Skylar Payne is a data and AI leader specializing in helping early-stage engineering teams build reliable, production-ready AI systems. With over a decade of experience spanning roles at Google, LinkedIn, Mindstrong, and HealthRhythms, Payne has established a track record in technical strategy, machine learning infrastructure, and cross-functional team leadership. As the owner of Wicked Data LLC, Payne offers executive coaching, leadership development, and analytics services, focusing on eliminating production instability and enabling faster innovation. He is known for publishing practical insights on topics such as error reinsertion in LLM retries and the refinement of hybrid search pipelines, often emphasizing adaptive feedback loops and resilient system architectures.
I met Skylar at a 📝MLOps community meetup in July 2025.