The Engineering Leadership Podcast
The Engineering Leadership Podcast shares critical perspectives, habits, and examples of great software engineering leaders to help evolve leadership in the tech industry. It is produced by The Engineering Leadership Community (ELC), which also hosts a community for software engineering leaders.
Episodes
Building an empowered career w/ Jean Hsu & Cate Huston #261
In this episode, Patrick discusses what it means to build an empowered career & explore creative career portfolios with Jean Hsu (VP of Engineering @ Range) and Cate Huston (author of The Engineering Leader and fractional CTO @ Twill). Both share their unique engineering leadership journeys & how they built creative career paths through exploration & finding room for optionality. We dissect the id
Redefining profit, centering human flourishing, and building an incorruptible mission-driven roadmap w/ Eric Ries #260
In this episode, we’re joined by Eric Ries, creator of The Lean Startup, to discuss insights from his latest book, Incorruptible: Why Good Companies Go Bad… and How Great Companies Stay Great. Eric shares what inspired him to write the book and why we need to move beyond and redefine what true profit looks like. He shares the history behind businesses transitioning from serving public interests to
Affirm’s AI-native transformation & how it’s driving operational excellence w/ Geddes Munson #259
In this episode, Geddes Munson (SVP of Engineering @ Affirm) joins us to discuss operational / engineering excellence, scaling, and AI-native transformation! We explore Affirm’s approach to operational and engineering excellence and how a 2024 outage became a turning point in refining that focus. We deconstruct “AI retooling week”, the internal tools it inspired (including an incident tracing syst
Building reliable and proactive agentic systems at scale: how Shopify’s reflexive AI culture was instrumental in their development of Sidekick w/ Andrew McNamara #258
Andrew McNamara, Director of Applied Machine Learning @ Shopify, joins the ELC podcast to share insights on building agentic platforms at scale, like Sidekick, that must keep reliability for its users at the forefront. Andrew describes the building philosophy behind Shopify and what it means to cultivate a culture of prototype-first while prioritizing hiring early-stage talent. We cover Sidekick’s
How the R&D Org at Twilio Drives Business Strategy and Transformation w/ Inbal Shani #257
Inbal Shani (CPO and Head of R&D @ Twilio) deconstructs the transformation of the R&D org at Twilio! We explore the shift from a GM-led model to a unified platform strategy and “why structure must always follow strategy.” Inbal shares her framework for moving from output-focused metrics to input goals, prioritizing “time-to-value,” and the nuances of measuring AI products. We discuss using "R&D ro
Scaling TensorFlow, Navigating Startup Pivots, ML Edge Infrastructure and AI Inference Strategy w/ Rajat Monga #256
Rajat Monga, CVP AI Frameworks @ Microsoft, joins the podcast to discuss his leadership and founder journey, from Google Brain / Tensorflow to inference.io and back to Microsoft. He dissects what it means to refound vs. start from scratch, the value of the open source community, and strategies for discovering what problem to solve when going the startup route. We also cover how to determine your u
How Enterprises Actually Win with AI: Operationalizing Responsible AI, Engineering Guardrails, Trust Controls, and Systems Thinking at Scale w/ Murali Swaminathan #255
Enterprise customers demand 99.9% availability, regardless of how the underlying software is built. In this episode, Murali Swaminathan (CTO @ Freshworks) discusses how enterprises actually win with AI! We explore the “Architecture of Predictability” – proactive architectural safeguards to scale “responsible AI by design” across a global organization serving 75,000 customers. Murali shares his lea
Shifting Eng Leaders to Think Like GMs, Building an AI-Driven Visionary Roadmap & Braze’s Product Health Initiative w/ Jon Hyman #254
Jon Hyman (CTO & Co-Founder @ Braze) returns to the podcast to share how he balances a mature, public-company roadmap with visionary AI innovation! We deconstruct Braze’s quantitative "Product Health" framework - a scoring system used to resolve competing prioritizations and mandate technical remediation. We also discuss shifting engineering leaders to think like GMs, how to realign teams by conne
Leading effectively across company archetypes: product, business and design-led leadership w/ Sebastiano Armeli #253
We discuss what effective leadership looks like across three organizational archetypes: product-led, business-led, and design-led companies with Sebastiano Armeli (Engineering Leadership @ Meta). Drawing from his leadership journey at places like Meta, Spotify, Snap, and PayPal, Sebastiano deconstructs the situational leadership frameworks required to thrive in different environments. Plus we dis
Changes in engineering management craft, career growth and all hands demos for inspiration and context w/ Lindsey Simon #252
