Kelsey Hightower

Kelsey Hightower (born February 27, 1981) is an American software engineer, developer advocate, and speaker known for his work with Kubernetes, open-source software, and cloud computing.

Early life and education Hightower grew up in Long Beach, California, then moved to Atlanta, Georgia with his mother as he was beginning high school. After high school he enrolled at Clayton State University, but found the technology courses to be lacking and didn't continue. He then began courses to earn his CompTIA A+ information technology (IT) certification.

Career When Hightower was 19 years old, after earning his CompTIA A+ certification, he got a job with BellSouth installing DSL service. He continued to work with BellSouth for several years, then began his own IT consultancy. He hired several others, and ultimately opened a store in Jonesboro, Georgia. Also in his early career, Hightower briefly worked as a technician for Google, then at Total Systems (now called TSYS). , Hightower is a distinguished engineer, level 9 (L9) as an individual contributor, with Google Cloud.

Open source and developer advocacy In 2014, while working for CoreOS, Hightower became an active evangelist of Kubernetes, and began to speak widely on the topic at developer conferences. He has since become one of the most well-known speakers on Kubernetes, and has also spoken on other topics, including serverless computing. In 2015, he co-founded the Kubernetes-focused conference KubeCon, which he then turned over to be managed by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation in subsequent years.

In 2017, he co-wrote a book with Kubernetes co-founders Joe Beda and Brendan Burns, titled Kubernetes Up and Running.

In 2019, Hightower was co-chair of the O'Reilly Open Source Convention and on the governing board of the Cloud Native Computing Foundation.

Publications