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Top 15 AWS Experts You Should Know

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Amazon Web Services (AWS) has a vibrant global community of experts – from open-source innovators and coding startup founders to influential content creators, enterprise cloud architects, and even tech competition champions.

Below is an updated list of 15 of the world’s best AWS experts who are actively contributing as of 2024–2025. These individuals span all key dimensions of AWS excellence: open-source contributions, hands-on startup leadership, influential blogging and speaking, major enterprise architecture, and award-winning technical achievements.

Here is the list of the top AWS experts, each excelling in multiple facets of the AWS ecosystem:

  1. Werner Vogels
  2. Jeff Barr
  3. Jeremy Daly
  4. Rossana Suarez
  5. James Hamilton
  6. Adrian Cockcroft
  7. Mitchell Hashimoto
  8. Austen Collins
  9. Corey Quinn
  10. Denis Bauer
  11. Kesha Williams
  12. Matt Coulter
  13. Luciano Mammino
  14. Adam Bien
  15. Rick Houlihan

Now, let’s dive into each of these experts’ backgrounds and why they stand out in the AWS world:

Werner Vogels

YouTube Video

Nationality: Dutch

Werner Vogels is the Vice President and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Amazon, and one of the key figures behind AWS’s inception.

Joining Amazon in 2004 and becoming CTO in 2005, he helped drive Amazon’s transformation into a cloud pioneer. Werner is known for evangelizing AWS’s technical vision globally – he’s a regular keynote speaker at AWS events and shares insights on his blog “All Things Distributed.” Back in 2012, Wired magazine named him the #1 cloud computing influencer, reflecting his role in shaping the industry. Under his guidance, AWS’s cloud technologies have set industry standards for scalability and reliability.

Jeff Barr

Top 15 AWS Experts You Should Know

Nationality: American

Jeff Barr is AWS’s long-time Chief Evangelist and a prolific AWS blogger. Affiliated with AWS since its early days in 2002, Jeff has been spreading cloud knowledge for over two decades.

As VP and Chief Evangelist, he works with AWS product teams and then translates new services into engaging blog posts for the community. Jeff started the AWS News Blog in 2004 and famously keeps up a torrid pace – averaging about one blog post per day about AWS updates. His clear, technically accurate writing has helped countless developers stay informed on AWS’s constant stream of innovations. Jeff also travels worldwide to promote the AWS story, making him one of the most recognizable and trusted voices in cloud computing.

Jeremy Daly

Nationality: American

Jeremy Daly is an AWS Serverless Hero and one of the foremost advocates for serverless architecture and event-driven design on AWS.

He has worn many hats – startup CTO, technology consultant, and product leader – but is best known in the community as the author of the Off-by-none weekly serverless newsletter and the host of Serverless Chats podcast. Jeremy has been building on AWS for over a decade; he was the CTO of a healthcare startup where he went all-in on AWS Lambda early on. He later co-founded Ampt, a serverless developer productivity platform, and also worked as Director of Research at CloudZero to help companies manage cloud costs. Jeremy frequently publishes blog posts dissecting AWS announcements (especially around Lambda, DynamoDB, API Gateway) and open-sources tools like the DynamoDB Toolbox.

He speaks at conferences worldwide, sharing serverless patterns and practices. In recognition of his influence, AWS named him a hero in 2019. Jeremy’s clear, no-hype explanations help thousands of developers and companies successfully adopt serverless on AWS.

Rossana Suarez

Nationality: Argentinian

Rossana Suarez is a multi-talented cloud expert who wears many hats – and wins many accolades – in the AWS and DevOps communities.

Originally from Argentina, Rossana is an AWS Data Hero, a Docker Captain, and a GitLab Hero, reflecting her broad expertise across cloud, containers, and DevOps tools. By day, she works as a tech lead / software engineer, specializing in cloud and data engineering. Outside of work, Rossana is a passionate content creator: she runs a Spanish-language YouTube channel called 295DevOps where she breaks down complex tech topics for beginners. She also writes blog posts and speaks at conferences, aiming to inspire more people (especially women) to pursue cloud careers.