Live from the Vercel recording studio, Lindsey Simon (VP Engineering @ Vercel) joins us to deconstruct the evolution of management craft and career growth strategies! We dissect the practice of live all-hands demos as a tool for context, accountability and inspiration. Plus, Lindsey’s "vote with your wallet" framework for career strategy, how Lindsey’s open source project inspired him to apply to
Career growth for engineering leaders in the AI era: Building your thesis, the “running framework” & developing technical depth w/ Chris Chiu #251
Career progression is rarely a straight line. More often, it only makes sense in hindsight. Chris Chiu (VP of Engineering, Agentforce @ Salesforce) joins us to deconstruct how to navigate these non-linear career paths! We talk about identifying the mismatch in your current role, building a personal "career thesis," how to engineer a productive exploration phase and leverage your relationships / VC
How OpenAI’s engineering org is reshaping teams, roles and workflows w/ Sulman Choudhry #250
In this episode, recorded live at the OpenAI studio, Sulman Choudhry (Head of ChatGPT @ OpenAI) pulls back the curtain on how they structure engineering teams! We talk about shifting from silos to fluid mission-driven teams, vertical vs. horizontal teams, maximizing cross-functional collaboration between research, engineering, product and design. Plus we cover “directly responsible individuals” fo
The innovation engine behind Samsara driving real-world impact: compounding feedback loops, data flywheels and embedding engineers in customer problems w/ Kiren Sekar #249
Kiren Sekar (CPO @ Samsara) joins us to deconstruct the "Innovation Engine" behind Samsara, and how this system drives real-world impact and ROI across their products. We explore Samsara’s decade-long compound product strategy and the mechanics of accelerating feedback loops in an era where the primary bottlenecks shift from code generation to customer feedback and absorption of change. Kiren deta
Why founders should invest in coaching, communication & leadership mechanisms before you scale w/ James Birchler #248
Founders often delay leadership coaching until a major crisis hits, leading to significant costs in productivity, team churn, and poor decisions. In this episode, James Birchler (Technical Advisor & Executive Leadership Coach) argues that early coaching is a game-changer for a startup's success. We explore the hidden costs of waiting and the benefits of intentionally installing leadership and comm
Cultivating product thinking, cross-functional leadership & the future of AI agent infrastructure w/ Jaikumar Ganesh #247
In our latest ELC episode, we are addressing some of the biggest challenges facing engineers today: identifying your scaling thesis, putting that thesis into practice, and addressing implementation challenges. Jaikumar Ganesh, Head of Engineering @ Anyscale, shares insights from his experience working at top tech companies like Android and Uber, and how to apply those lessons within your own orgs.
Scaling from point solutions to a unified, AI-powered product ecosystem w/ Vineeta Puranik #246
How do you transform a collection of individual tools into a cohesive, AI-powered symphony? Vineeta Puranik (CPTO @ SmartBear) dissects the strategy behind evolving a product vision from point solutions to a unified multi-product ecosystem. We explore the critical architectural distinction between "AI bolt-on" and "AI native" strategies, frameworks for seamless M&A integration, and how to design f
From localized to systematic speed: How Spotify deploys AI in prototyping, strategy & maintenance w/ Tyson Singer #245
Tyson Singer (Head of Tech & Platforms @ Spotify) joins us to unpack how Spotify is transforming its product development lifecycle across creation, experimentation and maintenance to shift from "localized speed" to "systematic speed." We explore why the industry’s current obsession with the "Build It" phase of development is shortsighted, and how Spotify is aggressively deploying AI in the "Think
Inside ELC’s 1st Hackathon: Deconstructing the operational playbook, implementation lessons & future of the program w/ James Tyack #244
It started with a simple idea from James Tyack: “What if we hosted a hackathon at ELC Annual?” The result was a unique experiment where 14 senior engineering leaders stepped away from strategy to build and ship functioning apps in one weekend, unlocking new insights on AI-native workflows, "vibe coding," and the future of engineering. In this episode, we deconstruct the entire hackathon operationa
What is leadership in the AI Era? w/ Bill Coughran & Bret Reckard #243
This is a special episode, highlighting a session from ELC Annual 2025! Bill Coughran (Partner @ Sequoia Capital & former SVP of Engineering @ Google) and Bret Reckard (Talent Partner @ The General Partnership) deconstruct the evolving role of engineering leadership in an era dominated by AI hype. Bill is a legendary leader who joined Google right after the .com bubble and has seen every major ind
From Research Lab to Record-Breaking Product: How OpenAI Engineered for Unprecedented Scale w/ Sulman Choudhry, Samir Ahmed & Lawrence Bruhmeller #242
This is a special episode, highlighting a session from ELC Annual 2025! OpenAI evolved from a pure research lab into the fastest-growing product in history, scaling from 100 million to 700 million weekly users in record time. In this episode, we deconstruct the organizational design choices and cultural bets that enabled this unprecedented velocity. We explore what it means to hire "extreme genera
