Co-Founder Pete Pickerill returns to Liquibase to champion developers in 2025

Liquibase has always been about enabling developers to move faster and empowering teams to tackle the complexities of database DevOps. After stepping away from Liquibase for a year, I couldn’t be more thrilled to return to the company I’ve called home for over a decade — this time as the Head of Developer Relations! 

I’m diving headfirst into this new role, where I’ll be working closely with the developer community to amplify your voices at Liquibase and to ensure you have a trusted partner in database change management. It’s an honor and a privilege to get back to doing what I’m most passionate about in my professional life: helping development teams do their best work!

I’m not here to pick up where I left off. I’m here to set and drive forward a vision where developers can innovate without being bogged down by the tedious and complicated tasks of database change management.

2025: The year of database DevOps

2025 is a pivotal year for database DevOps. The convergence of trends like “use case-specific” databases, the maturation of CI/CD, and the relentless push for real-time data by AI-driven initiatives make this a critical moment for Liquibase and the developers we serve. For instance, the prevalence of use case-specific databases reflects the evolving world of data management. Data has its own pipeline now, and the developers who help maintain it need to be supported. 

As we launch the 2025 Database DevOps Adoption & Innovation Survey, these challenges (and others) will become even more clear through the eyes of teams up and down modern data pipelines. Our attention is squarely focused on the quickly accelerating growth and evolution in the database DevOps space in 2025, where we’re already observing:

• Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) practices quickly becoming ubiquitous across tech stacks and industries, heightening an already desperate need for automation that is sensitive to the specific needs of all kinds of modern data stores. 
• New cloud-based, use case-specific databases launched at an accelerating rate, adding to the complexity developers face when managing their application and data pipelines. 
• “Shifting left” has blurred the lines between development, operations, and data science teams, with developers picking up more cross-functional responsibilities. 
• The rise of AI and machine learning has created an insatiable demand for real-time, high-quality data — and the ability to learn from it to improve everything. 

These same exciting advancements are part of the reason I stepped away from Liquibase in 2024. To discover and understand the database industry’s toughest and most intriguing opportunities, I had to immerse myself in the developer’s new world. 

I’ve returned with a clear understanding of how Liquibase can help teams succeed and thrive in this exciting and tumultuous time, as it has for almost 20 years.

Stepping back for a better perspective

As a longtime developer and software engineer, I thrive on learning and have the constant itch to try new things (like most of you). After spending more than a decade building Liquibase into a company that we’re proud to call home with people I have come to consider family I felt that itch pretty acutely. I talked with dozens of companies trying to find that “next big thing” eventually taking a role in product management at a cyber security company. I wanted to shake up my own understanding of database change management – and the teams, tech, workflows, and businesses these processes support. 

While I’ve been an advisor to Liquibase during my absence and kept tabs on the company’s achievements and challenges, these last 12 months allowed me to step into a completely different “problem space” and reorient my focus. Shifting into a Product Manager role for a cybersecurity SaaS solution put me in direct working contact with the teams that  Liquibase serves, including DBAs, DevOps, developers, data scientists, and others.

Now, I’m back at Liquibase with a refreshed perspective on what it takes to improve developer experiences at the database layer. My goal is to help developers cut through the tedium of database change management and focus on innovating, solving problems, and building the future.

As database developers and data engineers are increasingly asked to take on broader roles, my mission is to ensure that Liquibase provides them with the tools and support they need to excel in the face of intensifying expectations. I’m particularly inspired by the chance to empower those who are breaking barriers and redefining what’s possible with data-fueled technology!

I can’t wait to build stronger connections with the developer community, help Liquibase push the boundaries of what’s possible, and ensure that we’re not just keeping up with the future of DevOps — we’re shaping it. Thanks for being a part of it all. 

Be sure to follow me on LinkedIn and connect with Liquibase on LinkedIn, Reddit, and YouTube. You can also learn from the Liquibase Community in the forum.