Bastien Boutonnet is the Lead Data Scientist at Soda, where he leads product domains around automated monitoring and data incident resolution. He started out as a neuroscientist by training before turning to data science and developer tooling full time, and he has spent the last six years building the kind of machine learning systems that have to work reliably in production.

At Soda, that means combining ML with plenty of plain if/else pragmatism to help teams detect data issues and resolve incidents before they affect the business. He thinks carefully about design and architecture, and about keeping systems simple enough to be understood, tested, and maintained long after the first version ships.

Beyond his day job, Bastien is an active member of the data and open source community. He streams his open-source contributions on Twitch, thinks out loud about software design, and produces music in his spare time. His route from academia to applied data science makes him a relatable voice on building dependable, observable data platforms.