The AI Distribution Shift, Navigating PMF Collapse & Building AI-Native EPD Systems w/ Brian Balfour #241
In this episode, Brian Balfour (Founder & CEO @ Reforge) deconstructs the two core, interconnected challenges leaders face in the AI age: deciding what to build and evolving the Engineering, Product, Design workflow to deliver it. We cover why you should avoid “the local maxima trap” and siphon off "skunkworks" teams to take high-risk, AI-native bets. Brian provides the blueprint for the "Great Di
How Atlassian built Rovo in 6 months: systematizing developer joy, autonomy/ownership, productivity champions & reducing ship time w/ Rajeev Rajan #240
Rajeev Rajan (CTO @ Atlassian) shares the leadership playbook he used to transform Atlassian’s engineering culture, and how that cultural foundation directly powered the build and launch of Rovo (Atlassian’s new AI powered app). We cover how they reduced ship time from 120 days to zero, why “developer joy” is the metric that matters, and how to create a community of developer productivity champion
From developer to builder/system designer, managing AI agents like team members & monday.com’s evolving R&D playbook w/ Daniel Lereya #239
In this episode, Daniel Lereya (Chief Product and Technology Officer @ Monday.com) shares how they are evolving their engineering roles from developers to builders & system designers, where the lines between product, engineering, and design are intentionally blurred, and developers manage AI Agents as team members, tackling an ever-expanding list of projects. We explore the shift from "developer"
Beyond Replication: Building Non-Human Intelligence Through Physical AI w/ Jaime Lien & Rashi Agrawal #238
This is a special episode, highlighting a session from ELC Annual 2025! The true promise of AI isn’t in replicating human intelligence. It’s in developing entirely new forms of non-human intelligence that perceive and understand the world in fundamentally different ways. Jamie Lien (Co-Founder and Chief Scientist @ Archetype AI) and Rashi Agarwal (Head of AI Engineering @ GoodLeap) explore the eme
Specs as the new source of truth, synthetic data as the next wave of defensibility, product vision & decision making frameworks w/ Ruslan Belkin #237
Ruslan Belkin (Head of Platform Engineering @ Inflection AI) joins us to deconstruct fundamental shifts in engineering leadership. We explore the future of user interfaces, his “sci-fi” approach to establish & test product vision, & how to leverage “investor decks” for better decision-making and project validation. Ruslan also dives into the complexities of building emotional intelligence into AI
Brex 3.0: An 18-Month Operational Evolution & the Brex Hacker House “AI Startup within a Startup" experiment w/ James Reggio #236
James Reggio (CTO @ Brex) shares the story of "Brex 3.0", an 18-month journey behind their operational evolution. We explore how they rewound their org from a Series E to a Series C mindset, and replaced siloed OKRs with seasonal "marquee initiatives." James deconstructs the “Brex Hacker House”, an AI-focused startup within a startup experiment aimed to disrupt their core business. This conversati
The Impossible Job of Managers, Leadership Co-Pilots, Scaling Great Management & Augmenting Human Relationships w/ Jonathan Raymond #235
In today’s technology landscape, management as a skill is becoming more complex as teams become larger & managers must navigate the balance between relationships and strategic execution. So how can AI tools help managers level up their game? Jonathan Raymond (Founder & CEO @ Ren) shares insights that can help managers navigate their modern-day invisible cognitive loads. We cover how AI can be used
A Systems-Level Guide to High-ROI AI Impact w/ Laura Tacho #234
Businesses are spending millions on AI tools hoping to accelerate time-to-market but aren't seeing organizational-level results. Laura Tacho (CTO @ DX) explains why an "individual productivity" mindset fails and how AI merely accelerates the condition of the system it enters. She provides a framework for leaders to shift to a systems-level approach, find high-leverage ROI by looking outside the 20
Platform Engineering's Shift from Tactical 'How' to Strategic Curator & Natural Language as the New Interface Paradigm w/ Miriam Aguirre #233
What happens to platform engineering when natural language becomes the primary interface to infrastructure? Miriam Aguirre (Co-founder & CEO @ Ingenimax) joins us to explore how AI is fundamentally reshaping platform strategy, team structures, and the very role of the platform engineer. We deconstruct the shift from tactical "how" to strategic "why" and explore what it means to lead and build resi
Grit, the vision bottleneck & building for a future where today’s technical constraints may disappear w/ Chrystal Henke Ball #232
In this episode, we’re addressing one of the biggest challenges current eng leaders are facing – balancing yesterday’s constraints with tomorrow’s potential! Chrystal Henke Ball (VP of Engineering @ Yahoo) shares insights on why it’s important to constantly challenge your assumptions and how vision can sometimes work as a bottleneck for your organization. We dissect how the traditional product lif
