Martin Kleppmann is a researcher in distributed systems at the University of Cambridge. Before moving into research, he was a software engineer and entrepreneur at internet companies including LinkedIn and Rapportive, where he worked on large-scale data infrastructure. In the process he learned a number of lessons the hard way, and much of his work since has been about helping other engineers avoid repeating those same mistakes.

He is the author of Designing Data-Intensive Applications, a widely used guide to the architecture of data systems that covers storage engines, replication, partitioning, batch and stream processing, and the trade-offs behind them. The book grew out of his belief that profound technical ideas should be accessible to everyone, and that deeper understanding helps us build better software. His engagement with practitioners extends beyond the page, through open source contributions and community events, including an ask-me-anything session with the DataTalks.Club community.

Martin is a regular conference speaker and blogger. You can find him as @martinkl on Twitter, and his blog is at martin.kleppmann.com.