38 tech influencers on LinkedIn to follow or partner with in 2026

I recently put together two lists: 17 tech YouTubers and 36 tech influencers on X. Now, I'm covering LinkedIn.

LinkedIn has a growing number of software engineers, AI researchers, DevOps educators, and technical founders sharing what they're building and learning.

For example, Kunal Kushwaha shares DevOps and open-source learning resources, Hamel Husain writes about LLM evaluations, and Chad Sanderson discusses data contracts and data engineering.

I created this list for two groups: developers looking for people they can learn from, and DevTools companies looking for creators who reach the software engineers they want to acquire.

I used the Bright Data API to collect publicly available LinkedIn profile data for 51 creators on November 4, 2026, and shortlisted 38 tech influencers covering AI, coding, DevOps, data engineering, cybersecurity, and Web3.

I've included their LinkedIn profiles, follower counts, areas of expertise, and company backgrounds to help you decide who to follow or research for a potential partnership.

How I selected these tech influencers on LinkedIn

I started with 51 LinkedIn profiles and shortlisted 38 using the following criteria:

• Technical expertise: I selected software engineers, AI researchers, DevOps practitioners, technical educators, and developer-focused founders.
• Audience size: I used the Bright Data API to collect their LinkedIn follower counts as of November 4, 2026.
• Content relevance: I prioritized creators who share technical knowledge, educational resources, and discussions relevant to developers.
• Company background: I collected company associations from their LinkedIn profiles to provide context about their professional experience.
• Profile quality: I excluded profiles with unreliable information, limited relevance to developers, or insufficient publicly available data.

All 38 tech influencers on LinkedIn at a glance: followers, topics, and company backgrounds

Tech influencer	Main topic	LinkedIn followers	Company background
Kunal Kushwaha	DevOps, open source	403,781	WeMakeDevs
Nana Janashia	Docker, Kubernetes	272,616	TechWorld with Nana
Eduardo Ordax	AI, cloud computing	255,422	Mirelo
Abhishek Veeramalla	AWS, DevOps	248,895	Esc Bash
Ryan Peterman	Software engineering, careers	199,377	The Peterman Pod
Aurimas Griciūnas	AI engineering, LLMOps	189,690	SwirlAI, neptune.ai
Benjamin Rogojan	Data engineering	188,493	Codestrap
Damien Benveniste	AI/ML engineering	173,595	The AiEdge, Meta
Ravit Jain	Data, AI	172,654	The Ravit Show
Andreas Kretz	Data engineering	164,367	Learn Data Engineering
Alexandre Zajac	Coding, system design	162,949	Amazon
Sahn Lam	System design	155,063	ByteByteGo
Shalini Goyal	Coding, system design	137,214	JPMorganChase
Anton Martyniuk	.NET, backend development	127,357	Anton DevTips
Shubham Saboo	AI agents	121,611	Google
Adrian Cantrill	AWS architecture	115,752	learn.cantrill.io
Paul Iusztin	AI engineering	114,262	Decoding AI, Manning
Kristen Kehrer	Data science	106,177	Data Moves Me, Comet
Joe Reis	Data engineering	98,782	Not available
Elvis Saravia	LLMs, AI research	97,154	DAIR.AI
Chad Sanderson	Data contracts	91,023	Gable
Jason Haddix	Offensive security	88,361	Arcanum Information Security
Marcus Hutchins	Malware research	83,931	Expel
Gregor Ojstersek	Engineering leadership	82,785	Engineering Leadership
Pau Labarta Bajo	ML engineering	71,111	Liquid AI, Braintrust
Tanya Janca	Application security	57,635	She Hacks Purple
Ross Haleliuk	Security startups	53,672	The Core Strength Network
Eugene Yan	Applied AI, ML	46,346	Anthropic
Clint Gibler	Application security	39,848	OpenAI
Brian Jenney	Coding, developer careers	39,418	Parsity
Michael Levan	Kubernetes, cloud	39,230	solo.io
Hamel Husain	LLM evaluations	38,937	OpenAI
Patrick Collins	Solidity, Web3 security	37,703	Cyfrin
Femke Plantinga	AI, developer relations	32,701	Slite
Rishab Kumar	Cloud, DevRel	23,694	Twilio
Caleb Sima	Security, AI	22,879	Hadrian
Simon Willison	LLM tooling, open source	22,651	Datasette
Nader Dabit	AI, developer relations	13,926	Cognition

Source: Bright Data LinkedIn profile data, collected November 4, 2026. Company backgrounds reflect associations returned by the dataset and should not be interpreted as verified current employers.

