Developer influencers can play a role in helping you navigate the vast world of technology.
They may provide tips and techniques that you can use to land your next job or opportunity in tech, talk about significant topics and trends, or even teach hidden gems that they’ve discovered in their careers in simple and entertaining ways.
Sometimes developer influencers can be people who inspire us to keep going when things seem too difficult. The world of coder influencers is actually getting more exciting—just look at the GitHub Stars program.
In this article, I’ll introduce some developer influencers you’d like to add to your list. You can use the clickable menu to skip to a specific section.
- 16 of the best developer influencers and experts to follow
- Why follow developer influencers?
- Final thoughts
16 of the best developer influencers and experts to follow
Defining the top developer influencers to follow is no mean feat. There are a lot of factors to consider, ranging from their experience in the tech industry, region, identity, mode of work (freelancers, employed, entrepreneurs), technology stacks, and even whether they’re self-taught.
The criteria could go on and on, and sometimes it’s a matter of who you can relate to the most.
It’s, however, important to always do your research and talk to more experienced people in the industry, as some developer influencers have been known to offer misleading advice.
Today I’ll explore top developer influencers and categorize them based on region, identity, platforms, topics, and mode of work.
Gergely Orosz (The Pragmatic Engineer)
Gergely is arguably one of the most read developer influencers. He’s the author and owner of “The Pragmatic Engineer,” a blog and newsletter that ranks first on Substack, and he’s authored books too.
Summary: Writer, author, former software engineer and engineering manager at Uber, advisor, and angel investor
Topics: project management, big tech, startups, and hiring in software engineering
Platforms: LinkedIn, newsletter, X, blog, and YouTube
Location: Amsterdam, Netherlands
Cassidy Williams
Cassidy is a CTO with experience working for over 10 companies, including Amazon and Netlify.
She thoroughly enjoys building mechanical keyboards, music, gaming, creating online courses, co-hosting the Stack Overflow podcast, and writing the newsletter.
Summary: CTO, startup advisor and investor, developer experience expert, and speaker
Topics: memes, web development, and interviews
Platforms: LinkedIn, newsletter, codepen, and X
Location: Chicago, Illinois, USA
Cathy O Neil
If you’ve watched the Netflix documentary Coded Bias, then you’ve probably seen how passionate Cathy is about data and ethics, the human experience, and creating unbiased algorithms, which is also evident in her bestseller, Weapons of Math Destruction.
Summary: Mathematician, author, data scientist, and speaker
Topics: big data, ethics, mathematics, and algorithms
Platforms: blog, X, and major publications (Bloomberg, TedTalks)
Location: Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
Nana Janashia (TechWorld with Nana)
Nana, an experienced DevOps developer and engineer, has made the DevOps learning curve easier, more reliable, and more structured through her DevOps and DevSecOps bootcamps at TechWorld.
Summary: DevOps Consultant and Trainer, CNCF Ambassador, AWS Container Hero, and Docker Captain
Topics: DevOps, cloud computing, containerization, development, and CI/CD
Platforms: LinkedIn, X, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, and Dev.to
Joshua Fluke
Joshua isn’t your typical developer influencer. He critiques corporate culture and offers insights on salary negotiations during interviews, resume reviews, and front-end software development roadmaps. He’s most active on YouTube.
Summary: Entrepreneur, YouTuber
Topics: Corporate culture, interviews, resumes, and coding
Platforms: YouTube, Instagram, X, and Facebook
Kamil Dębowski (Errichto)
If you like programming competitions, and maybe you’d like to win some of them, then Kamil (Errichto Algorithms) is your go-to guy. He’s a frequent participant, finalist, and organizer.
Summary: competitive programmer and teacher, coding problems author (Codeforces and Topcoder, as well as Codechef)
Topics: competitive programming, leetcode, coding interviews, and algorithms
Platforms: YouTube, X, and Facebook
Location: Poland
Ann Adaya
Ann is a senior developer and tech lead who’s a self-taught career transitioner. She shares tutorials and tips on how to become a better developer.
Summary: senior developer and tech lead
Topics: becoming a better developer, and tutorials
Platforms: Instagram, Medium, blog, and X
Location: Philippines
Harrison Kingsley (Sentdex)
Harrison is a serial entrepreneur who enjoys learning and building with Python. He teaches Python and machine learning, and has built several businesses that leverage Python.
Summary: Founder, entrepreneur, and Python teacher
Topics: Python, machine learning, programming, and AI
Platforms: Instagram, YouTube, X, and LinkedIn
Location: Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, Texas, USA
Danny Thompson
Danny is a software engineer and mentor with a zeal to help others in their tech journeys. He does one-on-one mentorship calls to guide people on getting their first job in tech. He also aids in building local tech communities.
Summary: Software engineer, mentor, brand ambassador, and community builder
Topics: programming, career growth, and personal development
Platforms: LinkedIn, X, and Discord
Location: Dallas, Texas, USA
Sara Soueidan
Sara is an indie design engineer on a mission to ensure that developers, brands, and companies the world over embrace inclusive design and make it part of their product process.
Summary: indie inclusive design engineer, speaker, online course creator, and author
Topics: front-end development and accessibility
Platforms: X, personal website, and LinkedIn
Location: Lebanon
Simona Milanović
Simona is an Android Developer Relations Engineer at Google, working on Jetpack Compose. She writes about Android and Jetpack Compose on Medium and speaks at events too.
