Company News & Events

Meet the posit::conf(2026) Keynote Speakers

2026-03-17

Data science can often feel like a race against a moving finish line. Whether you are battling a dataset that is suddenly too large for your laptop or trying to find the signal in a noisy AI landscape, the pressure to deliver clarity is real.

That is why we are coming together in Houston. At posit::conf(2026), you will find more than just technical updates. You will find a community of people who have felt that same frustration and have built (or are building) the way out. Our keynote speakers are here to share those maps with you.

 

Wes McKinney: Navigating the Agentic Future

 

Most of us know Wes as the creator of pandas, but his current focus is on a fundamental shift in how we build software. As a Principal Architect at Posit, Wes is exploring the reality of “Agentic Software Engineering” – and why simply adding more AI “agents” to a project doesn’t automatically make it better or faster.

Beyond the Code: When he isn’t re-architecting data formats or evaluating AI agents, Wes loves learning foreign languages. He’s learned Spanish, German, French, and Italian, and just recently started learning Japanese! Wes has also been practicing hot yoga for 15 years.

The Practical Impact: Wes’s session moves past the AI hype to address the “Mythical Agent-Month.” He will explore how we can use AI to actually improve software quality rather than just generating more code to maintain.

  • The Productivity Paradox: Understand why adding AI agents to a complex project can sometimes create more “managerial overhead” for the human developer.
  • System-Level Thinking: Learn how to design software that is “agent-friendly,” making it easier for AI tools to help you refactor, test, and maintain your work.
  • Beyond the Chatbot: Explore the transition from simple code-completion to integrated agents that understand the broader context of your entire data science project.

 

Christine Zhang: Clarity in High-Stakes Data

 

There is a specific kind of stress that comes with presenting a chart to a room full of stakeholders during a crisis. Christine Zhang, Graphics Editor at The New York Times, lives in that space every day.

Beyond the Code:

  • Christine watches a lot of Law & Order in her free time, and for a personal project she’s been collecting data on how the timeline of cases on the show compares with reality.
  • She also loves watching Broadway shows, a hobby that typically does not coincide with work (though sometimes it does)!
  • Christine is mentioned in Jenny Bryan’s blog post accompanying the release of readxl 1.1.0 (the “readxl in the real world” section), one of her proudest R moments
  • Her most recent Reddit post was in 2018, when she shared her map of the places Anthony Bourdain visited on his shows on r/dataisbeautiful (made in R)
  • When coding in the tidyverse, she uses summarise() instead of summarize() and colour() instead of color(). Pretty sure this post by Hadley is why!

The Practical Impact: Christine’s session is about the pride of being understood. It is about the confidence that comes from knowing your visualization is not just pretty, but truthful and resilient.

  • Resilient Pipelines: Build workflows that stay steady even when the data and the public pressure are shifting by the second.
  • Quantifying Doubt: Learn the art of showing “what we don’t know,” which builds deeper trust with your audience.
  • User-Centric Design: Feel the satisfaction of creating a report that clicks instantly for your non-technical colleagues.

 

Emily Riederer: Strengthening Data Workflows

 

While Emily Riederer has worked up and down the data stack, her passion for unearthing reusable patterns and workflows has been a constant. Currently leading data science teams at Capital One*, Emily will explore how we can put to use the “big ideas” embedded within different data disciplines and toolkits.

Beyond the Code:

  • Emily’s hobbies are suspiciously similar to her day job. She has reviewed over 100 book proposals and manuscripts for Routledge, led voter turnout data operations across 8 states, and is active on the editorial board of rOpenSci
  • Emily’s first foray into technology (and flirting) was helping her middle school crush build a personal website for his “business” in raw HTML/CSS leading to a life-long love (for markup languages)
  • Emily’s worst statistical pun is that the name Emily is the M-L-E (maximum likelihood estimator) of US girl names for the next decade after her birth
  • When her laptop is closed, Emily can be found running and lifting with podcasts at 2.5x speed, reading, or spending time with her chihuahua and three niblings

The Practical Impact: Emily’s session is about the power of ideas crossing boundaries and what she carries with her from experience at all sizes of projects and levels of the data stack.

  • The Full-Stack Mindset: Learn how data scientists can apply engineering principles to create a developer experience for themselves and deliver more resilient products
  • Polyglot Perspective: Explore how different tools expose different modes of thinking that transcend across languages
  • Right-Sized Solutions: Understand what “best practices” hold true and which vary when working in a large enterprise versus a data team-of-one

*Emily is speaking in a personal capacity. Views are her own and do not represent her employer.

 

Sara Altman & Simon Couch: Integrating AI Thoughtfully

 

Sara Altman and Simon Couch spend their days on Posit’s AI Core team building data science agents and evaluating how well they actually handle the work. Their biweekly newsletter aims to cut through the noise and focus on what matters, and their talk will do the same.

Beyond the Code:

  • Simon once saw a mountain goat while backpacking and didn’t know what it was. (They’re huge up close!)
  • He swam in Lake Michigan 22 times in 2025 and is trying to top that number this year.
  • He is spectacularly bad at any game that requires a quick reaction time.
  • Sara’s work is often overseen by her tortoiseshell cat, Thea. She knows multiple tricks, including how to high-five.
  • Three friends have entrusted Sara with making their tiered wedding cakes.
  • She is not related to any of the famous Altmans, as far as she knows.

The Practical Impact: While data analysis often requires slowing down, questioning conclusions, and digging into subtleties, many of today’s AI data science agents are wired to keep moving. Sara and Simon will draw on their experience building data science agents at Posit to share practical strategies for keeping AI-assisted analyses correct, transparent, and reproducible.

 

Join Us in Houston (or from Anywhere)

 

We know that committing to a conference is a big investment of your time and resources. We want to make sure you get the most out of it, whether you are joining us in person or online.

  • Can’t travel to Houston? We are livestreaming all keynotes and talks, so you can learn from these experts no matter where you are in the world.
  • Coming to Texas? The on-site experience includes hands-on workshops, Birds of a Feather networking sessions, and the chance to talk directly with our speakers throughout the week.
  • Technical Depth: Our sessions are designed for a range of experience levels, with plenty of resources provided afterward to help you implement what you learn.

We hope you’ll join us in Houston to help shape the future of the open-source ecosystem together.

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