Joonatan Rautiola studied at the Sibelius Academy under Pekka Savijoki and in Paris with Nicolas Prost and Christian Wirth. In 2010 he became the first Nordic saxophonist having graduated from Claude Delangle's saxophone class at the Paris Conservatory. His other teachers include clarinetist Paul Meyer and oboist Maurice Bourgue.

Joonatan Rautiola has appeared as a soloist with the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Düsseldorfer Symfoniker, Het Kamerorkest Brugge among others and with several professional Nordic wind orchestras. He has given recitals in London, Dublin, Tokyo, St. Petersbourg and at New York's Carnegie Hall.

An active performer of contemporary music, Joonatan Rautiola has given first performances of works by Patrick Marcland, Tapio Tuomela, Olli Virtaperko, Tuomas Turriago, Gerald Shapiro, Antonin Servière and Christian Lauba, and has received tuition from Pierre Boulez and Betsy Jolas. In 2015 and 2016 Rautiola premieres Guillaume Connesson's saxophone concerto with the Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra and Olli Virtaperko's saxophone concerto with TampereRaw.

Joonatan Rautiola is the only wind instrumentist having won the Finnish National Radio’s Young Soloists’ Competition. His numerous prizes in international competitions include first prizes at the Nordic Wind Soloists' Competition and the Nova Gorica International Saxophone Competition as well as prizes at the International Aeolus Competition for Wind Instruments and the International Adolphe Sax Saxophone Competition in Dinant, Belgium.

Joonatan Rautiola teaches at the Sibelius Academy and at the Tampere Music Academy and has given masterclasses at Tokyo, Riga, London and Strasbourg among others.