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Top 18 Docker Experts in the World

e2fdd8c4279a3d58dc6bd767cdb2bbfc 2 - Top 18 Docker Experts in the World

Docker remains central to containerization, driven by a global expert community.

Here are the best Docker specialists, selected for hands-on impact, open-source work, and thought leadership – focused strictly on Docker:

  1. Solomon Hykes
  2. Justin Cormack
  3. Jessie Frazelle
  4. Michael Crosby
  5. Ajeet Singh Raina
  6. Sebastiaan van Stijn
  7. Akihiro Suda
  8. Bret Fisher
  9. Tõnis Tiigi
  10. Nigel Poulton
  11. Elton Stoneman
  12. Jérôme Petazzoni
  13. Alex Ellis
  14. Ahmet Alp Balkan
  15. Neil Cresswell
  16. Patrick Lang
  17. Liz Rice
  18. Arun Gupta

Now, let’s delve into each expert’s background and why they are notable:

Solomon Hykes

YouTube Video

From dotCloud to Docker.

Nationality: French

Solomon is the founder of Docker and the original creator of the Docker project, which he launched in 2013 (after founding the predecessor company, dotCloud)​.

Under his leadership, Docker revolutionized software containerization and became a household name in DevOps. Hykes remained CTO of Docker, Inc. for several years, guiding Docker’s open-source ecosystem and products. In recent years, he co-founded Dagger (a DevOps startup focused on portable CI/CD pipelines built on containers), continuing to influence the container landscape with new tools.

Solomon’s pioneering work and continued coding in the container space cement his status as a top Docker expert.

Justin Cormack

Nationality: British

Justin is the CTO of Docker, Inc., and a key figure in Docker’s technical direction.

An active maintainer of Docker’s open-source projects, he has worked on initiatives like LinuxKit (Docker’s toolkit for building secure container-centric OS images) and Docker Desktop integrations. Cormack’s expertise spans low-level container runtime security and usability features; he often speaks about containerization trends (e.g., enabling WebAssembly in Docker). As of 2024, Justin continues to lead Docker’s engineering efforts, ensuring that Docker’s tooling stays modern and secure.

His dual role as a corporate tech leader and hands-on open-source contributor makes him one of the foremost Docker experts.

Jessie Frazelle

Nationality: American

Jessie is a famed open-source engineer who was a core maintainer of Docker in its early years.

At Docker, Inc., she was known for her work on Docker Engine and for running all sorts of applications in containers (from GUI apps to web browsers), pushing Docker’s limits. Jessie contributed to Docker’s security features (like seccomp profiles) and created popular Docker-related open-source tools (e.g., dockerfiles for various apps, and ironcli for container automation). She has spoken at DockerCon and written extensively about container internals on her blog.

In recent years, Jessie has worked on infrastructure security at companies like Microsoft and GitHub, but remains a Docker authority for her foundational contributions and deep knowledge of container tech.

Michael Crosby

Nationality: American

Michael was one of the earliest Docker core engineers and is widely respected for his deep contributions to container runtime technology.

He was the original architect behind containerd (Docker’s core container runtime that was later donated to CNCF) and runc (the OCI container runtime tool). Crosby’s work on Docker’s internals (such as the Docker Engine’s execution and storage drivers) greatly improved container performance and stability. After his Docker tenure, he continued to influence container tech in industry (known to have worked at Apple on containerization).

Michael’s hands-on coding of fundamental Docker components – many of which underpin Docker’s functionality to this day – earn him a spot among the top Docker experts.

Ajeet Singh Raina

Top 18 Docker Experts in the World

Nationality: Indian

Ajeet is a Docker Captain and one of the most active Docker community leaders in Asia​.

He founded the Collabnix community, which has grown into a 15,000+ member forum for Docker and cloud-native enthusiasts. Ajeet is known for his prolific blogging and tutorials on Docker – covering everything from beginner guides to advanced Docker Extension development – and for maintaining Docker Labs (an open-source repository of Docker examples). He also frequently speaks at meetups and organizes community events to evangelize Docker. In his professional role, Ajeet has worked as a developer advocate and engineer (previously at companies like Redis Labs), always with Docker as a core focus.

His consistent efforts in educating and building community make him a top Docker influencer​.

Sebastiaan van Stijn

Nationality: Dutch

Sebastiaan is a prolific Docker open-source contributor and maintainer, known by his handle “thaJeztah” on GitHub.