Rossana helps lead “AWS Girls” in Argentina, creating an inclusive learning space for women in cloud. With her impressive list of titles and her commitment to mentoring others, Rossana Suarez is a true community role model. She demonstrates how one can excel technically (from AWS to Docker) and also give back by teaching and uplifting underrepresented groups in tech.

James Hamilton

Top 15 AWS Experts You Should Know

Nationality: Canadian

James Hamilton is a Vice President and Distinguished Engineer at AWS, renowned as the genius behind AWS’s datacenter and infrastructure engineering.

A veteran software and infrastructure architect, James oversees the design of AWS’s global network of data centers and the hardware that powers AWS cloud services. He holds over 200 patents in server and datacenter technologies, reflecting his deep innovations in cloud architecture. James frequently shares insights on building at massive scale – for example, his AWS re:Invent talks on “Innovation at Scale” offer a rare look into AWS’s internal operations and efficiency optimizations. He has been a thought leader in areas like high-efficiency power and cooling, custom networking gear, and novel server designs that underpin AWS’s reliability. Simply put, James Hamilton’s work keeps the AWS cloud humming behind the scenes, making him one of the most influential engineers in cloud computing.

Adrian Cockcroft

Nationality: British

Adrian Cockcroft is a cloud architecture luminary who helped shape modern cloud-native practices.

He initially rose to fame as the Cloud Architect for Netflix, where he pioneered moving Netflix to AWS and popularized microservices at massive scale. Adrian’s success at Netflix became a blueprint for cloud migration and resilience. In 2016, he joined AWS as Vice President of Cloud Architecture Strategy, where he engaged with customers and led open-source community initiatives.

During his AWS tenure, he also focused on sustainability in the cloud. Adrian has been a visible tech leader, speaking at countless conferences about topics ranging from microservices to DevOps. He even won the IEEE Cloud Computing Award for his contributions. Although he transitioned in 2022 to a technology advisory role, Adrian remains a respected voice in the community – bridging practitioner experience at Netflix with advocacy for AWS and open source in enterprise settings.

Mitchell Hashimoto

Nationality: American

Mitchell Hashimoto is an iconic open-source developer and startup founder whose tools are staples in the AWS ecosystem.

He is the co-founder and CTO of HashiCorp and the creator of numerous devops tools used by millions, including Vagrant, Packer, Consul, Terraform, Vault, and Nomad. Mitchell started HashiCorp in 2012 and, by his mid-20s, had built an empire of infrastructure software – Terraform in particular became a go-to Infrastructure-as-Code tool for provisioning AWS resources. At one point, he ranked among the top 5 most active users on GitHub due to his prolific coding. Mitchell’s focus has been enabling multi-cloud and AWS automation; his work on Terraform transformed how companies manage AWS infrastructure.

Today, although HashiCorp is a large public company, Mitchell remains hands-on with technology, embodying the founder who still codes. His love of open source and automation has supercharged the productivity of AWS developers worldwide.

Austen Collins

Top 15 AWS Experts You Should Know

Nationality: American

Austen Collins is the founder and CEO of Serverless, Inc., and the original creator of the Serverless Framework.

As an enthusiastic early adopter of AWS Lambda, Austen started an open-source project called JAWS in 2015 – later renamed the Serverless Framework – to help developers build entire applications on AWS Lambda without managing servers. This tool dramatically lowered the barrier to adopting serverless architectures on AWS. Austen’s vision of “servers without the server” led to Serverless, Inc., a startup that he still leads, providing tools and services around the framework. Today, the Serverless Framework is downloaded millions of times and is one of the most popular open-source projects in the AWS community.