Summary: Android Developer, Android Developer Relations Engineer, and speaker
Topics: Android development and Jetpack Compose
Platforms: X, Medium, and LinkedIn
Location: London, UK
Tina Huang
Tina is a former data scientist at Meta. Before that, she was set to become a doctor. She currently creates data science content and teaches AI and data skills through her online course, Lonely Octopus.
Summary: data scientist and content creator
Topics: data science, productivity, and careers in data science
Platforms: YouTube, Instagram, X and LinkedIn
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Hosanna Hali
Popularly known as the “Fairy Tech Mother,” Hosanna is a sales engineer, Azure specialist, and mentor.
She loves to inspire women to get into tech via her platform, “The Tech Cornr”. She formerly worked for Microsoft and was on the Women @ Microsoft Professional Development board.
Summary: sales engineer and Azure specialist
Topics: how to get started in tech
Platforms: LinkedIn, X, YouTube, Instagram and TikTok
Location: London, England, United Kingdom
Makinde Adeagbo
Makinde is a tenacious software engineer by many standards. He learned how to code as early as middle school. He’s worked for renowned tech companies like Pinterest, Microsoft, and Dropbox. He then founded dev/color to help people of color break into tech.
Summary: software engineer, founder, and board member
Topics: tech communities and getting tech jobs
Platforms: LinkedIn, X, Facebook, and Medium
Location: Palo Alto, California, United States
Hitesh Choudhary
Hitesh is a developer who enjoys creating content and tutorials about code and traveling. He leads tech teams and helps them hire tech talent.
Summary: programmer, teacher, team leader, and senior director
Topics: programming, Android, iOS, web, penetration testing, JavaScript, Python, PHP, and machine learning
Platforms: Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, X, and personal website
Location: India
Yan Chernikov (The Cherno)
The Cherno isn’t only popular because of his YouTube channel, but also because he’s the brains behind the game engine, Hazel. He’s worked as a game engine software engineer and enjoys teaching others to build game engines.
Summary: Hazel builder, teacher, and game engine software engineer
Topics: Hazel game engine, C++, software engineering, OpenGL and graphics programming
Platforms: Instagram, YouTube, Discord, and X
Location: Australia
Bonus Influencer: Tope Awotona
If you’ve scheduled meetings or chosen a meeting slot on Calendly, then you have Tope Awotona to thank for it. Before founding Calendly, Tope worked in enterprise software sales for companies like IBM, Perceptive Software, and Dell, in addition to founding some startups.
Summary: Calendly CEO and founder, as well as board of directors member
Topics: business and startups
Platforms: LinkedIn and X
Location: Atlanta, Georgia, United States
Why follow developer influencers?
The world of technology is quite universal, to a large extent. We tend to use the same programming languages despite our location in the world and have industry best practices that are global, too.
This means that most of the advice and information that you can get from developer influencers is applicable in lots of contexts.
There are, of course, exceptions, and you may find that employers in a certain area tend to prefer certain technologies and stacks.
You may also find that people have different journeys into tech, from career transitioners to bootcamp graduates, people with computer science degrees, and even self-taught engineers.
It’s only sensible to do your due diligence, even as you follow developer influencers. This is because not all advice applies to your context and story. In addition, some influencers could be there to build an audience and sell a product to them.
You may also find that the “self-taught developer‘ and “career-transitioner” actually have a competitive edge, like a technical degree (Math or Engineering) that makes it easier for them to transition into tech.
That said, there are several reasons why people follow developer influencers.
Staying up-to-date
Developer influencers are pretty good at helping you stay up-to-date with the latest technologies, programming languages, innovations, and frameworks.
They also tend to discuss new trends in depth, even hosting experts to discuss the same on podcasts and YouTube channels.
They are relatable
Developer influencers have different stories about their journeys into tech. Some are career-changers, self-taught, bootcamp graduates, entrepreneurs, or even engineers who build great platforms for developers.
As you learn more about their tech journeys, you can relate them to your own and be encouraged as you pursue your career growth in tech.
The influencers are also diverse, from all identities, nationalities, and walks of life. You may find a female developer more relatable if you’re a woman in tech, for example. If you want to build a tech business, a technopreneur might be your source of inspiration.
They might teach concepts more easily
Some developer influencers are incredible teachers. They can explain technical concepts in very clear and simple ways. This makes it easier to pick up a new language, framework, or technology very quickly.
They may also teach in entertaining ways, making it easier to follow their content.
They create spaces for difficult tech conversations
Many developer influencers are passionate about difficult topics in tech, for example, biases in machine learning datasets, diversity and inclusion in tech, and even toxic work spaces.
Following such influencers may be the starting point for having these difficult conversations at work and in school and building more inclusive workplaces and tech products.
They give great job search and interview advice
Influencers can be a great resource when preparing for interviews in tech. They can give you resume and interview tips and techniques and even show you how to negotiate for your compensation, for example.
They can offer mentorship
Influencers can offer mentorship, especially for people at entry and junior levels. Some even have one-on-one sessions where they help guide people and hold their hands as they grow in their tech journeys.
It’s always such a joy when influencers share their mentees’ successes, for example, new jobs or even a first-ever tech job.
Final thoughts
So there you have it! I’ve curated a diverse list of developer influencers and experts you can follow as you grow in your tech journey.
We hope that you’ll find those to whom you can relate the most and whom you can learn from to help you make the next step in your career. A first step in that career is taking CareerFoundry’s free 5-day coding short course, which has a gentle learning curve. In just 5 video lessons, you’ll learn to build a responsive website with the languages HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
If you’d prefer to read more first, check out these articles: