Matt Housley is a data engineering consultant and cloud specialist who helps organizations design data architectures that last. He co-founded Ternary Data with Joe Reis, where he leverages his teaching experience to train future data engineers and advise teams on building robust, cloud-based data platforms. His path into data was unconventional: after early programming experience with Logo, Basic, and 6502 assembly, he completed a PhD in mathematics at the University of Utah before moving into data science and eventually specializing in cloud data engineering.

That mathematical background shows in how Matt thinks about data: in terms of fundamentals, trade-offs, and first principles rather than fashionable tools. It is an approach he and Joe Reis put to paper in Fundamentals of Data Engineering, published by O’Reilly, a widely used book that treats data engineering as a coherent discipline, covering the data lifecycle, architecture choices, and how to evaluate technology against actual business needs.

Matt and Joe continue the conversation on The Monday Morning Data Chat, a podcast where they pontificate on all things data, from career advice to architecture debates. Through consulting, teaching, and writing, Matt has helped shape how a generation of data engineers thinks about the discipline.