He has been one of the key maintainers of the Docker/Moby project for many years, tirelessly reviewing patches, managing releases, and supporting Docker’s vast user community. Sebastiaan’s contributions span from Docker Engine features and CLI improvements to documentation and community engagement on forums. Working first as an independent volunteer and later officially at Docker/Mirantis, he has remained dedicated to Docker upstream development.

In the Docker community, van Stijn is respected as a go-to expert for anything related to the Docker Engine and CLI, and he continues to be instrumental in keeping the Docker project healthy and active.

Akihiro Suda

Rootless containers are not a toy. They are production-ready.

Nationality: Japanese

Akihiro Suda is an open-source developer who has made significant contributions to Docker’s ecosystem, particularly in the areas of builder and runtime innovation.

Based in Japan, Suda is the creator of Docker’s “rootless mode” – enabling Docker daemons to run as a non-root user for better security – and has contributed heavily to BuildKit, Docker’s improved image build system. He has also worked on containerd and the CNCF buildpacks projects, bridging Docker with broader cloud-native tech. Akihiro frequently shares his work at industry conferences and via blog posts, helping drive Docker adoption in Japan and worldwide.

His ability to implement core Docker features (like rootless containers) makes him one of the world’s top Docker experts in recent years.

Bret Fisher

Top 18 Docker Experts in the World

Nationality: American

Bret is a Docker Captain and one of the most recognizable Docker instructors worldwide. He has taught Docker to hundreds of thousands of professionals through his top-rated online courses and workshops (such as “Docker Mastery”), and via conference talks and live webinars.

Bret hosts a popular YouTube channel and podcast focused on Docker, DevOps, and cloud-native topics, where he interviews maintainers and industry leaders. As a practitioner, he has a background in system administration and still consults on Docker and swarm/compose deployments. In 2024–2025, Bret remains a prominent voice in the Docker community – bridging the gap between Docker’s developers and its users by creating accessible content.

His contributions in training and community support solidify his status as a Docker expert.

Tonis Tiigi

Nationality: Estonian

Tonis is a Docker core engineer turned entrepreneur, best known for leading the development of Docker BuildKit. BuildKit dramatically improved Docker’s build speed, caching, and multi-stage builds, and Tonis was the principal author of this subsystem, which is now the backbone of Docker’s image building process. He also worked on Docker’s builder UI (such as Buildx) and contributed to Docker’s core architecture refactor (the Moby project). After Docker, Tonis co-founded Dagger alongside Solomon Hykes, where he continues building developer tools that leverage containers for CI/CD. Tonis’s blend of open-source technical chops and startup leadership – all centered on Docker technology – secure his reputation as a Docker expert.

Nigel Poulton

Nationality: British

Nigel is known for literally “writing the book” on Docker – he is the author of Docker Deep Dive, one of the most popular books for learning Docker (with several updated editions through 2023).

Nigel has a talent for simplifying complex container concepts, and he shares this through not only books but also video courses and his blog. With a background in IT operations, Nigel embraced Docker early and became a Docker Captain, contributing to the community by answering questions and giving talks. He stays up-to-date with Docker’s evolution (including Docker’s newest features and competing container tools) to keep his teachings current.

Nigel’s impact on Docker education and his continued community engagement make him a leading Docker expert.

Elton Stoneman

Top 18 Docker Experts in the World

Nationality: British

Elton is a veteran Docker expert, author, and speaker.

Formerly a developer advocate at Docker, Inc., Elton helped developers around the world adopt Docker during its early boom. He wrote “Learn Docker in a Month of Lunches” and “Docker on Windows”, sharing practical insights into containerizing applications on both Linux and Windows platforms. Elton has also been a Microsoft Azure MVP, focusing on Docker integration in cloud scenarios. In recent years, he’s worked with container security companies and continued to speak at conferences about Docker, modernizing legacy apps with containers, and best practices.

Elton’s blend of deep technical knowledge and the ability to communicate it clearly has established him as a Docker authority.

Jerome Petazzoni

Nationality: French

Jérôme was one of Docker’s earliest employees and evangelists, often referred to humorously as the “tamer of whales” (in reference to Docker’s logo).

He played a crucial role in Docker’s rise by developing and teaching many Docker best practices. Jérôme created and maintained Docker’s official training materials and has personally trained tens of thousands of people to use Docker, both in-person (at conferences and workshops) and online. He also contributed to Docker’s code (especially in areas of networking and volume plugins) and was known for managing Docker’s demo environments (like the famed “play-with-docker” sandbox). Now an independent consultant, Jérôme still focuses on Docker and container solutions, sharing his extensive knowledge via blog posts and presentations.

His enduring dedication to the Docker community makes him one of its top experts.

