I build the layer between a company's data and its decisions.
Aaron Williams · Analytics Engineering Manager @ Netflix · Los Angeles
What I do
I lead teams that build analytics products: the shared definitions a company runs its numbers on, the dashboards and tools people read them in, and lately the agents that answer questions from those same definitions. Right now that's at Netflix, where my team builds the products the ads business uses to understand how it's doing. Before managing I spent five years at Netflix as a senior and staff data visualization engineer, and almost a decade in investigative data journalism, mostly at The Washington Post. I still think the hardest problem in data is getting people to agree on what the numbers mean.
Writing & talks
See all →- I Spent Over $200 Teaching a Model What "Clean" Means 2026 · Blog
- More of What, Exactly? 2026 · Blog
- AI Engineering Lessons from a 52-Hour Hack Project 2026 · LinkedIn
- Codebreaking Creativity: Unlocking the Stories in the Data 2025 · Talk, Canva
- On Upward Mobility 2022 · The Pudding
- Exit Interviews: Aaron Williams 2021 · OpenNews Source
Community
Founding board member at the News Product Alliance, where I developed and teach the "Data for Product Management" curriculum. Former OpenNews board member.
If you've hit the same problems, or think I'm wrong, I'm always down to talk. hi@acwx.net or LinkedIn.