Leading across technical domains, strategic deep-dives & applying your skills in new industries w/ Simone Kalmakis #231
How do you apply your leadership skills to a new, mission-driven industry and effectively lead teams across multiple technical domains? In this episode, Simone Kalmakis (VPE @ Viam) shares her playbook for successfully transitioning between industries from health-tech and climate to her current work in robotics and AI. We deconstruct the leadership models she uses to prioritize her time, manage mu
How Box Builds AI Agents, Redefines Technical Vision, and Balances Speed with Security w/ Ben Kus #230
"If we were building Box today, what would we do?” Ben Kus (CTO @ Box) deconstructs their playbook for enterprise AI innovation. We cover their journey to reimagine & reorient the company to a new technical vision, how they run a “multi-speed” org that balances startup agility and & enterprise-grade stability, and their “platform first” approach to build AI features. Ben also explains why security
Rewriting the Engineering Leadership Playbook: An ELC Annual 2025 Preview #229
Engineering leadership is undergoing a seismic shift, requiring playbooks to be rewritten, in real-time. In this special episode, hosts Patrick Gallagher and Jerry Li give you an inside look at the ELC Annual 2025 experience, and how the two-day conference will equip you with new mental models, skills, and frameworks required to lead.Get a preview of tactical takeaways from deep operational dives
The End-to-End Engineer: How WorkOS Collapsed the Talent Stack for High-Velocity Execution, Ownership & Better Product Decisions w/ Michael Grinich
What if your engineering team didn’t just write code, but owned product discovery, wrote the launch messaging, and handled early sales? In this episode, Michael Grinich, CEO and founder of WorkOS, deconstructs their playbook for collapsing the product/engineering stack: no design leads, only one PM, and engineers who own product end-to-end. Michael breaks down how they teach product thinking, buil
Influencing without authority: What every engineering leader can learn from security w/ Srinath Kuruvadi #227
Influencing without authority is the hidden superpower of security leadership—and a crucial skill every engineering leader must master. In this episode, Srinath Kuruvadi (Head of Cloud Security @ JPMorgan Chase) breaks down how to influence without formal authority and advocate when ROI isn’t immediately clear. We cover tactics for shaping problems from the POV of other stakeholders, Plus, strateg
Vision-first leadership & reimagining product w/ “Shift Out,” Do-It-as-a-Service & Jobs-to-Be-Done w/ John Amaral #226
John Amaral (CTO and co-founder @ Root.io) joins us to discuss the evolving role of engineering leaders and why vision-first leadership & building your “vision” muscle is more critical than ever. We dive into why “shift left” is dead and why SaaS is being replaced by “do-it” as a service. John also unpacks how to think in outcomes, apply the Jobs-To-Be-Done framework to eliminate toil, and reimagi
Quick Summer Break! Join us @ ELC Annual 2025 (Early Bird Tickets End Soon)
We’re pausing the pod this week as we gear up final planning for ELC Annual 2025 - the premier event for engineering leaders. New episodes return next week (on a biweekly schedule!).
This is our biggest event of the year… 1,000+ CTOs, VPs & Directors in San Francisco @ ELC Annual 2025 for two days of leadership breakthroughs, tactical peer learning & curated connections! We’d love for you to join
Scaling decision-making, designing eng orgs for speed & scope as underrated leverage w/ Dhruv Parthasarathy #225
In this episode, we go inside Commure’s engineering org w/ Dhruv Parthasarathy (CTO @ Commure & Athelas). We cover how to push decision-making down to move faster and reduce risk, structure teams for rapid iteration, and turn customers into product co-creators. Dhruv also shares how they cultivate polymath capabilities across EPD to accelerate velocity, why scope is one of the most underrated sour
The evolving velocity playbook, building product taste & exceptional product experiences in the AI era w/ Loïc Houssier #224
Loïc Houssier (VP Engineering @ Superhuman) shares his evolving playbook for driving velocity in eng orgs today, building product-minded teams, and cultivating product taste. We cover leading culture / mindset transformation, creating exceptional product experiences, operational excellence when product quality is increasingly subjective. Plus the evolution of productivity tools!ABOUT LOÏC HOUSSIER
Rapid Prototyping, Lightning Pods & the End of PRDs: Redefining product development & EPD in the age of AI w/ Nissim Lehyani #223
When Nissim Lehyani (VP of Product at Life360) used AI to build a math game for his son, he didn’t just prototype a game, he rewired how he thinks about product development and the relationship between engineering, product, and design. In this episode, Nissim shares how that personal “aha” moment sparked a shift in how his teams build, collaborate, and ship. We dive into how AI is accelerating pro
No New Episode - But We Launched Something New... Introducing the ELC Forum!
