The Engineering Leadership Podcast

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 for varying levels of customer AI readiness. Vineeta also discusses the shift to test “does it match intent”, using “jobs to be done” to drive solving entire workflows not just tool capabilities, and designing user experiences for both human personas and AI agents.
 
ABOUT VINEETA PURANIK
Vineeta Puranik serves as Chief Product and Technology Officer (CPTO) at SmartBear, where she leads the company’s global technology and product strategy to empower developers and enterprises worldwide. A seasoned technology executive with over two decades of experience, she combines strategic vision with hands-on leadership to drive innovation, growth, and operational excellence.
At SmartBear, Vineeta oversees development, cloud engineers, AI, and architecture, and has been instrumental in scaling centers of excellence in India and Poland, launching the Developer Academy, and advancing the company’s hub-based product strategy – Swagger suite for API capabilities, Test Hub, and Insight Hub. Recognized for her collaborative, people first leadership and commitment to inclusion, she was named a 2024 Women Worth Watching in STEM by Profiles in Diversity Journal.
 
This episode is brought to you by Retool!
What happens when your team can't keep up with internal tool requests? Teams start building their own, Shadow IT spreads across the org, and six months later you're untangling the mess…
Retool gives teams a better way: governed, secure, and no cleanup required.
Retool is the leading enterprise AppGen platform, powering how the world's most innovative companies build the tools that run their business. Over 10,000 organizations including Amazon, Stripe, Adobe, Brex, and Orangetheory Fitness use the platform to safely harness AI and their enterprise data to create governed, production-ready apps.
Learn more at Retool.com/elc
 
SHOW NOTES:
SmartBear’s evolution from individual tools to a connected ecosystem (3:34)
The cultural shift toward vendor consolidation and avoiding context switching (5:39)
Why "Jobs-to-be-Done" must drive the workflow, not just the tool capabilities (9:35)
The shift in testing: Moving from "does it crash?" to "does it match intent?" in an AI world (14:26)
The architectural difference between "AI Bolt-On" and "AI Native" products (20:44)
The levels of autonomy: A framework for moving from manual control to autonomous testing (24:10)
Designing for different customer personas: Addressing security, policy, and AI readiness (30:01)
Rapid Fire Questions (32:50)
 
LINKS AND RESOURCES
 
Books Mentioned
Own the Room: Discover Your Signature Voice to Master Your Leadership Presence by Amy Jen Su and Muriel Maignan Wilkins.
The Leader You Want to Be: Five Essential Principles for Bringing Out Your Best Self--Every Day by Amy Jen Su.
SmartBear Tools & Products
SmartBear
[**Reflect**](https://reflect.run/?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=smartbear.com&utm_campaign=prodnav&_gl=1*4gpwr4*_gcl_au*MTAzOTk0MjM2LjE3Njk0NjU4NTA.) – Mentioned as their "AI Native" product for autonomous testing.
Zephyr Scale – Mentioned regarding the Atlassian ecosystem integration.
[**QMetry**](https://www.qmetry.com/?_gl=1*1d5sv56*_gcl_au*MTAzOTk0MjM2LjE3Njk0NjU4NTA.) – Recently acquired test management product.
[**Swagger**](https://swagger.io/product/?_gl=1*gtu348*_gcl_au*MTAzOTk0MjM2LjE3Njk0NjU4NTA.) – Mentioned as the suite for API design and compliance.
 
This episode wouldn’t have been possible without the help of our incredible production team:
Patrick Gallagher - Producer & Co-Host
Jerry Li - Co-Host
Noah Olberding - Associate Producer, Audio & Video Editor https://www.linkedin.com/in/noah-olberding/
Dan Overheim - Audio Engineer, Dan’s also an avid 3D printer - https://www.bnd3d.com/
Ellie Coggins Angus - Copywriter, Check out her other work at https://elliecoggins.com/about/

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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 It" (prototyping/strategy) and "Maintain It" (fleet management) phases. Tyson also details the internal tools driving this shift, including AiKA and Honk, and shares why the future of engineering relies on moving from I-shaped specialists to T-shaped generalists.
 