Top AI influencers on LinkedIn

These creators cover AI engineering, LLM applications, model evaluations, and the tools developers use to build AI products.

1. Aurimas Griciūnas

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aurimas-griciunas

Aurimas Griciūnas creates educational content about AI engineering, LLMOps, and building production-ready machine learning systems. He founded SwirlAI and has experience with neptune.ai. His content covers LLM pipelines, model deployment, and AI infrastructure.

2. Damien Benveniste

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/damienbenveniste

Damien Benveniste writes about machine learning engineering, AI agents, and LLM architectures. He is associated with The AiEdge and previously worked at Meta. His posts explain AI research and engineering concepts through diagrams, code examples, and technical breakdowns.

3. Shubham Saboo

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shubhamsaboo

Shubham Saboo focuses on building AI agents and applications with large language models. His content explores agent architectures, AI frameworks, and practical implementations that developers can experiment with.

4. Paul Iusztin

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/Pauliusztin

Paul Iusztin teaches developers how to build and deploy AI applications. He covers LLM pipelines, AI agents, RAG systems, and the infrastructure needed to run them in production. He has also contributed technical content to publishers including Manning.

5. Elvis Saravia

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/Omarsar

Elvis Saravia is associated with DAIR.AI, which publishes educational resources about large language models and prompt engineering. He shares AI research papers, explains emerging techniques, and discusses their applications in software development.

6. Pau Labarta Bajo

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pau-labarta-bajo-4432074b

Pau Labarta Bajo writes about machine learning engineering and developing AI applications. His professional background includes Liquid AI and Braintrust. He covers ML development workflows and techniques for building AI-powered software.

7. Eugene Yan

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eugeneyan

Eugene Yan writes about applied machine learning, recommendation systems, and AI application design. He has experience at Anthropic and publishes detailed technical explanations about ML architecture, model evaluation, and engineering decisions.

8. Hamel Husain

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hamelhusain

Hamel Husain specializes in LLM evaluations and improving the reliability of AI applications. He explains how developers can build evaluation datasets, use LLM-as-a-judge techniques, and identify failures in model outputs.

9. Femke Plantinga

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/Femke-plantinga

Femke Plantinga works in developer relations and technical communication. She discusses AI, developer education, and ways technical companies can explain their products to developers through content and community engagement.

10. Simon Willison

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/simonwillison

Simon Willison develops open-source tools, including Datasette and his LLM command-line utility. He shares experiments with language models, investigates prompt injection vulnerabilities, and documents practical applications of AI tools.

His technical blog also includes code examples and detailed experiments.

Coding, system design, and software engineering influencers

These creators cover programming, backend development, system architecture, technical interviews, and software engineering careers.

11. Ryan Peterman

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/Ryanlpeterman

Ryan Peterman creates content about software engineering careers and professional development. Through The Peterman Pod, he discusses engineering career progression, technical skills, and lessons from experienced software engineers.

12. Alexandre Zajac

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandre-zajac

Alexandre Zajac shares educational content about software engineering and system design. His posts explain programming concepts and architectural decisions involved in building scalable applications. His professional background includes Amazon.

13. Sahn Lam

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sahnlam

Sahn Lam is associated with ByteByteGo, which publishes educational content about system design. His technical explanations cover databases, caching, load balancing, distributed systems, and the architecture behind large-scale applications.

14. Shalini Goyal

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/goyalshalini

Shalini Goyal creates content about coding, system design, and software engineering careers. She discusses technical interview preparation, backend engineering concepts, and approaches to solving common software architecture problems.

15. Anton Martyniuk

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anton-martyniuk

Anton Martyniuk creates tutorials about C#, .NET, ASP.NET Core, and backend development. His content covers REST API development, software architecture, database integration, and building applications with Microsoft's development stack.

16. Gregor Ojstersek

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregorojstersek

Gregor Ojstersek writes the Engineering Leadership newsletter. He covers engineering management, career progression, team leadership, and the challenges software engineers face when moving into management roles.

