14 Top Pyramid Developers

pyramid developers - 14 Top Pyramid Developers

Pyramid has become a cornerstone of Python web development, powered by a passionate and highly skilled community.

This includes prolific open-source contributors, startup founders still coding hands-on, influential educators and bloggers, engineers at major companies building real-world Pyramid applications, and even programming competition standouts. Below is a carefully curated and updated list of 14 of the world’s top Pyramid developers, selected for their outstanding contributions across these areas:

  1. Paul Everitt
  2. Chris McDonough
  3. Ben Bangert
  4. Blaise Laflamme
  5. Michael Merickel
  6. Érico Andrei
  7. Tres Seaver
  8. Domen Kožar
  9. Niall O’Higgins
  10. Shane Hathaway
  11. Steve Piercy
  12. Wichert Akkerman
  13. Ian Bicking
  14. Daniel Nouri

Now, let’s delve into their remarkable journeys and contributions:

Paul Everitt

YouTube Video

Nationality: American

Paul Everitt is an open-source pioneer and evangelist in the Python web community.

A co-founder of Zope Corporation, Paul later joined Agendaless Consulting with Chris and Tres to focus on Pyramid-based solutions. He’s known for educational talks (e.g., PyCon keynotes) and was instrumental in marketing Pyramid’s “start small, finish big” philosophy. Paul’s influence includes guiding developers through training, co-authoring the Pyramid’s narrative documentation, and building bridges between Python frameworks.

Chris McDonough

Software that solves simple problems well can scale to solve hard problems too.

Nationality: American

Chris McDonough is the original author of the Pyramid web framework.

A veteran Python developer, he co-founded Agendaless Consulting in 2006, shaping Pyramid’s direction and ethos. Chris also created the Supervisor process manager and has been a long-time advocate for open-source. His influence spans technical contributions and community mentorship, making him a pivotal figure in Pyramid’s success.

Ben Bangert

Nationality: American

Ben Bangert is the creator of the Pylons web framework that merged into Pyramid.

His early vision of leveraging WSGI and modular components paved the way for Pyramid. Ben’s career spans roles at O’Reilly Media (implementing OpenID), Mozilla, and other tech companies where he architects server-side solutions. As a principal open-source contributor, he’s shaped caching (Beaker), identity (Velruse), and web standards in Python.

Blaise Laflamme

Blaise Laflamme - 14 Top Pyramid Developers

Nationality: Canadian

Blaise Laflamme is a significant contributor to Pyramid’s ecosystem, best known for co-authoring the Pyramid Debug Toolbar which greatly aids developers.

Active since Pyramid’s early days (listed as a contributor in 2010), Blaise has also contributed to Pyramid add-ons and documentation. He’s a respected figure in the community, sharing insights on debugging, performance, and best practices for Pyramid development.

Michael Merickel

Nationality: American

Michael Merickel is a maintainer of the Pyramid framework and related libraries like Hupper (reloader) and Wired (dependency injection).

He has been an active core contributor since 2011, known for improving Pyramid’s authentication and authorization docs and demos. Michael often assists the community on Stack Overflow and mailing lists, making Pyramid more accessible. Today, he continues open-source work while serving as Chief Architect at Clinical Ink, bridging enterprise needs with Pyramid’s capabilities.

Érico Andrei

Erico Andrei - 14 Top Pyramid Developers

Nationality: Brazilian

Érico Andrei is a key maintainer of Websauna alongside Mikko and a contributor to Pyramid and Plone projects.

Based in Brazil, Érico helped organize Pyramid sprints (e.g., São Paulo 2018 sprint), reflecting his community leadership. He often bridges Pyramid with the Plone CMS, lending enterprise CMS features to Pyramid apps. Érico’s international influence is seen through talks, code contributions, and mentoring newcomers, reinforcing Pyramid’s global and cross-project appeal.

Tres Seaver

Nationality: American

Tres Seaver is a co-founder of Agendaless Consulting and a core developer of Pyramid.