ABOUT TYSON SINGER
Tyson Singer is the SVP of Technology & Platforms at Spotify, where he leads technology infrastructure, developer experience, cybersecurity, and finance IT. Tyson is the executive behind Spotify’s internal developer portal, Backstage, and Spotify’s experimentation system, Confidence, which are now both commercially available. He has a background as an engineer, architect, and product lead, and he holds a Master’s in Computer Science from Stanford University. Tyson is also an avid outdoor adventurer.
 
This episode is brought to you by Retool!
What happens when your team can't keep up with internal tool requests? Teams start building their own, Shadow IT spreads across the org, and six months later you're untangling the mess…
Retool gives teams a better way: governed, secure, and no cleanup required.
Retool is the leading enterprise AppGen platform, powering how the world's most innovative companies build the tools that run their business. Over 10,000 organizations including Amazon, Stripe, Adobe, Brex, and Orangetheory Fitness use the platform to safely harness AI and their enterprise data to create governed, production-ready apps.
Learn more at Retool.com/elc
 
SHOW NOTES:
Tyson’s 9-year journey @ Spotify: From the "crucible" of hyper-growth to leading Tech & Platforms (3:46)
The pivot from "localized speed" to "systematic speed" (7:27)
Core principles of Spotify’s Platform org: Partnering with customers & "Taking the pain away" (10:37)
The "Think it, Build it, Ship it, Tweak it" lifecycle framework & why the industry obsession with "Build It" (coding agents) is missing the bigger picture (14:57)
How Spotify is investing in the "Think It" phase: AI prototyping with deep business context (16:49)
AiKA (AI Knowledge Assistant): Context engineering for humans and bots (18:47)
"Honk": Spotify’s internal framework for large-scale automated code changes (22:17)
Addressing the decline of code quality and the bottleneck of human PR reviews (25:50)
Probabilistic vs. Deterministic code reviews: A new approach to quality checks (29:43)
Identifying bottlenecks to company value outside of R&D (Legal, Licensing, etc.) (32:12)
Why systems change is fundamentally about people and identity shifts (35:57)
Rapid fire questions (38:49)
 
This episode wouldn’t have been possible without the help of our incredible production team:
Patrick Gallagher - Producer & Co-Host
Jerry Li - Co-Host
Noah Olberding - Associate Producer, Audio & Video Editor https://www.linkedin.com/in/noah-olberding/
Dan Overheim - Audio Engineer, Dan’s also an avid 3D printer - https://www.bnd3d.com/
Ellie Coggins Angus - Copywriter, Check out her other work at https://elliecoggins.com/about/

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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 operational playbook, sharing lessons on everything from “best failure awards” and async collaboration structures to structuring ideation periods for maximum business alignment. Beyond the logistics, we explore how getting hands-on helped these leaders overcome imposter syndrome and why "rolling up your sleeves" is now a prerequisite for leading effective engineering teams. Plus, James shares how he plans to evolve the hackathon format at ELC and beyond. If you’ve been curious about leveraging hackathons to drive innovation, expose your team to new tools, or evolve how your org builds, this episode provides the blueprint for successful implementation.
 
ABOUT JAMES TYACK
James Tyack leads the Learner Success and Visual Experience teams at Coursera, creating engaging and personalized learning experiences for millions of learners worldwide. An avid user of Coursera and a lifelong learner himself, James is passionate about leveraging technology, including AI, to transform lives through education. Prior to Coursera, he led integration and growth teams at PagerDuty, driving innovation and adoption of incident response tools and best practices.
Beyond his professional work, James is the chapter lead for the South Bay Engineering Leadership Community (ELC) group, fostering collaboration among tech leaders. He is also a proud dad to a one-year-old, balancing his career and personal life with a deep commitment to growth and connection.
 
This episode is brought to you by Span!
Span is the AI-native developer intelligence platform bringing clarity to engineering organizations with a holistic, human-centered approach to developer productivity.
If you want a complete picture of your engineering impact and health, drive high performance, and make smarter business decisions…
Go to Span.app to learn more!
 
