Interviews and Resources for Engineering Managers and Leaders
Location: Berlin
Current Role: Director of Engineering
What’s your background and how did you get into management?
After a career in finance, arts, and media, I got into tech. I started out in marketing and key account management in a small SaaS company, and at age 26 co-founded my first software company and became a CEO. As part of a longer-term consulting project with our company, I started managing distributed, fast-scaling engineering teams,
Vidal: Hello, my name is Vidal Graupera and welcome to this interview on Managers Club. Today I have a special interview with my friend Akshaya, Director of Engineering at Bolt. Among other things, we are going to deep dive into context switching, task management and some of the special things he does to stand out in recruiting which you may find interesting if you don’t work at a big name company like Google or Facebook.
Location: San Francisco Bay Area
Current role: Director of Software Engineering, NationalMI
What’s your background and how did you get into management?
I have 6 years of engineering management experience and prior strong engineering background. I started my career as Consultant for British Telecom, AT &T, Stanford Health & Apple. Earlier, I built products in telecommunications, computer-aided engineering, and education domains. Now, I work in a financial services company.
I have always enjoyed solving complex technical challenges and leading initiatives.
Location: Denver CO
What’s your background and how did you get into management?
I have a technical background which includes an undergraduate and graduate degree in civil engineering and a professional engineering license in several states. Speaking in the context of my industry (e.g.: consulting engineering), I transitioned into management the traditional way. I started my career as an entry-level staff engineer, worked hard at the opportunities in front of me and built upon those experiences to earn management positions and new opportunities.
Role: Director of Product at Lola.com
Location: Greater Boston Area
What’s your background and how did you get into management?
I’m a former Army officer and had my first opportunity to manage when I was 23. I was an engineering platoon leader deployed to Iraq and was given the honor of leading 30 soldiers. Together with my platoon, we improved the quality and protection of Soldiers living facilities across Northern Iraq.
Since leaving the Army and joining tech startups,
Role: Director, Software Development at Box
Location: San Francisco Bay Area
What is your background, and how did you get into management?
My first management job was at Okta. I started as one of the first engineering hires and developed an expertise in a particular domain. I eventually became a tech lead, and then I moved into management.
People sometimes ask me, “What’s your advice? I want to get into management,” or “I’m interested in engineering management.
Current role: Director, Green & Energy Services
Location: Irvine, CA (headquarters)
What’s your background and how did you get into management?
After finishing my BS and MS in mechanical engineering, I went to work for a firm that works on large-scale energy efficiency projects. It was at this firm that I was given the opportunity to work on all aspects of these projects from the initial walk through & calculations/design,
Location: Reston, Virginia
Current Role: Director of Engineering in Nuance Communications
What’s your background and how did you get into management?
I am not just an engineer by training but one by heart! After my undergraduate degree in engineering, I started my career in Digital Image Processing / Graphics engineering and in a couple of years transitioned into Software engineering. I spent over a decade designing and developing software products and solutions for a wide range of business domains including Telecommunication,
Location: SF Bay Area
Current Role: Managing Director, Zetta Venture Partners (aka I’m a VC now)
What’s your background and how did you get into management?
Started my career as a software engineer, worked for a variety of startups, and stumbled into management early in my career. My first job out of college was with a startup; the team was growing quickly and we had very few seasoned managers. I was prone to organizing things around me and taking point on group projects,
Location: San Francisco
Current Role: Director of Engineering at PlanGrid
What’s your background and how did you get into management?
I grew up in Germany and moved to the Bay Area 4.5 years ago to join a small startup. I gathered a fair amount of technical and project leadership experience in my first two jobs, but I didn’t get into people management until I joined PlanGrid at the end of 2015.
