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AI DevSummit 2025 + DeveloperWeek Leadership 2025
Type: DeveloperWeek Leadership clear filter
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Thursday, June 5
 

9:30am PDT

[Virtual Exclusive] OPEN Session: Your Brain is Buggy: How Understanding Cognitive Biases Can Make You a Better Engineering Leader
Thursday June 5, 2025 9:30am - 9:55am PDT
Limor Mekaiten, Titan, Software engineering team leader

As engineering managers, we constantly debug systems and optimize processes—but what about the cognitive "bugs" in our own minds? This talk explores common cognitive biases, how they subtly influence our perceptions and decisions, and why understanding them is critical to better leadership.

You'll gain actionable strategies to uncover these mental shortcuts, manage team dynamics with fairness, and build a culture of empathy and clarity. By acknowledging and mitigating cognitive biases, we can improve team performance, strengthen trust, and inspire the humans behind the code.
Speakers
avatar for Limor Mekaiten

Limor Mekaiten

Software engineering team leader, Titan
Limor is a Software engineering team leader at Titan. Prior to her current role, she worked at different-sized startups with different cultures as both a software developer and a manager. She volunteers in Baot, the largest community for Senior female engineers in Israel in a program... Read More →
Thursday June 5, 2025 9:30am - 9:55am PDT
VIRTUAL DeveloperWeek Leadership Expo Stage

9:30am PDT

[Virtual] OPEN Session: Interpersonal Dynamics: The foundation of Team Excellence
Thursday June 5, 2025 9:30am - 9:55am PDT
Sudha Viswanathan, ByteDance, Data Architect

Effective team connection, communication, and collaboration across all levels stems from strong interpersonal dynamics. This is a fundamental element of achieving exceptional team performance. Just as with any art, interpersonal skills are cultivated through learning, practice, and refinement. A team mastering both technical expertise and these vital interpersonal skills gains a significant competitive advantage, becoming a truly formidable force. This talk explores common interpersonal challenges encountered in the workplace and provides attendees with a valuable mind map, a practical tool for navigating and resolving these challenges. 
Speakers
avatar for Sudha Viswanathan

Sudha Viswanathan

Data Architect, ByteDance
Sudha Viswanathan brings two decades of experience as a seasoned technical leader, having worked at industry-leading companies such as Tiktok, Netflix, Wayfair, Walmart, JP Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, IBM, and Cognizant. Specializing in large-scale data processing, analytics, and... Read More →
Thursday June 5, 2025 9:30am - 9:55am PDT
VIRTUAL DeveloperWeek Leadership Main Stage

10:00am PDT

[Virtual Exclusive] OPEN Session: Empowering Engineers: Key Product Management Skills for Enhanced Developer Efficiency
Thursday June 5, 2025 10:00am - 10:25am PDT
Sangeetha Rajkumar, Microsoft, Senior TPM

In today's dynamic tech landscape, bridging the gap between product management and engineering is crucial for driving successful projects and maximizing developer productivity. This session will explore the key skills that product managers (PMs) need to foster effective collaboration with engineering teams, streamline workflows, and enhance overall productivity. 
Speakers
avatar for Sangeetha Rajkumar

Sangeetha Rajkumar

Senior TPM, Microsoft
Sangeetha is a seasoned technologist and product manager with over 9+ years of software product development experience, adept at working with cross-functional teams in dynamic environments. She holds a Master's Degree in Engineering Management with a specialization in Product Management... Read More →
Thursday June 5, 2025 10:00am - 10:25am PDT
VIRTUAL DeveloperWeek Leadership Expo Stage

10:30am PDT

[Virtual] OPEN Session: Staying in Your Lane: Incident Response for Leaders
Thursday June 5, 2025 10:30am - 10:55am PDT
Kat Gaines, PagerDuty, Senior Manager, Developer Advocacy and Community

During incident response, every second counts. As a leader, you’re expected to have all the answers, and that pressure can make it very tempting to play the hero and take control of the response process. While “I’ll just do it myself” may seem faster on occasion, this instinct can hinder your team’s effectiveness and actually slow down resolution.

We’ll explore how you can evolve from a command-and-control manager into a genuinely empowering leader. You’ll learn how to maintain composure under pressure while creating space for your team to shine. We’ll cover essential frameworks, usable by new managers and individual contributors building incident response processes from scratch as well as experienced leaders looking to level up their approach.

