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Top 20 SilverStripe Developers Worth Your Time

silverstripe developers - Top 20 SilverStripe Developers Worth Your Time

Silverstripe has grown into one of the most developer-friendly CMS frameworks, thanks to a tight-knit global community of passionate contributors.

From core team engineers in Wellington to independent developers across Europe and North America, these individuals have shaped Silverstripe’s evolution through open-source innovation, module creation, thought leadership, and hands-on coding. This curated list highlights the most influential Silverstripe developers active today – from core committers and agency founders to community evangelists and performance optimizers – each playing a vital role in the project’s ongoing success.

  1. Stephan Bauer
  2. Aaron Carlino
  3. Maxime Rainville
  4. Ingo Schommer
  5. Elliot Sawyer
  6. Stevie Mayhew
  7. Jackson Darlow
  8. Mojmir Fendek
  9. Simon Erkelens
  10. Werner Krauss
  11. Michal Kleiner
  12. Steve Boyd
  13. Garion Herman
  14. Guy Sartorelli
  15. Hamish Friedlander
  16. Nicolaas Francken
  17. Marcus Nyeholt
  18. Sigurd Magnusson
  19. Jonathon “Jono” Menz
  20. Loz Calver

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

Stephan Bauer

YouTube Video

Nationality: Austrian

Stephan Bauer is an Austrian full-stack developer and co-founder of Relaxt, an agency specializing in Silverstripe projects. With over a decade of Silverstripe experience, Stephan has become a pillar of the European Silverstripe community.

He frequently speaks at StripeCon EU – notably giving frank assessments like “Silverstripe: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly,” which discussed the framework’s strengths and areas for improvement. Stephan’s background in computer science and his practical agency work mean he’s adept at implementing Silverstripe for complex client requirements while also contributing back to the open-source project. He also experiments with modern tools in the Silverstripe context, such as automated visual regression testing for CMS UIs. As both an entrepreneur and an open-source advocate, Stephan continues to actively code and share solutions, reinforcing Silverstripe’s presence in the DACH region.

Aaron Carlino

Nationality: American

Aaron Carlino, known by his nickname “Uncle Cheese”, has been a driving force in the Silverstripe ecosystem for close to 15 years. Hailing from the US, he gained renown in the community through a series of popular Silverstripe modules and countless tutorials and talks.

Aaron’s passion for Silverstripe was so great that he relocated to New Zealand to join Silverstripe Ltd as a core developer in 2014. There he made 1259 commits totaling over a million lines of code, playing an instrumental role in the development of Silverstripe 4’s modern UI and asset system. A tireless open-source evangelist, Uncle Cheese has answered forum questions, improved documentation, and inspired developers at meetups with his enthusiasm. Even after moving on from Silverstripe Ltd, he continues to actively code and innovate in the community, cementing his legacy as one of Silverstripe’s most influential contributors.

Maxime Rainville

After 6 years of working at Silverstripe, this is the end of the journey for me. I’ve met so many wonderful and decent people along the way who have had such a positive impact on my life. I can only hope that I also made their lives a little better along the way.

Nationality: Canadian

Maxime Rainville is a Principal Product Developer at Silverstripe and the current Team Lead of the Silverstripe CMS Squad. A long-time Silverstripe user even before joining the company, Maxime has a reputation for improving developer experience and code quality in the core CMS.

Since 2018, he’s been a key maintainer of Silverstripe’s open-source modules, often juggling tasks from refining documentation to implementing complex new features. Maxime’s leadership in the CMS Squad means he oversees Silverstripe’s day-to-day development and the integration of community contributions. He is also active in sharing knowledge – giving interviews and talks about Silverstripe’s roadmap and best practices. Maxime’s blend of hands-on coding and community engagement makes him a central figure guiding Silverstripe’s ongoing evolution.

Ingo Schommer

Ingo Schommer - Top 20 SilverStripe Developers Worth Your Time

Nationality: German

Ingo Schommer is a German software engineer who became an iconic figure in the Silverstripe community.

He moved from Germany to New Zealand to join Silverstripe’s core team, ultimately co-authoring the official Silverstripe programming book and contributing extensively to the framework. As a long-time Silverstripe core developer, Ingo led development of key features and mentored community contributors. He later took on roles like Head of Security at a software startup, but remains closely connected to Silverstripe’s evolution. Colleagues credit Ingo’s deep knowledge and commitment – literally writing the book on Silverstripe – as foundational to the CMS’s maturity.