Austen continues to advocate for event-driven, cost-efficient architectures, showing how startups and enterprises alike can innovate faster by leveraging AWS services like Lambda, API Gateway, and DynamoDB. In recognition of his contributions, he was named an AWS Serverless Hero in 2016.

Corey Quinn

The cloud is someone else’s computer. AWS is someone else’s terrifying computer.

Nationality: American

Corey Quinn is a prominent AWS influencer known for his humorous yet insightful take on cloud computing.

He’s the Chief Cloud Economist at The Duckbill Group, where he helps companies reduce their AWS bills, and he runs the “Last Week in AWS” newsletter and podcast. Corey’s content stands out for blending deep AWS knowledge with wit – he makes AWS news accessible (and entertaining) to tens of thousands of subscribers weekly. He also hosts podcasts like Screaming in the Cloud and AWS Morning Brief, interviewing industry leaders and roasting the latest AWS announcements. Corey’s influence is such that AWS executives often engage with his commentary.

By “making the cloud a little less horrifying,” as he quips, Corey has become the unofficial watchdog of AWS, praising its successes and poking fun at its quirks. In addition, he speaks at conferences and is an AWS Community Hero. His unique voice and independent analysis have made him one of the most followed AWS experts outside of Amazon.

Denis Bauer

Nationality: German-Australian

Dr. Denis Bauer is a distinguished scientist and an AWS Data Hero who uses AWS to advance genomics and bioinformatics in the public sector.

Based in Australia, she is a Principal Research Scientist at CSIRO (the national research agency) and an Adjunct Associate Professor, blending cloud technology with life-saving research. Denis led the development of one of the first serverless bioinformatics architectures, GT-Scan, to accelerate gene editing research using AWS Lambda. She also co-created VariantSpark, an open-source machine learning tool for analyzing genomic data, which became the first AWS Marketplace health product from a public sector org.

Recognized as an AWS Data Hero since 2020, Denis is a frequent keynote speaker at scientific and cloud conferences, where she champions the use of cloud computing (like AWS’s HPC and AI services) in digital health. She has built a strong community of practice through open-source contributions and interdisciplinary collaborations. Denis’s work exemplifies how AWS cloud can drive innovation in genomics, and her thought leadership earned her multiple awards (including Women in AI Innovator). She inspires both researchers and technologists alike.

Kesha Williams

Top 15 AWS Experts You Should Know

Nationality: American

Kesha Williams is an award-winning technologist and educator who has become a leading voice in the AWS machine learning community.

An AWS Machine Learning Hero, Kesha has over 25 years of experience and is passionate about the positive impact of tech. She spent many years as a software engineering leader (notably at Chick-fil-A) where she spearheaded AI/ML projects on AWS. Kesha is also a prolific instructor: she served as an AWS training architect at A Cloud Guru and has authored highly-rated courses on machine learning and AWS for platforms like LinkedIn Learning, Manning, and Cloud Academy. She frequently mentors and teaches developers on how to build AI solutions using AWS services.

Kesha’s dedication to knowledge-sharing earned her recognition; for example, she won the Alibaba Women in Tech Award and was featured as an Alexa Champion. Whether through conference talks, workshops, or her blog kesha.tech, Kesha Williams continues to inspire and enable others in the AWS community to leverage machine learning for good.

Matt Coulter

Nationality: Northern Irish

Matt Coulter is an AWS DevTools Hero and a Technical Architect at Liberty Mutual who has been instrumental in promoting serverless and well-architected practices inside a large enterprise.

Based in Belfast, Matt created the open-source CDK Patterns project – a collection of reusable architecture patterns built with the AWS Cloud Development Kit (CDK). Through CDK Patterns (and its accompanying website and videos), he has helped countless developers learn how to design serverless AWS applications the right way. Matt also founded CDK Day, a community conference dedicated to AWS CDK users. Within Liberty Mutual, he championed a serverless-first approach, enabling over a thousand developers to accelerate delivery using these patterns.