Key takeaways will include:
How to recognize when you may be over-managing during an incident…and how to empower your team to help you recognize these moments.
Building team confidence and ownership in crisis situations
Clear guidelines for when to step in versus step back
Establishing and maintaining clear communication channels
Whether you’re establishing your first incident response playbook, fine-tuning an existing process, or managing up to help your leaders help you do your best work, you’ll leave equipped to help your team handle incidents more effectively - and help you sleep better at night knowing they’ve got this.
Speakers
avatar for Kat Gaines

Kat Gaines

Senior Manager, Developer Advocacy and Community, PagerDuty
Kat leads the Developer Advocacy and Community team at PagerDuty. She enjoys talking and thinking about incident response, customer support, and automating the creation of a delightful end-user and employee experience. She previously ran Global Customer Support at PagerDuty, and as... Read More →
Thursday June 5, 2025 10:30am - 10:55am PDT
VIRTUAL DeveloperWeek Leadership Expo Stage

10:30am PDT

[Virtual] PRO Session: So You Want to Hire for Platform Engineering?
Thursday June 5, 2025 10:30am - 10:55am PDT
Hazel Weakly, Nivenly Foundation, Fellow

I see you want to hire a developer to work on platform engineering, internal developer tooling, developer experience, and the overall generally intangible but admirable goal of "making life better for devs". That’s awesome; you've got one hell of a challenge ahead of you. This role is extremely difficult to hire for. In my opinion, and in my experience, it’s been the most difficult role in the company outside of senior leadership, and the most likely to fail; if there ever was a role that burns people out, it’s this one.

Come with Hazel as we draw on her experiences building platform teams and organizations in order to talk about making this platform engineering thing a reality. In doing so, we'll end up discussing topics such as

- The hiring pipeline and interview loop
- Timing, politics, and the meta strategies
- Getting to zero from negative
- Avoiding pitfalls
 
Speakers
avatar for Hazel Weakly

Hazel Weakly

Fellow, Nivenly Foundation
Hazel spends her days working on building out teams of humans as well as the infrastructure, systems, and tooling to make life better for others. She’s worked at a variety of companies and knows that the hardest problems to solve are the social ones. One of her favorite things is... Read More →
Thursday June 5, 2025 10:30am - 10:55am PDT
VIRTUAL DeveloperWeek Leadership Main Stage

11:00am PDT

[Virtual Exclusive] PRO Session: Designing Architecture Flow
Thursday June 5, 2025 11:00am - 11:25am PDT
Ivan Padabed, PandaDoc, Director of Platform Architecture

In this session, we’ll explore the essential role of the architect as an accountable decision-maker and how they can optimize their workflow to ensure the right decisions are made at the right time. We’ll discuss why relying solely on an architect’s mental capacity is a bottleneck, how decision-making infrastructure tailored to organizational specifics enables speed and quality, and what best practices can help architects scale their effectiveness in high-growth environments.

Drawing from years of experience building and refining architectural decision-making pipelines in fast-paced, high-tech organizations, the speaker will share practical insights on:
• Structuring decision flows to ensure the right information is available at the right moment.
• Creating a collaborative environment where architectural decisions are well-informed and transparent.
• Designing a decision-making infrastructure that fosters consistency, speed, and quality.
• Avoiding common pitfalls that lead to decision paralysis, misalignment, and bottlenecks.

This session is for architects, engineering leaders, and decision-makers looking to improve architectural effectiveness and scale decision-making without sacrificing quality or agility. Join us to rethink how architecture flows in your organization.
Speakers
avatar for Ivan Padabed

Ivan Padabed

Director of Platform Architecture, PandaDoc
Over 20 years in IT, doing business, product, service, and organization re-engineering to scale. Came to DDD as a core practice through systems thinking. An advocate of the evolutional approach.Enterprise Architecture practitioner, Solution Architecture methodologist, and Systems... Read More →
Thursday June 5, 2025 11:00am - 11:25am PDT
VIRTUAL DeveloperWeek Leadership Main Stage

11:00am PDT

[Virtual] PRO Session: Dev Productivity Will Dip Before It Soars. The Pains and Gains of GenAI in Software Development
Thursday June 5, 2025 11:00am - 11:25am PDT
Ben Lloyd Pearson, LinearB, Director, DevEx Strategy