Elliot Sawyer

I am a very active open-source contributor. I am a well-known member of the Silverstripe community, often helping others on the Silverstripe Slack channel.

Nationality: Kiwi

Elliot Sawyer is a prolific open-source contributor and advocate within the Silverstripe community. With decades of web development experience, he is well known on the Silverstripe Slack as “@null”, where he actively assists newcomers and seasoned developers alike.

Elliot has created and maintained numerous Silverstripe modules – from a Bootswatcher theme installer to a Redis caching integration – showcasing his drive to extend and improve the CMS. He often speaks at Silverstripe user groups and writes about Silverstripe on his personal blog, sharing tips on topics like Elasticsearch integration. Based in New Zealand, Elliot remains an outspoken champion of Silverstripe CMS’s open-source ethos, freely giving his time to code reviews, community support, and evangelism.

Stevie Mayhew

Giving CMS users the best experience possible is always front of mind.

Nationality: Kiwi

Stevie Mayhew is a veteran Silverstripe developer and tech leader from New Zealand. Formerly the CTO at Little Giant, he has been a long-time Silverstripe open-source contributor and community voice. Stevie has developed widely used Silverstripe addons and has contributed to the core codebase over the years.

He is also known for advocating best practices in Silverstripe CMS to improve user experience for content editors. As a speaker and blogger, Stevie shares insights on making Silverstripe more user-friendly and powerful, drawing on his extensive experience building Silverstripe sites for clients. His dual role as agency CTO and open-source contributor exemplifies the blend of practical experience and community spirit that has helped Silverstripe thrive.

Jackson Darlow

Jackson Darlow - Top 20 SilverStripe Developers Worth Your Time

Nationality: Kiwi

Jackson Darlow is a creative software architect and currently the Senior Technical Director at Silverstripe in New Zealand. With a background that blends design and technology, Jackson plays a key role in shaping Silverstripe’s product direction – he kicked off the recent StripeCon conference with a talk on “What’s cooking in Silverstripe”, outlining the CMS’s future roadmap.

Jackson is known for bridging the gap between engineering and user experience; during his time at Silverstripe, he has overseen projects that improved the CMS’s usability and front-end technology (including adoption of React for the CMS UI). He also founded a digital consultancy and remains hands-on in coding, which keeps his skills sharp. As a speaker and mentor, Jackson often shares insights on innovation with Silverstripe and how to leverage modern web development practices with the framework. His leadership and ongoing code contributions make him one of the standout figures in Silverstripe’s core team today.

Mojmir Fendek

Nationality: Slovak

Mojmir Fendek is a Principal Developer at Silverstripe who specializes in performance and architecture of the CMS. An experienced PHP developer originally from Slovakia, Mojmir has been instrumental in optimizing Silverstripe for high-scale applications.

He has authored guides on improving Silverstripe CMS performance, such as advanced caching strategies to speed up sites. Within Silverstripe’s engineering team, Mojmir often tackles complex backend challenges – recently contributing to the CMS 5.x releases with key framework enhancements. He’s also active in knowledge sharing, having collaborated on technical blog posts and guest articles about Silverstripe deployment best practices. Colleagues know Mojmir for his meticulous approach to code quality and his willingness to mentor others. His work ensures that Silverstripe remains robust and performant as the platform evolves.

Simon Erkelens

Nationality: Dutch

Simon Erkelens is a freelance developer from the Netherlands and a prominent Silverstripe community contributor, often under the alias “Firesphere.”

He has been building with Silverstripe since 2009 and has created numerous open-source modules, including tools for SEO, security, and devops integration. Simon is known for co-maintaining the Silverstripe DebugBar and for his “SSShell” utility, which aids developers in debugging – topics he presented on at StripeCon EU to improve debugging techniques. Formerly a developer at Silverstripe Ltd, Simon now works at a Dutch firm (We::Code) while still dedicating time to Silverstripe’s open-source projects. He writes technical articles on his blog (firesphere.dev) about Silverstripe. Simon’s dual focus on practical problem-solving and community education has made him a valued resource – a true “fire” that keeps parts of the Silverstripe ecosystem burning bright.

Werner Krauss

Nationality: Austrian-German

Werner Krauss is a freelance web developer from Austria/Germany who has been using Silverstripe since 2009. With a PHP background dating back to the late ’90s, Werner has applied Silverstripe to a variety of projects – including running his town’s tourism website on Silverstripe for over a decade.

