I lead developer marketing at CData, owning developer growth for the managed MCP platform that connects AI agents to live enterprise data. That means the whole growth engine: technical docs, content, SEO and AEO, and how we position the platform to the engineers actually building on it. I stay in the code too - I write, build, and ship alongside the team so the marketing holds up to the engineers it's aimed at. Before this I built the Developer Relations function from scratch at CloudQuery (acquired by env0) - sole owner of content, community, docs, events, and video. I focused on making developers genuinely successful first; the business results followed: 4x organic traffic in under 3 months, docs traffic up 302%, and MQLs hitting 239% of target. I've been a professional software engineer for over 15 years, most of it at data companies - MongoDB, SingleStore, Tinybird, CloudQuery, and now CData - making complex data topics click for developers through whatever medium works best.
Before DevRel, I was a Technical Lead at Best Buy, where I helped architect and scale one of the top 10 eCommerce sites in North America - production apps handling thousands of requests per second. That experience building real systems at scale is what I bring to everything I do now. I've also given a TEDx talk and spoken at 100+ conferences, studied CS at Gustavus Adolphus College, and I run a homelab with way too many containers.
Previously at
100+
Conference Talks
15+
Years in Tech
25K+
TikTok Followers
14+
Podcast Appearances
git log --oneline --graph career/
*d47a5e1(HEAD -> main)Principal Developer Marketing Manager - CData(2026-present)
commit d47a5e1 Author: Joe Karlsson <[email protected]> Date: 2026 Principal Developer Marketing Manager - CData Lead developer marketing for the managed MCP platform that connects AI agents to live enterprise data. Own the developer growth engine: docs, content, SEO and AEO, and platform positioning. Stay in the code, shipping alongside the team so the marketing holds up to the engineers it's for.
*90e3919Head of Developer Relations - CloudQuery (now env0)(2024-2026)
commit 90e3919 Author: Joe Karlsson <[email protected]> Date: 2024 Head of Developer Relations - CloudQuery (now env0) Built and ran the full DevRel function from scratch: content, community, docs, events, and video. 4x organic traffic in 3 months; docs traffic up 302%; MQLs at 239% of target. Replicated the playbook post-acquisition at env0: +106% organic traffic in 3 weeks.
*a5c7813Developer Advocate - Tinybird(2023-2025)
commit a5c7813 Author: Joe Karlsson <[email protected]> Date: 2023 Developer Advocate - Tinybird Helped developers building real-time analytics applications. Created documentation, demos, blog posts, webinars, and workshops.
*6c649edSenior Developer Advocate - SingleStore(2021-2023)
commit 6c649ed Author: Joe Karlsson <[email protected]> Date: 2021 Senior Developer Advocate - SingleStore Led community conversations around scaling SQL workloads. Built demos and content for the distributed SQL database.
*ee030f8Senior Developer Advocate - MongoDB(2019-2021)
commit ee030f8 Author: Joe Karlsson <[email protected]> Date: 2019 Senior Developer Advocate - MongoDB Built developer community, created tutorials, demos, and educational content. Subject matter expert for developer experience.
*61eff00Front-end Technical Lead - Best Buy(2017-2019)
commit 61eff00 Author: Joe Karlsson <[email protected]> Date: 2017 Front-end Technical Lead - Best Buy Engineered high-performance solutions for one of the top 10 eCommerce sites in North America. Scaled production apps handling thousands of requests per second.
*3f2a1b0Full-Stack JavaScript Instructor - DevLeague(2015-2017)
commit 3f2a1b0 Author: Joe Karlsson <[email protected]> Date: 2015 Full-Stack JavaScript Instructor - DevLeague Taught full-stack JavaScript at one of the top 10 coding bootcamps worldwide. Created curriculum and prepared students for software engineering careers in Honolulu.
View my full resume
Impact metrics, tech stack, and PDF download
cat specializations.md
Data Systems
I've worked at five data companies (MongoDB, SingleStore, Tinybird, CloudQuery, CData) and scaled Best Buy's eCommerce platform. I know databases.
Teaching Complex Topics
From coding bootcamp instructor to TEDx speaker. I make technical concepts click through talks, demos, and content that people actually want to watch.
Building Weird Stuff
IoT cat litter boxes, crop art from millet kernels, hackathons for terrible ideas. The side projects are what make the talks interesting.
cat recognition.md
TEDx Speaker & Conference Keynote
"The Art of Computer Science" - delivered as a TEDx talk and keynote at multiple conferences
#1 on "10 Must-Follow Developers on TikTok"
25K+ followers, 844K+ likes
Published Author
The New Stack, MongoDB Developer Hub, Tinybird blog, Medium, DEV Community
Hackathon Organizer
Co-organized "Stupid Shit No One In Hawaii Needs" hackathon (2016). Sponsored by GitHub & Front End Masters.
Arctic Code Vault Contributor
Code preserved in GitHub's Arctic Code Vault for future generations
Coding Bootcamp Instructor
Taught full-stack JavaScript at DevLeague, one of the top 10 coding bootcamps worldwide (Honolulu, 2015-2017)
cat as-seen-on.md
Hanselminutes
with Scott Hanselman
Document Databases and Mongo
Screaming in the Cloud
with Corey Quinn (Last Week in AWS)
When Data is Your Brand and Your Job
JavaScript Jabber
Two episodes - MongoDB & IoT
JSJ 432 & JSJ 436
CodeNewbie
Making databases fun and approachable
Season 19, Episode 6
+ More Appearances
8 Bits
with Chloe Condon & Brandon Minnick
Community Pulse
DevRel Content Channels (w/ Cassidy Williams)
Data on Kubernetes
Building Data Intensive Applications
Coding Over Cocktails
Diving deep into databases
REACT Podcast
Serverless Apps With React (Ep. 126)
ls videos/
TEDx The Art of Computer Science
MongoDB Schema Design Best Practices
Bringing JavaScript to the IoT Edge
cat interests.md
Homelabber
Running a Proxmox cluster with 40+ containers, self-hosted services, and Home Assistant automating the whole house.
Speaker
100+ conferences worldwide. TEDx speaker and keynote. I talk about databases, IoT, and the weird stuff I build at home.
Cat Person / IoT Tinkerer
Built an IoT litter box with a Raspberry Pi to monitor my cat's health. Gave a conference talk about it. Yes, really.
Crop Artist
I make art by gluing seeds to cardboard. Exhibited at the Minnesota State Fair and the Seeds of Justice show.
ls crop-art/
I got into crop art in 2025 - making pictures by gluing seeds and grains to cardboard. I had two pieces in the Seeds of Justice exhibit, then entered the Minnesota State Fair Crop Art competition for the first time. Here are some of my pieces:
cat now.md
working on
Leading developer marketing at CData, growing the MCP platform that connects AI agents to enterprise data
tinkering with
A 40+ container homelab running Proxmox, Home Assistant, and way too many arr apps
writing about
Self-hosting, databases, and things that probably shouldn't be connected to the internet
using
M3 Pro MacBook Pro, VS Code, too many monitors. See my full setup →
Resume
Career history, impact metrics, and PDF download.
Projects
IoT, open source, demos, and more.
Newsletter
Databases, self-hosting, and whatever I'm building.
Uses
My gear, software, and daily tools.
Want to work together, book me for a talk, or just say hi?
Get in touch →