We just launched the ELC Forum — a new space for engineering leaders to dive deeper into real challenges and get peer support It’s a discussion board (like Reddit) but focused on eng leadership. We’re sharing takeaways from recent episodes and kicking off new discussions. Plus, AMAs with guests are coming soon. See you in the Forum!Click here to explore the forum, ask questions, & share insights a
From architect to AI exec: Scaling leadership, maintaining credibility & effective communication to non-technical execs w/ Prashant Ramarao #222
How do you go from deeply technical IC to leading 100+ engineers - and still stay close to the tech? Prashant Ramarao, SVP of Engineering & Head of AI @ Yahoo shares lessons from his unconventional leadership journey, exploring the mindset shift from expert IC to executive! We cover how to scale your leadership while maintaining technical credibility and how to effectively communicate with GMs & o
The Startup Epoch: Rethinking Company Building & Defensibility in an AI World w/ Craig McLuckie #221
AI is reshaping the fundamental economics of startups—lowering product development costs, compressing GTM cycles, and rewriting the rules of competition. In this episode, Craig McLuckie (Co-Founder & CEO @ Stacklok, co-creator of Kubernetes) unpacks “the epoch of the startup,” a moment of massive disruption where fast-moving founders have a unique edge over incumbents. We explore how Craig is navi
AMD’s unified hardware + software strategy & building an open-source AI ecosystem w/ Anush Elangovan #220
Anush Elangovan (VP of AI Software @ AMD) is helping lead a strategic evolution at AMD, from silicon/components provider to a systems and solutions company built for the AI era. In this episode, we explore the first principles behind AMD’s unified AI hardware and software strategy and how the company is building a fully open-source AI ecosystem. Anush shares how his team creates a tight feedback l
Lessons Leading EPD: Mindset, decision-making, 80/20 product strategy & pivoting for leverage/speed w/ Farnaz Azmoodeh #219
When Farnaz Azmoodeh (CTO @ Linktree) stepped into her new role, she unexpectedly took on product & design just three months in—owning all of engineering, product, and design during a critical period of change. In this episode, Farnaz shares hard-won lessons from that transition, including the mindset shift from delivery to discovery, balancing data vs. intuition in decision-making, knowing when t
Empowering Teams & Cultivating True Ownership in Engineering Orgs w/ Wade Chambers #218
Wade Chambers, Chief Engineering Officer @ Amplitude, joins us to discuss what it looks like to empower individual engineers & overall engineering teams and recommendations for creating a culture that cultivates ownership! First, Wade defines what true ownership looks like – and what it doesn’t look like. We cover frameworks for identifying & cultivating high ownership in individuals & across team
Building partnerships w/ complex stakeholders, aligning tech debt w/ business value & decisive vs. thoughtful decision-making #217
In this episode, we’re back with more insights from our local community leaders — discussing leadership insights on strategic decision-making, managing technical debt and fostering true cross-functional partnerships! Funmi Oludaiye (New York City) shares strategies for building strong cross-functional relationships between eng & business leaders. Ketan Gupta (London) breaks down the STIR framework
Recalibrating leadership priorities, leveraging your time & empowering senior leaders w/ Vinod Marur #216
In this episode, Vinod Marur (SVP of Engineering @ Databricks) shares his approach to recalibrating leadership priorities as organizations scale. Vinod breaks down his personal recalibration framework—why he does it every 3–6 months, signals that it’s time to reassess, and how to design communication and collaboration structures that reduce information asymmetry during periods of rapid growth. We
From early days to IPO: Scaling leadership, enterprise growth, product ownership, & outgrowing your failure modes w/ Jon Hyman #215
Jon Hyman (Co-Founder and CTO @ Braze) shares the pivotal moments that shaped the company - from being the only person on call in the early years to identifying (and pivoting) product-market fit. Jon discusses how they navigated early-stage failure modes, carved out areas of product ownership, and made the shift to enterprise customers. Plus how leadership priorities evolve pre- vs. post-IPO and t
Essential questions & leadership principles to navigate change, fear & uncertainty w/ Rukmini Reddy #214
ABOUT RUKMINI REDDYRukmini Reddy is the Senior Vice President of Engineering, responsible for managing product and platform delivery, infrastructure, and data science. Reddy joins PagerDuty from Slack where she guided the vision, strategy, and execution of a comprehensive re-architecture, transforming the messaging software into an automation platform that empowered users to streamline their work.