He actively shares his expertise through blogging and community forums: Werner co-founded Silverstrip.es, a community blog featuring tutorials and tips for Silverstripe developers. He has contributed add-ons like the CDN Rewrite module to offload assets to CDNs, and often helps test and debug core updates. A regular StripeCon speaker, Werner frequently demonstrates debugging techniques and local development improvements for Silverstripe CMS. His long-standing commitment and knowledge-sharing have earned him a reputation as a go-to Silverstripe expert in Europe.

Michal Kleiner

Michal Kleiner - Top 20 SilverStripe Developers Worth Your Time

Nationality: Czech

Michal Kleiner is a Czech-born software engineer based in Wellington, New Zealand, and a Silverstripe CMS core committer. He brings a broad open-source background – Michal is also a core developer for Matomo Analytics – and leverages that experience to improve Silverstripe’s codebase.

As a Silverstripe core team member, he has contributed to everything from the framework’s GraphQL API to the CMS’s multi-factor authentication features. Michal is passionate about fostering community: he often reviews pull requests, provides guidance to newer contributors, and even serves as an Ambassador for the Czech/Slovak tech community in NZ. At Silverstripe meetups, he has presented on topics like ethical web analytics (integrating Matomo with Silverstripe) and advanced module development. Michal’s dedication to open-source principles and his cross-project expertise make him a key figure ensuring Silverstripe stays aligned with wider PHP community standards.

Steve Boyd

Nationality: Kiwi

Steve Boyd is Principal Product Developer at Silverstripe and has been a cornerstone of the core team since 2015. With a career spanning major software companies, Steve brings seasoned engineering practices to the Silverstripe CMS project.

He led the initiative to modernize the Silverstripe codebase by adopting coding conventions and tools. Steve has also been deeply involved in planning Silverstripe’s major releases and coordinating security response – he regularly announces new Silverstripe versions and security patches to the community. As a mentor within Silverstripe, he’s known for guiding junior developers and maintaining high standards in peer code reviews. Steve’s steady leadership, both as a hands-on coder and as a decision-maker, has been pivotal in Silverstripe CMS’s growth and reliability over the past decade.

Garion Herman

Nationality: American

Garion Herman is an open-source developer who has significantly impacted Silverstripe’s development in recent years. Formerly part of Silverstripe’s “Bespoke & Operations” team and now a dedicated member of the Silverstripe CMS Squad, Garion focuses on improving developer tools and deployment processes.

He contributed to innovations like “code builders” for easier Silverstripe deployments on cloud infrastructure. Garion’s expertise spans modern front-end frameworks (React/Vue) and PHP, which has helped Silverstripe embrace more contemporary development workflows. Now based in Osaka, Japan, he continues to collaborate remotely as a Silverstripe core committer. Garion’s international perspective and DevOps-oriented enhancements have helped ensure Silverstripe CMS remains a modern, developer-friendly platform.

Guy Sartorelli

Nationality: Kiwi

Guy Sartorelli is a Principal Product Developer at Silverstripe and one of the two full-time engineers dedicated to Silverstripe CMS core development in Wellington.

With extensive experience in web development, Guy joined Silverstripe in 2022 and quickly became a core committer. He has contributed fixes and features across the board – from refining the CMS React UI to enhancing the versioning and workflow features in Silverstripe. Guy also has a keen focus on security and stability: he has authored security patch announcements and ensures that releases are thoroughly tested. In the Silverstripe community, he occasionally writes technical posts and speaks at developer meetups. Guy’s work exemplifies the next generation of Silverstripe leadership: deeply technical, collaborative, and committed to open-source excellence.

Hamish Friedlander

Hamish Friedlander - Top 20 SilverStripe Developers Worth Your Time

Nationality: Kiwi

Hamish Friedlander is one of the original masterminds behind Silverstripe CMS. A Kiwi developer, Hamish served as Silverstripe’s CTO and was the Lead Developer of Silverstripe 3.0.

He architected major parts of the framework – including the ORM and the fundamental MVC structure – and drove the project’s early adoption of emerging web technologies. Hamish was known for his “big picture” vision combined with hands-on coding prowess. He frequently represented Silverstripe at international PHP conferences, sharing insights on topics like dependency injection and performance tuning. In 2016, Hamish moved on from Silverstripe to pursue other technology leadership roles, but his influence persists: much of Silverstripe’s core DNA and engineering culture can be traced back to Hamish’s contributions and technical mentorship.