SHOW NOTES:
The results of ELC’s first-ever hackathon: 14 leaders shipping fully functional apps (2:21)
The “Scrappy” beginning: Extending the invitation and early community engagement (4:50)
The most surprising insights: Problem solving for “life outside of work” and micromanaging AI agents (5:42)
Navigating the shifting boundaries between product, engineering, and management roles (8:43)
James’ personal journey: Building 5 apps in 5 hours to stay relevant and relatable (10:05)
Deconstructing the Hackathon structure: The “Take-Home Assignment” approach (16:16)
The Hall of Fame: Creating artifacts to recognize contribution (18:00)
Iterating on the format: Pivots made for the next hackathon iteration at Coursera (18:47)
The importance of a 2-week ideation period for alignment (20:59)
A recap of the playbook: Seeding ideas, easy tooling, and safe deployment (22:15)
The future of hackathons: Cross-functional participation beyond engineering (26:46)
Rapid Fire Questions (28:15)
 
This episode wouldn’t have been possible without the help of our incredible production team:
Patrick Gallagher - Producer & Co-Host
Jerry Li - Co-Host
Noah Olberding - Associate Producer, Audio & Video Editor https://www.linkedin.com/in/noah-olberding/
Dan Overheim - Audio Engineer, Dan’s also an avid 3D printer - https://www.bnd3d.com/
Ellie Coggins Angus - Copywriter, Check out her other work at https://elliecoggins.com/about/

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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 industry shift since. Drawing on his experience scaling Google and advising world-class startups, Bill shares why the best leaders are "catastrophic thinkers," how to balance servant leadership with the need for decisive action, and why AI is forcing every leader to return to their technical roots. Plus they cover enduring companies and real value capture in the AI era, the nuances of organizational design, the "apprentice model" for mentorship and the dangers of over-layered hierarchies that stifle speed. Bill also provides a candid look at leadership transitions, offering a tactical guide for those moving from Big Tech to early-stage startups.
 
ABOUT BILL COUGHRAN
Bill Coughran works as a founders' coach and partner at Sequoia Capital to help build spectacular technology-centric companies. Previously, Bill was Senior Vice President of Engineering at Google with oversight of Chrome, YouTube, maps, google.com, underlying infrastructure systems, and security.
ABOUT BRET RECKARD
Bret Reckard is Talent Partner at The General Partnership (TheGP), a hands-on venture firm working alongside ambitious founders in talent, engineering, go-to-market, and product. He leads TheGP’s Talent vertical, matching foundational leaders, early engineers, and key specialists across the portfolio. Before this role, Bret spent over a decade at Sequoia Capital leading Talent and Network, where he helped hundreds of founders at companies like Stripe, Confluent, Retool and DoorDash build their early teams.
 
This episode is brought to you by Span!
Span is the AI-native developer intelligence platform bringing clarity to engineering organizations with a holistic, human-centered approach to developer productivity.
If you want a complete picture of your engineering impact and health, drive high performance, and make smarter business decisions…
Go to Span.app to learn more!
 
SHOW NOTES:
Introduction and Bill Coughran's background at Sequoia and Google (1:36)
Hiring pitfalls and the biggest mistakes made as a leader (3:49)
Managing crises: Acting as a dictator during the 2010 Google hack (5:25)
Building for the AI world without chasing "shiny objects" (7:09)
Developing context: How to learn AI without relying on LLM summaries (9:02)
Identifying enduring companies and real value capture in the AI era (10:53)
The debate on coding assistants and the future of junior engineering talent (13:23)
Transitions: Making the leap from large organizations to early-stage startups (15:59)
Staying curious and finding excitement in the next professional challenge (18:23)
 
LINKS AND RESOURCES
Link to the video for this session
Link to all ELC Annual 2025 sessions
 
This episode wouldn’t have been possible without the help of our incredible production team:
Patrick Gallagher - Producer & Co-Host
Jerry Li - Co-Host
Noah Olberding - Associate Producer, Audio & Video Editor https://www.linkedin.com/in/noah-olberding/
Dan Overheim - Audio Engineer, Dan’s also an avid 3D printer - https://www.bnd3d.com/
Ellie Coggins Angus - Copywriter, Check out her other work at https://elliecoggins.com/about/

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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 generalists," how AI-native interns are redefining productivity, and the real-time trade-offs made during the world's largest product launches. Featuring Sulman Choudhry (Head of ChatGPT Engineering) and Samir Ahmed (Technical Lead), moderated by Lawrence Bruhmeller (Eng Management @ Sigma).
 
