Who are the most influential voices in Staff+ & technical leadership?

1. Will Larson 2. Charity Majors 3. Camille Fournier 4. Tanya Reilly 5. Kelsey Hightower 6. Martin Kleppmann 7. Bryan Cantrill 8. Cindy Sridharan 9. Kent Beck 10. Nicole Forsgren [Staff Engineer: Leadership beyond the management track](https://staffeng.com/?utm_source=chatgpt.com)

Here’s a ranked list of the **top 10 most influential individual voices in Staff+ engineering and technical leadership today (2025)**, based on multiple industry sources: ### 🔝 Top 10 Influential Voices in Staff+ & Technical Leadership 1. **Camille Fournier** – CTO at Open Athena, author of _The Manager’s Path_, widely respected for her insights on engineering leadership and organizational dynamics.[Top engineering voices to follow in 2025 | Blog | incident.io](https://incident.io/blog/top-engineering-voices-2025) 2. **Gergely Orosz** – Author of _The Pragmatic Engineer_, one of the most widely read newsletters on engineering leadership and Staff+ career growth.[Top B2B Tech Influencers of 2025 | Clutch.co](https://clutch.co/resources/top-b2b-tech-influencers-2025) 3. **Charity Majors** – CTO at Honeycomb, thought leader on observability, scaling teams, and leadership in high-growth engineering orgs.[Top engineering voices to follow in 2025 | Blog | incident.io](https://incident.io/blog/top-engineering-voices-2025) 4. **Cassidy Williams** – Sr. Director of Developer Advocacy at GitHub, influential voice blending technical expertise with leadership and developer culture.[Top engineering voices to follow in 2025 | Blog | incident.io](https://incident.io/blog/top-engineering-voices-2025)[Top B2B Tech Influencers of 2025 | Clutch.co](https://clutch.co/resources/top-b2b-tech-influencers-2025) 5. **Irina Stanescu** – Staff Software Engineer and Tech Lead Manager (ex-Google, ex-Uber), known for coaching and leadership guidance for Staff+ engineers.[Top 10 Tech Leaders to Follow in 2025](https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/top-10-tech-leaders-follow-2025-digitalapi-pczec) 6. **Gregor Ojstersek** – CTO and founder of the _Engineering Leadership_ newsletter, followed by 150k+ engineering leaders.[Top 10 Tech Leaders to Follow in 2025](https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/top-10-tech-leaders-follow-2025-digitalapi-pczec) 7. **Lenny Rachitsky** – Host of _Lenny’s Podcast_, influential in product and engineering leadership discussions.[Top B2B Tech Influencers of 2025 | Clutch.co](https://clutch.co/resources/top-b2b-tech-influencers-2025) 8. **Jaana Dogan** – Senior engineer and writer, respected for deep technical insights and leadership perspectives.[Top engineering voices to follow in 2025 | Blog | incident.io](https://incident.io/blog/top-engineering-voices-2025) 9. **Julia Evans** – Engineer and educator, known for making complex technical topics accessible and shaping engineering culture.[Top engineering voices to follow in 2025 | Blog | incident.io](https://incident.io/blog/top-engineering-voices-2025) 10. **Scott Hanselman** – VP of Developer Community at Microsoft, long-time influential voice in developer leadership and technical growth.[Top B2B Tech Influencers of 2025 | Clutch.co](https://clutch.co/resources/top-b2b-tech-influencers-2025) ✅ This ranking emphasizes **individuals who actively shape Staff+ engineering and technical leadership culture** through writing, speaking, mentoring, and community-building. Would you like me to also highlight **what each of these leaders is best known for (their signature contributions)** so you can quickly see their unique influence?