Nicolaas Francken

Nationality: Kiwi

Nicolaas Thiemen Francken is the founder of Sunny Side Up, a Wellington-based web agency, and the prolific developer behind hundreds of Silverstripe modules. Over the past decade, he personally created or maintained an astonishing range of modules – from e-commerce and payment integrations to content blocks – earning him recognition as “the man behind Sunny Side Up” in the community.

Nicolaas’s contributions have greatly enriched Silverstripe’s ecosystem; for many functionalities, there’s a Sunny Side Up module that provides a ready-made solution. He is motivated by open-source values, aiming to build tools that benefit not only his clients but the wider Silverstripe developer base. Beyond coding, Nicolaas advocates for knowledge-sharing (he even built a module search tool to help developers discover addons easily). His long-term dedication exemplifies how individual passion can elevate an open-source project’s capabilities.

Marcus Nyeholt

Nationality: Australian

Marcus Nyeholt is an Australian software architect and the co-founder of Symbiote. As Head of Technology at Symbiote, Marcus has long championed Silverstripe for enterprise web solutions, leading some of the earliest large-scale Silverstripe implementations in Australia.

He personally developed a number of official modules in Silverstripe’s early days – including the first versions of the blog, forum, and e-commerce modules – contributions that earned him core committer status. Marcus has been an active participant in the Silverstripe developer mailing lists and forums, sharing deep technical insights on topics like multi-server scaling and advanced caching. Even as he manages a tech team, he still actively codes and keeps Symbiote aligned with Silverstripe’s latest releases. Marcus’s blend of business leadership and hands-on coding makes him a standout figure who helped establish Silverstripe’s credibility in the enterprise sector.

Sigurd Magnusson

Sigurd Magnusson - Top 20 SilverStripe Developers Worth Your Time

Nationality: Kiwi

Sigurd Magnusson is the co-founder of Silverstripe and was a key figure in the CMS’s rise to prominence. While Sam Minnée provided technical direction, Sigurd focused on product vision and community building – effectively becoming an early evangelist for Silverstripe on the global stage.

He was instrumental in open-sourcing Silverstripe CMS in 2006 and championed it to win industry accolades. Sigurd engaged directly with developers through forums and by mentoring students in Google Summer of Code, spreading Silverstripe’s philosophy of open, developer-friendly CMS design. Though he eventually moved on to other tech ventures, Sigurd’s impact on Silverstripe lives on in its strong community ethos. He showed that a small Wellington startup could build a world-class open-source product by nurturing its community – a legacy evident every time Silverstripe developers collaborate across continents.

Jonathon “Jono” Menz

Nationality: Australian

Jonathon Menz is an independent web developer and designer from Australia who became well-known through his contributions to Silverstripe. Featured in a “Community Contributor Spotlight”, Jono has been described as an entrepreneurially minded developer who blends creative design with Silverstripe development.

He gained community recognition by building elegant Silverstripe sites and then sharing his techniques on his blog SSBits.com (SilverStripe Bits), which in the early 2010s was a go-to resource for Silverstripe tips and tutorials. Jono also created open-source modules and themes, focusing on making Silverstripe more accessible to designers. His versatility – spanning front-end design and back-end Silverstripe coding – showcased the framework’s potential to a broader audience. While he operates as a freelancer now, Jono remains a respected alumnus of the Silverstripe community, remembered for helping many developers get up to speed with the CMS through his writing and community engagement.

Loz Calver

Nationality: British

Loz Calver is a UK-based web developer who has made significant open-source contributions to Silverstripe. Working at Bigfork in Norwich, England, Loz became a core committer to the Silverstripe project, recognized for his expertise in PHP and his “healthy obsession” with clean code.

He has authored tutorials on advanced Silverstripe topics – for example, introducing developers to Silverstripe’s jQuery-based Entwine library for front-end behaviors. Loz also contributed code to the Silverstripe CMS core and has released modules of his own, such as spam protection and Markdown editing tools. In recent years, Loz has also been active in the CMS Squad’s work, helping implement features and fix bugs for Silverstripe 4 and 5 releases. His dual role as an agency developer and open-source maintainer exemplifies the global nature of Silverstripe’s community, bridging UK’s developer scene with the project’s New Zealand roots.

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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