ABOUT SULMAN CHOUDHRY
Sulman leads ChatGPT Engineering at OpenAI, driving the development and scaling of one of the world’s most impactful AI products. He pushes the boundaries of innovation by turning cutting‑edge research into practical, accessible tools that transform how people interact with technology. Previously at Meta, Sulman founded and scaled Instagram Reels, IGTV, and Instagram Labs, and helped lead the early development of Instagram Stories.
He also brought MetaAI to Instagram and Messenger, integrating generative AI into experiences used by billions. Earlier in his career, Sulman was on the founding team that built and launched UberEATS from the ground up, helping turn it into a global food delivery platform. With a track record of marrying technical vision, product strategy, and large‑scale execution, Sulman focuses on building products that meaningfully change how people live, work, and connect.
ABOUT SAMIR AHMED
Samir is the Technical Lead for ChatGPT at OpenAI, where he currently leads the Personalization and Memory efforts to scale adaptive, useful, and human-centered product experiences to over 700 million users. He works broadly across the OpenAI stack—including mobile, web, services, systems, inference, and product research infrastructure.
Previously, Samir spent nine years at Snap, working across Ads, AR, Content, and Growth. He led some of the company’s most critical technical initiatives, including founding and scaling the machine learning platform that powered nearly all Ads, Content, and AR workloads, handling tens of billions of requests and trillions of inferences daily.
ABOUT LAWRENCE BRUHMELLER
Lawrence Bruhmuller has over 20 years of experience in engineering management, much of it as an overall head of engineering. Previous roles include CTO/VPE roles at Great Expectations, Pave, Optimizely, and WeWork. He is currently leading the core query compiler and serving teams at Sigma Computing, the industry leading business analytics company.
Lawrence is passionate about the intersection of engineering management and the growth stage of startups. He has written extensively on engineering leadership (https://lbruhmuller.medium.com/), including how to best evolve and mature engineering organizations before, during and after these growth phases. He enjoys advising and mentoring other engineering leaders in his spare time.
Lawrence holds a Bachelors and Masters in Mathematics and Engineering from Harvey Mudd College. He lives in Oakland, California, with his wife and their three daughters.
 
This episode is brought to you by Span!
Span is the AI-native developer intelligence platform bringing clarity to engineering organizations with a holistic, human-centered approach to developer productivity.
If you want a complete picture of your engineering impact and health, drive high performance, and make smarter business decisions…
Go to Span.app to learn more!
 
SHOW NOTES:
From research lab to record-breaking product: Navigating the fastest growth in history (4:03)
Unpredictable scaling: Handling growth spurts of one million users every hour (5:20)
Cross-stack collaboration: How Android, systems, and GPU engineers solve crises together (7:06)
The magic of trade-offs: Aligning the team on outcomes like service uptime vs. broad availability (7:57)
Why throwing models "over the wall" failed and how OpenAI structures virtual teams (11:17)
Lessons from OpenAI’s first intern class: Why AI-native new grads are crushing expectations (13:41)
Non-hierarchical culture: Using the "Member of Technical Staff" title to blur the lines of expertise (15:37)
AI-native engineering: When massive code generation starts breaking traditional CI/CD systems (16:21)
Asynchronous workflows: Using coding agents to reduce two-hour investigations to 15 minutes (17:35)
The mindset shift: How rapid model improvements changed how leaders audit and trust code (19:00)
Predicting success: "Vibes-based" decision making and iterative low-key research previews (20:43)
Hiring for high variance: Why unconventional backgrounds lead to high-potential engineering hires (22:09)
 
LINKS AND RESOURCES
Link to the video for this session
Link to all ELC Annual 2025 sessions
 
This episode wouldn’t have been possible without the help of our incredible production team:
Patrick Gallagher - Producer & Co-Host
Jerry Li - Co-Host
Noah Olberding - Associate Producer, Audio & Video Editor https://www.linkedin.com/in/noah-olberding/
Dan Overheim - Audio Engineer, Dan’s also an avid 3D printer - https://www.bnd3d.com/
Ellie Coggins Angus - Copywriter, Check out her other work at https://elliecoggins.com/about/

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.