GenAI is revolutionizing software development, offering new ways to automate repetitive tasks and improve collaboration. But with these opportunities come challenges: how do you integrate AI into your workflow without disrupting creativity or team dynamics? How do you avoid over-reliance on automation while maintaining quality and efficiency? In this session, explore practical approaches to using AI for tasks like code reviews, testing, and daily development, while overcoming the productivity dips and adoption hurdles that GenAI brings in 2025. Whether you’re optimizing your own workflow or contributing to team success, you’ll leave with actionable strategies to thrive in the evolving developer landscape. 
Speakers
avatar for Ben Lloyd Pearson

Ben Lloyd Pearson

Director, DevEx Strategy, LinearB
Ben hosts Dev Interrupted, a podcast and newsletter for engineering leaders, and is Director of DevEx Strategy at LinearB. Ben has spent the last decade working in platform engineering and developer advocacy to help teams improve workflows, foster internal and external communities... Read More →
Thursday June 5, 2025 11:00am - 11:25am PDT
VIRTUAL AI DevSummit Main Stage

11:30am PDT

[Virtual Exclusive] OPEN Session: FORTRAN’s AI Playbook: Leadership Lessons from History
Thursday June 5, 2025 11:30am - 11:55am PDT
Anjuan Simmons, GitHub, Staff Engineering Manager

Technological revolutions have reshaped software engineering throughout history, and today's AI wave is no different. This talk draws parallels between the rise of Fortran in the mid-20th century and the current AI revolution. Using the story of Dorothy Vaughan—NASA mathematician, Fortran pioneer, and a trailblazer for women in STEM—as a guiding narrative, we’ll uncover leadership lessons for modern software engineering leaders.

Dorothy Vaughan’s ability to foresee technological shifts, adapt to change, and lead inclusive, future-ready teams offers a timeless blueprint for today’s AI-driven transformation. This talk will examine Vaughan's strategic foresight, proactive learning, and team empowerment, and connect them to actionable steps leaders can take to prepare their teams for AI’s impact. We'll also discuss the challenges and opportunities AI presents for workforce dynamics, upskilling, and ethical decision-making, helping attendees predict and shape what’s coming next in software engineering.
Speakers
avatar for Anjuan Simmons

Anjuan Simmons

Staff Engineering Manager, GitHub
Anjuan Simmons is a technologist with a successful track record of delivering technology solutions from the user interface to the database. He is an energetic and informative speaker who presents at conferences, seminars, schools, and community centers around the world on topics including... Read More →
Thursday June 5, 2025 11:30am - 11:55am PDT
VIRTUAL DeveloperWeek Leadership Expo Stage

11:30am PDT

[Virtual] OPEN Session: Beyond Code: How to Take the Next Career Step?
Thursday June 5, 2025 11:30am - 11:55am PDT
Alexander Arians, AXA, Chapter Lead

While we developers have learnt over the course of our careers how to tackle new technical challenges and frameworks, many of us struggle with our personal career development. Once we have reached senior status, there is a lack of clear requirements and expectations of us. Without the classic career ladder as in other professions, we are challenged to take our development into our own hands.

In this presentation, we will explore together the essential skills we need to advance our careers. The focus will be on practical approaches with concrete recommendations on how we can optimally position ourselves through a strategic approach, soft skills and our technical abilities.
We will also explore together how we can best utilise our leadership skills. I will share my experience as a developer and as a manager with you.

Let's find out together how we can advance our careers in a self-determined way!

learning objectives:
-Career development: strategies for professional development
-Advanced skills: Insights into communication, leadership and business acumen
-Networking: Building and utilising professional networks
-Mentoring: Benefits of mentoring and finding mentors
-Influence and impact: Scaling influence without authority and impact
-Continuous improvement: Lifelong learning for competitiveness
Speakers
avatar for Alexander Arians

Alexander Arians

Chapter Lead, AXA
With over a decade of experience in software development, I currently serve as Chapter Lead at AXA, leading a team of 25 software developers across four cross-functional teams. I oversee IT operations for the entire health insurance landscape, driving efficiency improvements through... Read More →
Thursday June 5, 2025 11:30am - 11:55am PDT
VIRTUAL DeveloperWeek Leadership Main Stage

11:30am PDT

[Virtual] PRO Session: Leading Engineering Teams in the Age of AI
Thursday June 5, 2025 11:30am - 11:55am PDT
Rajni Sharma, Paylocity, Tech Leader

How leaders can rethink software development and engineering workflows with AI-driven automation.
Speakers
avatar for Rajni Sharma