Building platforms, ecosystems & open-source communities: Lessons from Viam & MongoDB w/ Eliot Horowitz @ Viam #213
ABOUT ELIOT HOROWITZEliot Horowitz is the Founder and CEO of Viam, an engineering platform unlocking AI, automation, and data for devices in the physical world. With a deep commitment to advancing technology, Eliot leads Viam in helping companies build solutions across robotics, food and beverage, climate, marine, industrial manufacturing, and more.A career software developer and technology leader
Leading transformation, inspiring vision & empowering teams to operate autonomously w/ Kevin Stewart #212
ABOUT KEVIN STEWARTKevin Stewart is an engineering executive focused on building teams to build products. He has helped shape the engineering culture at a number of startups, digital agencies and cloud companies. Kevin is particularly experienced in leading remote and distributed teams to consistently deliver quality products. Although he currently resides in Seattle, Kevin is a lifelong New Yorke
Accelerating & upskilling your AI learning journey w/ Maher Hanafi #211
ABOUT MAHER HANAFIMaher Hanafi is a seasoned technology engineering leader, driving digital transformation and delivering impactful SaaS solutions. As Senior Vice President of Engineering at Betterworks, he leads the AI vision and applications for their AI-powered performance management software, overseeing the integration of AI tools that enhance HR functions like performance reviews, goal settin
Data governance, adversarial testing & more - Essential strategies to scale AI responsibly in a shifting regulatory environment w/ Jim Palmer #210
ABOUT JIM PALMERJim Palmer is the Chief AI Officer at Dialpad. Previously he was CTO and Co-Founder of TalkIQ, a conversational intelligence start-up with expertise in real-time speech recognition and natural language processing, acquired by Dialpad in May of 2018. Prior to TalkIQ, he was the founding engineer on the eBay Now local delivery service.SHOW NOTES:Tips and cheat codes for navigating AI
Capturing & synthesizing unbiased insights from users, your open source community & yourself w/ James Campbell #209
ABOUT JAMES CAMPBELLJames Campbell is the co-founder and CTO at Great Expectations, the leading open-source data quality product. Prior to his life at a startup, James spent nearly 15 years working across a variety of quantitative and qualitative analytic roles in the US intelligence community, ultimately serving as Chief Data Scientist at CIA. He studied Math and Philosophy at Yale, and internati
Upskilling: practices to improve hiring, storytelling & structuring personal/leadership problems with engineering principles #208
ABOUT COLLEEN TARTOWColleen Tartow, Ph.D. is Field CTO and Head of Strategy at VAST Data and has 20+ years of experience in data, analytics, engineering, and consulting. Adept at assisting organizations in deriving value from a data-driven culture, she has successfully led diverse data, engineering, and analytics teams through the development of complex global data management solutions and archite
GTM Insights from Top DevTool companies w/ David Mytton #207
ABOUT DAVID MYTTONA dynamic approach to tech innovation, security, sustainability, and developer empowerment can be seen in everything David Mytton touches. As co-founder of Console and host of the Console DevTools Podcast, he delights in keeping developers ahead of the curve with the tools they need the most. As the founder of Server Density (acquired by StackPath), he created a product that help
Navigating Rapid Change: Skills to Cultivate Resilience, Adaptability & Creativity in Engineering Teams w/ Melody Meckfessel #206
ABOUT MELODY MECKFESSELMelody Meckfessel is the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Jasper.ai, the world’s leading AI marketing platform. In her role, Melody shapes the technical vision of the company, oversees product delivery, and spearheads AI research to develop new capabilities that accelerate business outcomes for enterprise marketers.Before joining Jasper.ai, Melody co-founded and served as C
Building Trust: Strategic humor, bridging communication gaps & enabling your team to do more #205
ABOUT ANDY KORTZAndy Kortz is currently the Chief Technology Officer at Integra Testing, where he leads technology transformation and drives operational efficiency in aggressive growth organizations. Andy also is a co-lead for the ELC Local Chapter initiative in Chicago. With over 20 years of experience in enterprise architecture and software development, Andy has consistently delivered innovative
Faster iteration & execution: Insights from Google Workspace’s AI product experience journey w/ Anurag Agarwal #204
ABOUT ANURAG AGARWALAnurag Agarwal leads the Google Workspace engineering organization, overseeing products such as Gmail, Calendar, Chat, Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Meet that help billions of users and customers across the world to connect, create, and build together.With over 18 years of experience at Google, Anurag’s expertise spans a wide range of consumer and enterprise products and tec