Matt focuses on building a “frictionless developer experience” with proper guardrails, so teams can rapidly deliver value on AWS while adhering to best practices. His efforts earned Liberty Mutual recognition as an AWS innovation leader. Matt’s combination of practical enterprise experience, open-source code, and community leadership makes him a top AWS expert in the DevTools and serverless domain.

Luciano Mammino

Nationality: Italian

Luciano Mammino is a Senior Architect at fourTheorem (an AWS consultancy) and an AWS Serverless Hero celebrated for his open-source contributions and teaching in the serverless space.

Hailing from Italy and based in Ireland, Luciano co-created Middy, one of the most popular Node.js middleware frameworks for AWS Lambda that streamlines building serverless functions. He is also the co-author of the book Node.js Design Patterns, demonstrating his depth in software engineering. Luciano co-hosts AWS Bites, a podcast where he tackles AWS questions and use cases, sharing practical insights. As an AWS Hero, he’s an active community speaker and blogger (on his site loige.co) with a knack for breaking down complex topics.

Luciano has evangelized serverless computing since its early days, often showing how to integrate AWS services effectively. Whether writing code, articles, or speaking on stage, Luciano Mammino’s enthusiasm for knowledge-sharing shines through, making him a go-to expert for AWS developers worldwide.

Adam Bien

Top 15 AWS Experts You Should Know

Nationality: German

Adam Bien is a well-known independent consultant, author, and trainer from Germany who has recently taken the AWS world by storm.

A Java EE veteran turned cloud advocate, Adam was recognized as an AWS DevTools Hero and even won the “Tech Star of the Year (DACH)” award in 2022 for his outstanding community contributions. Adam is notorious for being a “jack of many trades”: he codes live on his YouTube channel, builds and shares open-source projects, delivers online courses and workshops, writes books and a blog, and even hosts his own podcast (airhacks.fm). His focus is on high productivity and reducing complexity in enterprise applications.

Since diving into AWS, Adam has been exploring how services like Lambda, DynamoDB, and CDK can streamline development. He often live-codes cloud solutions (including on AWS) during his webinars, showing how to build serverless backends or use infrastructure-as-code effectively. Adam’s energy and output are legendary – he publishes content almost daily across various platforms. By bridging his deep software engineering background with modern AWS tools, Adam Bien has become one of the most multifaceted AWS experts in Europe.

Rick Houlihan

Nationality: American

Rick Houlihan is often referred to as “Mr. DynamoDB” in AWS circles – a testament to his expertise in NoSQL database design on AWS.

As a former Principal Solutions Architect at AWS, Rick spent years leading the AWS prototyping team and developing best practices for Amazon DynamoDB. He famously led the migration of thousands of Amazon’s internal databases from relational systems to NoSQL, crafting the design patterns that many AWS customers use today for DynamoDB data modeling. Rick’s re:Invent sessions on advanced DynamoDB data modeling (2018–2020) were game-changers; his single-table design approaches revolutionized how developers thought about NoSQL on AWS. These talks have hundreds of thousands of views and are considered essential learning for DynamoDB users.

In 2021, Rick transitioned to MongoDB Inc. as a Director of Developer Relations, but he continues to be an authority on distributed databases. With 30+ years in software and 9 patents to his name, Rick’s depth of knowledge is immense. He remains active through podcasts and webinars, sharing honest insights on when to use which database technology. For anyone dealing with data on AWS, Rick Houlihan’s guidance has been invaluable – he’s influenced everything from how startups design their schemas to how Amazon’s own teams build high-scale services.

Wrap Up

These legends represent exceptional talent, making them extremely challenging to headhunt. However, there are thousands of other highly skilled IT professionals available to hire with our help. Contact us, and we will be happy to discuss your hiring needs.

Note: We’ve dedicated significant time and effort to creating and verifying this curated list of top talent. If you intend to share or make use of it in any way, we kindly ask that you include a backlink to the original source – EchoGlobal.

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