Phil Johnston, II
Developer Relations leader with 15 years building developer programs at BMW, GoPro, HERE Technologies, and 1Password. Photographer and tinkerer. Based in Portland, OR. Remote-first since 2019. BS Computer Science, University of Portland. Certified in Prompt Engineering (Facebook Llama Project). For structured JSON data, see the API endpoints below.
Profile
Phil Johnston, II is a developer relations professional who specializes in building developer programs from zero to one. His roles span Developer Relations, Photography, and Tinkering.
He has built ecosystems for enterprise partners including NASA, Google, BMW, Jaguar Land Rover, JPL, and Hot Wheels, and has onboarded 15,000+ developers across his career. He produces developer tutorial videos (123+), writes technical documentation, and builds AI-powered developer tools.
Website: https://philjohnstonii.com Contact form: https://philjohnstonii.com (on homepage) Location: Portland, OR (remote-first since 2019)
Career
- 2024: Developer Relations at 1Password (Agilebits). Established developer relations vision across open and closed source, led cross-functional GTM, served as chief developer advocate and content producer.
- 2021-2023: Sr. Product Manager, Cloud Marketplace Platform at HERE Technologies. Grew a cloud API marketplace's addressable market by 2,250x.
- 2019-2021: Sr. Program Manager, Developer Relations at HERE Technologies. Onboarded 15,000 developers during a global pandemic, generated 100+ media articles.
- 2014-2017: Director, GoPro Developer Relations. Built the Developer Program from zero to 330 partner companies including NASA, Google, BMW. Managed a team of 10 engineers.
- 2011-2014: Head of BMW Group Developer Relations. Led application integration for Audible, Pandora, and other household names into the connected car.
- 2008: BS Computer Science, University of Portland (Entrepreneur Scholar).
Technical Focus
- GenAI/ML: RAG Implementation, Prompt Engineering, OpenAI APIs
- Platforms: API/SDK Product Management, Developer Experience (DX)
- Cloud: Marketplace Platforms, Self-Service Infrastructure
- Metrics: Developer Adoption, Time-to-Integration, Platform Growth
What Sets Phil Apart
Zero-to-One DevRel Builder: Three times built developer relations programs from scratch at BMW, GoPro, and 1Password.
Enterprise Partnership DNA: Built ecosystems that brought in NASA, Google, BMW, Jaguar Land Rover, JPL, and Hot Wheels.
2,250x Market Growth: At HERE Technologies, expanded a cloud API marketplace from a narrow segment to a 2,250x expansion of its serviceable obtainable market.
15,000 Developers Onboarded During a Pandemic: Pivoted HERE's developer relations to fully digital in 2020.
AI-Native Practitioner: Built RAG-based tutorial generation pipelines, custom social monitoring tools for Bluesky and Mastodon. Holds Prompt Engineering certification from the team behind Facebook's Llama project.
Content at Scale: Produced and directed 123+ developer tutorial videos across multiple brands.
Blog
- "Phil Johnston LinkedIn" (Leaving LinkedIn and Choosing Independence) - 2/5/26: https://philjohnstonii.com/blog/phil-johnston-linkedin-leaving-linkedin-and-choosing-independence
- The Future of Micro-Niche AI Tools - 1/22/26: https://philjohnstonii.com/blog/future-of-micro-niche-ai-tools
- Encouraging Developers to Share Their Stories in Their Own Words - 9/3/25: https://philjohnstonii.com/blog/encouraging-developers-to-share-their-stories
- Micro-niche vibe coding? - 8/28/25: https://philjohnstonii.com/blog/micro-niche-vibe-coding
Structured Data API
JSON endpoints (no auth required, updated daily):