Juan Manuel Perafan is an analytics engineer, educator, and community builder who has become one of the most recognizable voices in the analytics engineering field. Born and raised in Colombia and based in the Netherlands for close to fifteen years, Juan originally studied psychology and researched experimentation before realizing that data and programming captured what he wanted from a career. That pivot taught him how to learn technical skills from the ground up, and now he teaches others to do the same.

Juan is the co-author of Fundamentals of Analytics Engineering, a book that defines the analytics engineer role: the skills, the scope, and the modern practices around SQL, dbt, and data modeling. He hosts the SQL Lingua Franca podcast and shares practical guidance on the craft of turning raw data into trusted, well-modeled datasets.

Community building is where his impact is most visible. Juan founded both the Analytics Engineering Meetup Netherlands and the Dutch dbt Meetup, and his contributions have been recognized with a dbt Community Award. He is a regular speaker at international events, including dbt Coalesce, the Linux Foundation OS Summit, and Big Data Expo NL.