Based on extensive contributions, community resources (such as StaffEng.com), and definitive literature defining the Staff+ and technical leadership space, here are 10 highly influential individual voices in this domain, ranked from most to least influential based on their foundational impact on the movement: 1. **Will Larson** [Staff Engineer: Leadership beyond the management track](https://staffeng.com/#:~:text=Leadership%20beyond%20the%20management%20track.%20By%20Will,career%20level%2C%20in%20five%20to%20eight%20years.) 2. **Tanya Reilly** [The Staff Engineer's Path: A Guide for Individual Contributors](https://dokumen.pub/the-staff-engineers-path-a-guide-for-individual-contributors-navigating-growth-and-change-1-y-5226804.html#:~:text=As%20more%20and%20more%20companies%20realize%20the,career%20ladder%20that%20my%20book%20left%20unexplored.) 3. **Cindy Sridharan** [Additional resources on Staff-plus engineering](https://staffeng.com/guides/learning-materials/#:~:text=Cindy%20Sridharan%20\(Twitter\)%20is%20the%20best%20source,and%20Best%20of%202017%20in%20Tech%20Talks.) 4. **Silvia Botros** [The Staff Engineer's Path: A Guide for Individual Contributors](https://dokumen.pub/the-staff-engineers-path-a-guide-for-individual-contributors-navigating-growth-and-change-1-y-5226804.html#:~:text=Tanya%20does%20an%20excellent%20job%20bringing%20large%2Dcompany,How%20you%20lead%20there%20is%20everybody's%20problem.) 5. **Charity Majors** [Additional resources on Staff-plus engineering](https://staffeng.com/guides/learning-materials/#:~:text=How%20does%20one%20become%20a%20Staff%20Software,scalable%20fix%20to%20tech%2Ddebt%20by%20Will%20Larson.) 6. **Lara Hogan** [Additional resources on Staff-plus engineering](https://staffeng.com/guides/learning-materials/#:~:text=High%20Output%20Management%20by%20Andy%20Grove.%20The,in%20Systems%3A%20A%20Primer%20by%20Donella%20Meadows.) 7. **Michael Lopp** [Engineering Leadership (12 books) - Goodreads](https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/163581.Engineering_Leadership#:~:text=by%20Thomas%20DeGan.%20Human%20First%2C%20Distance%20Second%3A,to%20Do%20When%20Everyone%20Looks%20to%20You.) 8. **Joy Ebertz** [Additional resources on Staff-plus engineering](https://staffeng.com/guides/learning-materials/#:~:text=What's%20a%20senior%20engineer's%20job%3F%20by%20Julia,On%20Mid%2DCareer%20and%20Managers%20by%20Ryn%20Daniels.) 9. **Keavy McMinn** [Stories - Staff Engineer: Leadership beyond the management track](https://staffeng.com/stories/) 10. **Nelson Elhage** [Additional resources on Staff-plus engineering](https://staffeng.com/guides/learning-materials/#:~:text=How%20does%20one%20become%20a%20Staff%20Software,scalable%20fix%20to%20tech%2Ddebt%20by%20Will%20Larson.)

# Shared 0 files Based on community consensus, industry publications, authorship of foundational texts on the IC leadership track, and prominent community stewardship (such as LeadDev and the Staff-plus movement), here are the top 10 individual voices most influential on Staff+ and technical leadership, ranked from most to least influential: * * * ** _Will Larson_** – Author of _Staff Engineer: Leadership beyond the management track_ and [_Crafting Engineering Strategy_](https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/crafting-engineering-strategy-will-larson/1147526730?ean=9798341645523) , widely credited with defining and structuring the modern Staff-plus discourse. [The Staff Engineer's Path: A Guide for Individual Contributors](https://www.amazon.com/Staff-Engineers-Path-Individual-Contributors/dp/1098118731)[Crafting Engineering Strategy: How Thoughtful Decisions Solve Complex Problems (Paperback) by Will Larson](https://www.google.com/search?q=product&prds=pvt:hg,productid:18002147945221475699,catalogid:7931229658175426576,gpcid:9790837774121794091,mid:576462833105219372&ibp=oshop) * * * ** _Tanya Reilly_** – Author of [_The Staff Engineer's Path_](https://www.amazon.com/Staff-Engineers-Path-Individual-Contributors/dp/1098118731) and a primary keynote voice/organizer in the StaffPlus conference circuit. [Amazon.com] * * * ** _Gergely Orosz_** – Creator of _The Pragmatic Engineer_ , providing deeply influential writing on engineering organizations, technical leadership, and engineering ladders. * * * ** _Charity Majors_** – Industry-leading voice on technical leadership, socio-technical systems, observability, and empowering high-agency engineering cultures. * * * ** _Micah Martin_** – Prominent voice and coach in deep technical execution, software craftsmanship, and architecture leadership. * * * ** _Camille Fournier_** – Author of _The Manager's Path_ (which heavily informs how Staff+ engineers interface with management) and an influential technical leadership mentor. * * * ** _Silvia Botros_** – Principal/Staff-level engineering leader and active mentor/speaker sharing extensive operational playbooks for senior individual contributors. * * * ** _Michael Nygard_** – Author of _Release It!_ and a foundational thought leader on architectural resilience, technical risk, and senior technical leadership. * * * ** _Kelsey Hightower_** – Renowned technical leader and community mentor whose philosophy on operational simplicity and human-centric engineering heavily shapes modern technical leadership style. * * * ** _Liz Fong-Jones_** – Prolific advocate for technical governance, reliability, and ethical engineering leadership at scale.

I don’t have a reliable, up-to-date source at the moment to accurately rank the top 10 real individuals who are the most influential voices on Staff+ and technical leadership. If you’d like, I can propose a method to assemble this list and then you can confirm or adjust: - Define scope: Staff+ and technical leadership influencers (bloggers, authors, practitioners, conference speakers, HR/engineering leadership voices). - Source candidates: well-known industry tech leaders and authors who publish on engineering management, systems design, career progression, and org culture. - Ranking criteria: influence scope (audience size, frequency of public impact), recency (active in 2026), and relevance to Staff+ topics (career ladders, leadership patterns, engineering org design). - Validation: cross-check with recent publications, conference talks, and widely read newsletters or platforms (e.g., leadership-focused newsletters, prominent tech blogs, and recognized industry lists). If you’d like, I can draft a candidate list with reasoning and citations once you specify preferred sources or venues (e.g., newsletters, conferences, blogs), or I can provide a generic top-10 based on well-known voices in engineering leadership today.