Winning Hearts & Minds: Effective Strategies for Leading Through Change from IC to EM, post M&A and more w/ Kathryn Vandiver #203
Kathryn Vandiver (Former VP of Engineering @ Quanata) shares insights on providing new leadership during significant organizational change. First, we dissect what transitioning from an individual contributor to engineering manager is like. Then, we discuss what it’s like stepping into an EM role informally vs. formally; how to host conversations that foster trust; tips for transforming teams from
The four modes of coaching & navigating career growth in expanding or contracting companies w/ James Birchler #202
We discuss the four modes of coaching and navigate career growth in expanding / contracting companies with James Birchler. James shares highlights from the recent coaching / mentoring workshop he facilitated, and breaks down how each mode of coaching differs tactically. We also cover the dilemma of linear career/leadership growth vs. exponential company growth, different common communication chall
Unleashing potential in your employees & strategies to grow leadership skills in your org w/ Natalie Glance #201
Natalie Glance, Chief Engineering Officer @ Duolingo joins us for a conversation on unleashing potential in your employees! We discuss practices that have helped Duolingo create a meaningful path for hiring & developing engineers through their onboarding & internship programs. We also cover topics including scaling your eng org, upskilling recent grads / new hires, balancing meaningful work with m
Building an AI-first company & interactive AI avatar leadership use-cases w/ Rong Yan #200
In this episode, we explore building an AI-first company and engineering org with Rong Yan (CTO @ HeyGen)! We dive into the potential of HeyGen’s interactive avatars, imagining how they can help engineering leaders scale their impact, foster team alignment, coach effectively, and accelerate decision-making. Rong shares insights on the structure of an AI-first company and optimizing for AI teams wi
Re-defining & elevating engineering’s strategic role with the business w/ Rajashree Pimpalkhare #199
In this episode, Rajashree Pimpalkhare (VP / Engineering leader for Unified Builder platform and experiences @ Twilio) reflects on her experiences re-defining engineering’s relationship with the business throughout her career. We cover how the role of engineering varies across industries, why it’s paramount for engineering leaders to find their seat at the business table & rethink how engineering
How engineering leaders can better drive business outcomes & increase alignment between product and engineering w/ Gokul Rajaram #198
In this episode, Gokul Rajaram illuminates how eng leaders can better impact business outcomes & become key players in business strategy! We also address strategies for better goal setting & decision making, shifting to a customer-centric structure, recommendations for building alignment between cross-functional groups, positive collaboration between product & engineering, and how to achieve great
From VPE to CTO - mission-aligned teams, prioritizing company over department outcomes & the power of a “not do” list w/ Ryan Fox #197
Ryan Fox, CTO @ Super.com, joins us to dissect his leadership transition from Vice President of Engineering to CTO. He shares how he created his own job description and – perhaps most importantly – identified & found buy-in around his “not do” list. We also cover Ryan’s favorite strategies for coaching department heads, why it’s important to focus on strategic thinking as an eng leader, tips for i
Leading change, navigating career growth & finding inspiration beyond engineering - Live from ELC Annual 2024! #196
In this episode, we’re bringing listeners into the final conversations from the pop-up podcast booth at ELC Annual 2024! Patrick sat down with a few eng leaders attending the event to discuss takeaways from ELC Annual 2024 & eng leadership insights they want to share with others in the community. He chatted with Nick Hurlburt (Executive Director of the Aselo program @ Tech Matters), Manju Abraham
Career growth in today’s market + effective partnerships between engineering & hiring partners - Live from ELC Annual 2024 #195
We’re back with another episode live from ELC Annual 2024’s podcast booth! Patrick discusses the practices and rituals around effective hiring & recruiting with a few speakers and roundtable hosts from ELC Annual 2024, including Lawrence Bruhmuller (SVP of Engineering @ Great Expectations), Eric Fettner (Co-Founder @ Job Sauce), and Scott Swedberg (CEO & Co-Founder @ Job Sauce). Scott shares insig
Selling your ideas, leveraging curiosity in tough conversations, managing emotions & psychological safety - Live from ELC Annual 2024! #194
This episode came live from ELC Annual 2024! Local ELC chapter leaders from across the globe share some of their favorite leadership principles, covering topics like how to sell your ideas & gain buy-in from senior leaders, how to manage yourself and your regulate emotions, how to leverage curiosity in tough conversations, how to build psychological safety and more! Thank you Ali Littman (VP of En