17. Brian Jenney

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianjenney/

Brian Jenney teaches software development, coding skills, and AI-assisted engineering. His background includes Parsity, and his content explores software engineering careers and using AI tools in development workflows.

Cloud, DevOps, and Kubernetes influencers on LinkedIn

These creators teach cloud infrastructure, containerization, CI/CD, and platform engineering.

18. Kunal Kushwaha

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kunal-kushwaha

Kunal Kushwaha creates educational content about DevOps, Kubernetes, Docker, and open-source development. He is associated with WeMakeDevs and shares technical tutorials, learning resources, and opportunities for developers to contribute to open-source projects.

He had the largest LinkedIn following in our dataset, with 403,781 followers as of November 4, 2026.

19. Nana Janashia

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nana-janashia

Nana Janashia runs TechWorld with Nana, where she teaches Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform, and CI/CD. Her LinkedIn content explains DevOps concepts and shares resources that help developers understand cloud infrastructure and deployment workflows.

20. Eduardo Ordax

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eordax

Eduardo Ordax works across AI and cloud technologies. His professional background includes AWS-related AI and cloud work, and he discusses developments in AI applications, cloud infrastructure, and enterprise technology.

21. Abhishek Veeramalla

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/abhishek-veeramalla-77b33996

Abhishek Veeramalla creates tutorials about AWS, Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform, and DevOps. His Zero to Hero educational resources include practical projects that help developers learn cloud infrastructure and deployment automation.

22. Adrian Cantrill

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/Adriancantrill

Adrian Cantrill teaches AWS architecture and cloud engineering. His educational material covers AWS networking, identity management, security, storage, and infrastructure design. He is also known for his detailed AWS certification courses.

23. Michael Levan

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaellevan

Michael Levan creates technical content about Kubernetes, cloud-native development, and platform engineering. His tutorials explain Kubernetes deployments, infrastructure automation, and tools used to manage applications in cloud environments.

24. Rishab Kumar

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rishabkumar7

Rishab Kumar shares content about cloud engineering, DevOps, and developer advocacy. His experience includes Twilio, and he discusses cloud-native technologies, developer education, and technical community building.

Data engineering and data science influencers on LinkedIn

These creators cover data pipelines, analytics infrastructure, data contracts, and machine learning.

25. Benjamin Rogojan (Seattle Data Guy)

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/Benjaminrogojan

Benjamin Rogojan, known as Seattle Data Guy, creates educational content about data engineering and analytics infrastructure. He explains ETL and ELT pipelines, data architecture, and the technologies engineers use to build data systems.

26. Ravit Jain

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/Ravitjain

Ravit Jain hosts The Ravit Show, where he interviews professionals working in data engineering, analytics, and AI. His content features conversations with data practitioners, technical founders, and people building products across the data ecosystem.

27. Andreas Kretz

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andreas-kretz

Andreas Kretz teaches data engineering through Learn Data Engineering. His content covers ETL pipelines, data processing, infrastructure architecture, and practical projects that help developers understand how modern data systems work.

28. Kristen Kehrer

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristen-kehrer-datamovesme

Kristen Kehrer creates educational content about data science, machine learning, and careers in data. Her professional background includes Data Moves Me and Comet. She shares learning resources and advice for people developing practical data science skills.

29. Joe Reis

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/Josephreis

Joe Reis is the co-author of Fundamentals of Data Engineering. He writes about data architecture, engineering practices, and the challenges teams face when building and operating data infrastructure.

30. Chad Sanderson

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chad-sanderson

Chad Sanderson focuses on data contracts and improving data reliability across engineering teams. He is associated with Gable and explains how organizations can establish agreements between data producers and consumers to prevent downstream data quality issues.

Cybersecurity and application security influencers on LinkedIn

These creators cover application security, penetration testing, malware research, and cybersecurity products.

31. Jason Haddix

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jhaddix

Jason Haddix is known for The Bug Hunter's Methodology, which teaches structured approaches to reconnaissance and vulnerability discovery. His content covers offensive security, penetration testing, and techniques used by bug bounty researchers.

32. Marcus Hutchins

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/malwaretech

Marcus Hutchins is a security researcher known for helping stop the WannaCry ransomware outbreak. His technical work focuses on malware analysis, reverse engineering, and investigating cybersecurity threats.

