courses, 548 hours across 192 students.

Community

Co-Author
Fundamentals of Analytics Engineering
20232024

Analytics engineering textbook published by Packt, covering the full modern data stack.

Organizer
Meetup
2016now

Analytics Engineering, Dutch dbt, and Data Visualization meetups.

Podcast Host
SQL Lingua Franca
20242025

Conversations about data, analytics engineering, and the SQL ecosystem.

Conference Speaker
Dozens of talks
worldwide

dbt Coalesce, Linux Foundation, Big Data Summit, Developer Week LatAm.

Recipient
dbt Community Award
2024

Recognized by the global dbt community for contributions to analytics engineering.

Creator
dbt Excel
2023

A fully working dbt adapter for Excel, built as an April Fools' prank. Deprecated, as intended.