Collaboration & Innovation in the Time of AI w/ Anurag Agarwal & Lizzie Matusov #193
We’re back with another session from ELC Annual 2024! This episode features an engaging session on collaboration & innovation in the time of AI with Anurag Agarwal, VPE, Google Workspace @ Google, and Lizzie Matusov, Co-Founder & CEO @ Quotient! In this conversation, they dissect how AI is transforming not only the products engineering teams are building but also how teams work together internally
Collaborative Teams Are More Productive Teams w/ Marcel Weekes & Arquay Harris #192
One of the most important aspects of success is a team’s ability to collaborate – but it can also be one of the most challenging parts. In this episode, we’re highlighting a popular session ELC Annual 2024 on how to encourage collaboration, ultimately increasing productivity and creating more likely outcomes of success. This conversation features Marcel Weekes, VP of Product Engineering @ Figma, a
Scaling AI for an Immersive 3D Platform with 77 Million Daily Active Users w/ Anupam Singh & Maria Kazandjieva #191
We had a blast at ELC Annual 2024, so we wanted to bring our podcast listeners some of the best highlights from popular sessions! This episode features one of the ELC Annual sessions with Anupam Singh (VP of AI & Growth Engineering @ Roblox) & Maria Kazandjieva (Co-Founder @ Graft), as they discuss building AI/ML models at a massive scale. Anupam shares how Roblox – an immersive 3D platform with m
Podcast Break for ELC Annual 2024!
We’re taking a quick break from releasing episodes for a few weeks while we wrap up everything for ELC Annual. We’ll be back in late September with new guests! We have some excellent sessions at the conference - check out the agenda here: https://sfelc.com/annual2024#agendaJoin us at ELC Annual 2024!ELC Annual is our 2 day conference bringing together engineering leaders from around the world for
Connecting bugs & quality to the business bottom line w/ Dave Rhodes #190
Dave Rhodes, CEO @ Sauce Labs, joins the pod to discuss the value of great digital experiences & how/why quality issues affect companies’ bottom lines, and how to connect bugs to the business! Dave dissects strategies for addressing quality issues, examples connecting quality with the bottom line, best practices for quality testing strategies, and incorporating the philosophy of embracing the impo
Live from Config 2024! Product-building, leadership & execution lessons behind the launch of Figma’s Dev Mode w/ Marcel Weekes #189
In our latest episode, we’re coming to you live from Config 2024, Figma’s annual design conference for people who build products! This is our first time ever doing a live interview from another conference, so we are excited to share it with you. We’re joined by Marcel Weekes, VP of Engineering @ Figma. In our conversation, we dive into topics including highlights from Config 2024 & reactions to Fi
Tackling All Top 10 Engineering Leadership Challenges w/ Farhan Thawar #188
Farhan Thawar, VP & Head of Engineering @ Shopify, was our first-ever ELC pod guest, so it’s fitting that he’s here to join us for this culmination of our series tackling the Top 10 challenges that engineering leaders face in a rapid-fire, high-energy format! Farhan shares insights into individual challenges, including motivating others after a reorg or period of uncertainty, why always being will
Strategic Thinking, Org Design & Aligning Engineering & Business Goals - Tackling the Top 10 Eng Leadership Challenges! #187
In Part 3 of the Top 10 Challenges series, we’re addressing the biggest org-level challenges that eng leaders face. We’ve compiled conversations from past podcasts and conference sessions that cover org-related topics, such as aligning engineering & business goals, team topologies & org resourcing, and thinking strategically. This episode features a slate of top eng leaders with valuable insight t
Speed v. Quality, Measuring Productivity & Cross-Functional Relationships - Tackling the Top 10 Eng Leadership Challenges! #186
This is Part 2 of our Top 10 Challenges series! In this episode, we’re focusing on three common team challenges that eng leaders face: how to increase velocity without losing quality, measure productivity & create meaningful metrics, and work cross-functionally with other teams. We identified these challenges based on conversations with hundreds of eng leaders from podcast episodes, ELC events, an
Coaching, Influencing, Motivating & Managing Up - Tackling the Top 10 Engineering Leadership Challenges! #185
In today’s episode, we’re kicking off a four-part series on the Top 10 challenges eng leaders face based on feedback from hundreds of eng leaders. In Part 1 of this mini-series, we’re tackling the first four issues: developing & coaching team members, strategies for motivating & inspiring others, influencing / creating organizational buy-in, and managing up & sideways. This episode compiles some o
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