33. Tanya Janca

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tanya-janca

Tanya Janca teaches application security and secure software development. She is associated with She Hacks Purple and creates educational resources that help developers identify vulnerabilities, understand security risks, and improve application security practices.

34. Ross Haleliuk

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rosshaleliuk

Ross Haleliuk writes about cybersecurity startups, security products, and the cybersecurity market. He analyzes security product categories, startup positioning, and the challenges companies face when building and selling cybersecurity tools.

35. Clint Gibler

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/Clintgibler

Clint Gibler is known for his work in application security and the tldr sec newsletter. He shares security research, vulnerability reports, and practical resources that help developers and security engineers secure software.

36. Caleb Sima

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/calebsima

Caleb Sima works in cybersecurity and has experience with companies including Hadrian. He discusses application security, security technologies, and how AI is changing the tools and methods security teams use.

Web3 and blockchain developer influencers

These two creators focus on blockchain development, smart contracts, and developer education.

37. Patrick Collins

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrickalphac

Patrick Collins creates educational content about Solidity, Foundry, and smart-contract security. He is associated with Cyfrin and its developer education platform, Cyfrin Updraft, which provides courses on writing, testing, and securing smart contracts.

38. Nader Dabit

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/Naderdabit

Nader Dabit has worked in developer relations and developer education across Web3 and AI. His professional background includes Cognition, and his content covers application development, developer experience, and emerging software development tools.

How to choose LinkedIn influencers for your developer product

If I were marketing an LLM evaluation platform, I'd start by researching Hamel Husain, Eugene Yan, and Paul Iusztin.

Hamel shares practical methods for evaluating LLM applications, Eugene writes about applied machine learning systems, and Paul covers building AI applications for production.

I'd shortlist them based on their technical expertise, then check whether their LinkedIn audiences include engineers working on problems my product solves.

1. Find creators who reach your target developers

Start by identifying the technologies your customers use and the technical problems they encounter.

For a Kubernetes observability tool, I'd research Kunal Kushwaha, Michael Levan, and Nana Janashia. Their content covers Kubernetes, cloud infrastructure, and DevOps workflows.

For a data engineering product, I'd look at Joe Reis, Andreas Kretz, and Chad Sanderson. They discuss data pipelines, engineering practices, and data contracts.

I'd then check their recent posts to see whether developers are discussing these subjects and asking implementation questions.

2. Review their last 10 LinkedIn posts

I'd examine at least 10 recent posts from each shortlisted creator and record their engagement, publishing frequency, and relevance to my product.

I'd pay particular attention to comments from engineers asking technical questions, sharing implementations, or discussing problems they've encountered.

For example, if I'm promoting an LLM evaluation tool, I'd look for discussions about evaluation datasets, model failures, and testing AI applications.

I'd also ask creators for recent post impressions and audience demographics before agreeing to a partnership. Our Bright Data collection only includes profile-level information, so follower counts alone aren't enough to estimate campaign reach.

3. Give creators a technical use case to demonstrate

I'd work with the shortlisted creators to develop content around a problem their audience wants to solve. For an AI evaluation platform, the creator could demonstrate how to build an evaluation dataset, test an LLM application's responses, and identify failures before deployment.

For a database product, they could show how to connect an application, load sample data, and execute queries.

On LinkedIn, I'd consider a technical article with working code, a document carousel explaining the implementation, or a post linking to a complete tutorial and GitHub repository.

I'd provide product access, documentation, and technical support so the creator can test the integration and share their experience accurately.

4. Track developer signups and activation

Use unique UTM links for each creator to track website visits, signups, and product activation. For API products, measure first successful API calls; for databases, track first queries. Compare which creators bring in developers who actually use your product.

For more acquisition strategies, see our guide to developer marketing channels

Acquire more software engineers through influencer marketing with Hackmamba

Finding LinkedIn influencers is the first part of building a developer acquisition campaign. You also need to identify which creators reach your target engineers and give their audiences a reason to try your product.

At Hackmamba, we help DevTools and developer-focused companies acquire software engineers through tech influencer marketing.

We research technical creators, evaluate audience fit, manage outreach and partnerships, and work with creators to produce technical content that demonstrates your product.

We also handle distribution and measure developer acquisition, from signups to first API calls and product activation.

If you're planning an influencer marketing campaign to reach more software engineers, talk to our team.