With a software career dating back to 1990, he’s specialized in enterprise Python applications (Pyramid and Zope). Tres was the technical lead for Zope’s Content Management Framework (key to Plone), bringing deep expertise in large-scale systems. He frequently speaks at Python conferences and guides Pyramid’s evolution with his decades of open-source experience.

Domen Kožar

Domen Kozar - 14 Top Pyramid Developers

Nationality: Slovenian

Domen Kožar is an open-source contributor known for work across Pylons Project tools and Plone.

He contributed significantly to Pyramid’s add-ons (e.g., pyramid_jinja2 templating and OpenAPI integration). Domen’s four summers in Google Summer of Code honed his skills in Python web frameworks. He also worked on Substance D with Chris McDonough. Today, Domen consults on DevOps and NixOS, yet remains an advocate for Pyramid’s design in modern deployments.

Niall O’Higgins

Nationality: Irish

Niall O’Higgins made Pyramid more accessible for data-driven apps by creating pyramid_mongodb, a scaffold integrating MongoDB with Pyramid.

An engineer with a focus on infrastructure and reliability, Niall’s work at startups and his open-source contributions (like MongoDB support) expanded Pyramid’s use-cases. He’s spoken at conferences and authored guides on using Pyramid for modern web services. His influence lies in practical extensions that connect Pyramid with trending technologies (NoSQL, etc.).

Shane Hathaway

Nationality: American

Shane Hathaway is a longtime open-source developer who contributed to Pyramid and the broader Zope/Python web community.

He’s known for creating Zope’s transactional mail system and contributions to Repoze (the precursor to Pyramid’s Repoze.BFG). Listed as a Pyramid contributor in 2011, Shane also authored the Zope to Pyramid migration guide. His expertise in secure, scalable web app development and past work at companies like Zope Corp. and Zope-powered startups make him a noteworthy Pyramid influencer.

Steve Piercy

Steve Piercy - 14 Top Pyramid Developers

Nationality: American

Steve Piercy is a core contributor and community organizer for Pyramid.

He maintains Pyramid’s official sites (including trypyramid.com and documentation) and ensures Pyramid’s web presence is polished. Steve also manages Pylons Project operations and the JetBrains OSS program for Pyramid developers. Known for patience and helpfulness, he moderates mailing lists and IRC, bridging users with core devs. Steve’s dedication keeps Pyramid’s community welcoming and its docs up-to-date, amplifying Pyramid’s influence beyond code.

Wichert Akkerman

Nationality: Dutch

Wichert Akkerman is an accomplished developer who contributed to Pyramid and Plone.

As a Pyramid contributor from early 2011, he provided insights from his Plone CMS background to enhance Pyramid’s security and internationalization. Wichert also developed pyramid_formalchemy and other add-ons, bridging form generation and admin interfaces in Pyramid. His experience at large companies and as Plone’s release manager lent Pyramid some enterprise rigor. Wichert’s continued involvement in open-source and security makes his contributions enduring.

Ian Bicking

Ian Bicking - 14 Top Pyramid Developers

Nationality: American

Ian Bicking influenced Pyramid indirectly through foundational tools.

Creator of Paste (used in Pylons/Pyramid for server and config) and virtualenv, Ian’s ideas shaped Python web development. While not a Pyramid core dev, Ben Bangert cited Ian’s work on Paste and deployment as influential. Ian also co-created WebOb (Pyramid’s request/response library). His thought leadership in web standards and packaging (via PyPA) provided the building blocks that Pyramid stands on.

Daniel Nouri

Nationality: German

Daniel Nouri created Kotti (later maintained by others), showcasing how Pyramid can serve as the foundation for complex systems.

A full-stack developer, Daniel infused Pyramid with concepts from Plone to make Kotti a lightweight yet powerful CMS. He also contributed to Pyramid’s internationalization and documentation. Daniel’s innovation demonstrated Pyramid’s flexibility, inspiring others to build domain-specific frameworks on Pyramid. He remains engaged in open-source and occasionally blogs about web development challenges and solutions.

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. However, if you believe a correction or addition is needed, feel free to reach out. We’ll gladly review and update the page.

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