# Mehdi Ouazza

> Mehdi Ouazza is a Brussels-based Data Engineer and Developer Advocate at MotherDuck with 10+ years in the data space. He is the first DevRel hire at MotherDuck, a DuckDB-powered cloud analytics startup, where he grew social media by 450% and built a YouTube channel to 900K+ views. Creator of the 'Mehdio's Tech (Data) Corner' newsletter on Substack, founder of DataCreators.Club, and a prolific speaker and open-source contributor, Mehdi is known for demystifying data engineering and AI careers with humor, playfulness, and radical honesty.

- **Role:** Data Engineer & Developer Advocate at MotherDuck
- **Organizations:** MotherDuck, DataCreators.Club
- **Nationality:** Belgian
- **Education:** Engineering (specific degree not publicly disclosed), Haute Ecole Leonard de Vinci
- **Known for:** First Developer Relations hire at MotherDuck, Grew MotherDuck social media presence by 450%, Launched MotherDuck YouTube channel from zero to 100K+ views

## Career timeline

- **2017** — Joined AXA as Data Engineer
- **2019** — Joined Klarna as Senior Data Engineer
- **2021** — Joined Back Market as Senior Data Engineer
- **2022** — Joined Trade Republic as Staff Data Engineer
- **2022** — Published 'Why and How to Market Yourself as a Data Engineer' on Towards Data Science
- **2022** — Launched newsletter 'Mehdio's Tech (Data) Corner' on Substack (Dec 28, 2022)
- **2023** — Joined MotherDuck as first DevRel hire (Data Engineer & Developer Advocate)
- **2023** — Spoke at dbt Coalesce 2023 on 'Fixing the Data Eng Lifecycle'
- **2023** — Founded DataCreators.Club podcast and community
- **2025** — Relocated from Berlin, Germany to Brussels, Belgium
- **2025** — Spoke at Forward Data Conference 2025 on DuckLake and minimalist lakehouse architecture
- **2025** — YouTube channel surpassed 900K views with 114+ videos
- **2026** — Newsletter reaches 2,000+ subscribers; building Subtldr (AI Reddit newsletter product)

## Achievements

- First Developer Relations hire at MotherDuck
- Grew MotherDuck social media presence by 450%
- Launched MotherDuck YouTube channel from zero to 100K+ views
- Personal YouTube channel (@mehdio) reached 906K views across 114 videos
- 5M+ views on LinkedIn content
- 2,000+ newsletter subscribers on Substack
- Open source GitHub projects with 765+ stars (including pypi-duck-flow with 235 stars)
- Speaker at major data conferences: dbt Coalesce, Forward Data Conference, Transform, PyData
- Organized 5+ data meetups with 250+ attendees
- Founded DataCreators.Club community for data content creators
- 10+ years of experience across leading fintechs and scale-ups (AXA, Klarna, Back Market, Trade Republic)

## Latest updates

- **2026-04** — Newsletter 'ctrl+r' series continues with weekly issues covering AI agents, data tools, and career takes
- **2026-04** — Viral LinkedIn post about removing code resonates with 3,000+ engineers
- **2025-12** — Relocated from Berlin to Brussels
- **2025-05** — Spoke at Forward Data Conference 2025 on DuckLake and minimalist lakehouse
- **2025-01** — YouTube channel crosses 900K total views
- **2024-12** — Started building Subtldr - an AI-generated Reddit newsletter product

## Links

- Website: https://www.mehdio.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mehd-io/
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/mehd_io
- GitHub: https://github.com/mehd-io
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@mehdio
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mehdio_datatv/

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/mehdi-ouazza
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-04-24