Alex Ellis

Nationality: British

Alex is a Docker Captain and the creator of OpenFaaS, an open-source serverless functions framework built on Docker containers.

His work demonstrated how Docker could be used to simplify deploying and scaling code (serverless functions) anywhere, and OpenFaaS became widely popular in the Docker community. Alex is also known for his projects combining Docker with IoT and edge computing – for example, using Docker on Raspberry Pi and Kubernetes at the edge. He frequently blogs tutorials on Docker (covering topics like Docker Swarm, containerizing CLIs, etc.) and speaks at conferences about modern uses of containers.

As the founder of OpenFaaS Ltd., Alex remains a hands-on coder and thought leader showing new ways to leverage Docker, securing his spot as a top expert.

Ahmet Alp Balkan

Top 18 Docker Experts in the World

Nationality: Turkish

Ahmet is an accomplished engineer who has contributed to Docker both in open source and within large tech companies.

While at Microsoft, Ahmet created Docker integration for Azure and authored the Docker Registry UI (Dockyard) project. Later at Google, he worked on the Google Container Registry and Cloud Run, bringing his Docker expertise into serverless containers. Ahmet was one of the early Docker Captains, known for writing blog posts that dive into Docker’s architecture and for publishing handy tools like docker-openssh.

He also co-authored a book on using Docker with Go. As of 2024, Ahmet works on cloud infrastructure at Google Cloud, but remains active in container open source projects (e.g., contributing to Knative and buildpacks). His cross-platform Docker knowledge and ongoing community presence identify him as a global Docker expert.

Neil Cresswell

Nationality: New Zealander

Neil is the co-founder and CEO of Portainer.io, which is one of the most widely used open-source Docker management tools.

Portainer provides a friendly GUI for deploying and managing containers, and under Neil’s leadership it has been adopted by millions of users worldwide. Neil still actively contributes to Portainer’s development and often engages with the Docker community to understand user needs. With a background in cloud hosting, he recognized early the need for simpler Docker administration tools and built a company around it, all while staying hands-on with the tech.

Neil frequently appears in webinars and interviews discussing Docker best practices in enterprise and small teams. His role as a startup founder, combined with his technical contributions to Docker tooling, make him a notable Docker expert.

Patrick Lang

Nationality: American

Patrick is a principal software engineer at Microsoft who became a key figure in bringing Docker container technology to the Windows platform.

He worked on the development of Windows Containers and Hyper-V isolation, enabling Docker to run Windows server applications in containers similarly to Linux. Patrick often collaborated with Docker Inc. during that initiative and became a Docker Captain in the process. He has spoken at DockerCon and Microsoft Ignite to help developers understand how to use Docker for .NET and Windows apps.

Today, Patrick continues to work in Microsoft’s Azure team on container services (like Azure Kubernetes Service, with Docker as a core component) and actively engages in the Docker community. His specialized expertise on Docker in the Windows ecosystem is unparalleled, marking him as a top Docker expert in that domain.

Liz Rice

Top 18 Docker Experts in the World

Nationality: British

Liz is a renowned expert in container security and was a Docker Captain who often focused on the internals of Docker and how to secure them.

She gained recognition for creating “Microcontainers” – tiny Docker images for running just single static binaries, demonstrating how minimal containers can be. Liz also built an open-source tool called Dive (for exploring what’s inside your Docker images). She served as the Chief Open Source Officer at Aqua Security, where she worked on container security tools, and was Chair of the CNCF’s Technical Oversight Committee in 2019–2020, bridging Docker with the broader cloud-native world. Liz is a regular speaker at DockerCon and container conferences, known for her live-coding demos explaining how containers work under the hood (like “containers from scratch” in Go).

Her ability to demystify Docker internals and her leadership in container security make her one of the top Docker experts.

Arun Gupta

Nationality: Indian

Arun is a long-time open-source advocate who played an important role in enterprise adoption of Docker.

He was one of the early Docker community organizers at Red Hat and later at Amazon Web Services, where he led initiatives to integrate Docker with Java EE and cloud workflows. Arun co-authored a Docker for Java developers book and frequently spoke at JavaOne and DockerCon about using Docker for microservices.

He became a Docker Captain and helped bootstrap Docker meetups in multiple cities. In recent years, Arun has taken leadership roles (he’s VP and GM of Open Ecosystem at Intel as of 2024) but continues to champion containers and cloud-native tech in standards bodies. He even has an achievement in the community competition space, having organized Docker-centric hackathons. Arun’s blend of community building, writing, and big-company influence (while still coding demos) makes him a top Docker evangelist globally.

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.

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