Rajni Sharma

Tech leader, Paylocity
Rajni is a seasoned tech leader with 20 years of experience building innovative products at companies ranging from startups to global tech giants like Apple,Amazon, eBay, Rubrik and Microsoft. A member of the Forbes Technology Council, she is a passionate advocate for diversity in... Read More →
Thursday June 5, 2025 11:30am - 11:55am PDT
VIRTUAL DeveloperWeek Leadership Main Stage

1:00pm PDT

[Virtual Exclusive] PRO Session: Building a Future-Proof Tech Stack: Balancing Innovation and Stability
Thursday June 5, 2025 1:00pm - 1:25pm PDT
Gaganjot Kaur Kang, Sony Interactive Entertainment, Staff Software Engineer 

This session will explore strategies for creating a technology stack that balances the need for innovation with the importance of stability. Attendees will learn how to evaluate emerging technologies, assess their long-term viability, and integrate them without compromising system reliability. Key considerations will include adopting flexible architectures, managing technical debt, ensuring scalability, and selecting tools that can evolve with changing business requirements. The session will offer practical insights on how to make informed decisions that keep teams agile while preparing for future challenges. 
Speakers
avatar for Gaganjot Kaur Kang

Gaganjot Kaur Kang

Staff Software Engineer, Sony Interactive Entertainment (PlayStation)
Gaganjot Kaur Kang is a Staff Software Engineer within Sony PlayStation’s Intelligence Platform and Personalization team. With over ten years of experience in the technology industry and six-plus years at Sony's gaming division, Gaganjot has been committed to designing and developing... Read More →
Thursday June 5, 2025 1:00pm - 1:25pm PDT
VIRTUAL DeveloperWeek Leadership Main Stage

1:00pm PDT

[Virtual] OPEN Session: Operationalizing Production-Ready AI Agents for Data Analytics Workflows
Thursday June 5, 2025 1:00pm - 1:25pm PDT
David Kucher, Numbers Station, Principal Engineer

The rise of AI agents is driving a growing push to automate repetitive tasks. Recent breakthroughs like Devin and Cursor highlight AI’s impact on software development—now, it’s transforming data analytics. Using a multi-agent system, Numbers Station (numbersstation.ai) has emerged to automate the end-to-end analytics workflow—from pulling insights, generating dashboards, and taking action using your native tools.

This talk explores Numbers Station’s composable AI agents, including a step-by-step guide to building a SQL Agent using retrieval-augmented generation and error correction. We’ll then discuss how our agents—handling search, diagnostics, charting, and reporting—are orchestrated together to automate analytics requests.

We’ll cover challenges like message routing and long-context management in multi-agent systems. Finally, we’ll showcase real-world applications, demonstrating how these AI agents enhance decision-making and eliminate inefficiencies in enterprise data workflows.
 
Speakers
avatar for David Kucher,

David Kucher,

Principal Engineer, Numbers Station
David Kucher is a Principal Engineer at Numbers Station, where he brings machine learning and AI to automate and improve data tasks. He previously worked on computer vision and ML systems at SambaNova Systems. David holds Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Electrical and Computer... Read More →
Thursday June 5, 2025 1:00pm - 1:25pm PDT
VIRTUAL AI DevSummit Expo Stage

1:30pm PDT

CANCELLED -- [Virtual] PRO Session: Cracking the Engineering Leadership Code: How to Transition from Intern to Senior Engineer
Thursday June 5, 2025 1:30pm - 1:55pm PDT
Manasa Hari, Adobe, SDE III

The leap from individual contributor (IC) to engineering manager is one of the most challenging transitions in a technical career. This session explores the skills, mindset shifts, and strategies needed to become an effective engineering leader.

Key Takeaways:

How to develop leadership skills while still being hands-on technically.

Common pitfalls when moving from IC to manager and how to avoid them.

Strategies for managing former peers and establishing credibility.

Balancing technical excellence with people management responsibilities.
Speakers
avatar for Manasa Hari

Manasa Hari

SDE III, Adobe
Manasa Hari is a Software Development Engineer III (SDE III) with 12 years of experience in designing and scaling cloud-native systems. Currently at Adobe, she has also held key roles at Splunk, Selector AI, Taulia, and RingCentral. Known for her expertise in Kubernetes, event-driven... Read More →
Thursday June 5, 2025 1:30pm - 1:55pm PDT
VIRTUAL DeveloperWeek Leadership Main Stage
 

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