The Engineering Leader is an unscripted exploration of how to build great software Engineering Teams and drive effective Digital Transformation. Hosted by Steve Westgarth; a passionate global engineering leader with an ambition to transform consumer healthcare on a multinational scale.
Each week Steve speaks with people working at the top of their game within the software engineering community. This includes Engineers, Engineering Managers, SDETS, Product Owners, Engineering Directors and people working within other roles who are passionate about building great software and driving effective digital transformation.
This is a podcast with a difference because because it contains insights from people working in some of the worlds most ambitious companies - people who understand how to develop software at scale and recognise that as a community we can be more successful if we learn from each other in order to drive our own success.
Jennifer Walton on Product Management
In this episode I'm joined by Jen Walton, a Senior Product Manager currently working at Haleon having previously worked in product focussed roles at both Boots and Microlise.We chat about the difference between project and product and the role that product management plays in driving forward digital transformation.
7/17/2022 • 47 minutes, 25 seconds
Pat Kua on Building Engineering Teams
In this episode I am joined by Pat Kua an experienced technical leader who chats to me about developing a great engineering culture. We talk about roles within the team and the importance of providing the team with strong architectural foundations using concepts such as Domain Driven Design.Pat is the creator of the levelup newletter, is ex CTO at N26 and a thought works alumnus. Pat is a published author and can regularly be found speaking at conferences or talking with technical leads.
7/10/2022 • 47 minutes
5 Ways to Drive Engineering Core Competencies
Salaries of engineers are growing exponentially, it is therefore critical for organisations to ensure that the engineers working with us have the skills that we really need. In this episode I explore my top 5 tips for how you can drive engineers skills within your organisation:Number 1: Create a Skills MatrixNumber 2: Limit the number of programming languages that the organisation makes use of.Number 3: Define clear patterns principles principles and standards that form building blocks which can be re-used within multiple applications.Number 4: Think Enterprise Wide and don’t focus on individual silos.Number 5: Make sure your engineers have the right technical leadership who can show engineers what good looks like.
7/7/2022 • 12 minutes, 25 seconds
Usman Hamid on Enterprise Architecture
Today on the Engineering Leader I’m joined by Usman Hamid – Vice President of Enterprise Architecture and Engineering at GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare – my own company which is due to become separate and become a standalone Consumer Healthcare company called Haleon later this month.In this episode we chat about the role of Enterprise Architecture in driving organisational capability and explore enterprise IT from a senior leadership perspective including the importance of the team and the art of leading through others.
7/3/2022 • 59 minutes, 5 seconds
Marcos Placona on Developer Relations
Marcos Placona is Director of Developer Relations at Sourcegraph and in this episode will chat about the importance of developer relations within modern software houses. We also explore how to build great teams and the importance of valuing engineers as skilled professionals who have the power to unlock superpowers for your organisation.
6/26/2022 • 1 hour, 11 minutes, 7 seconds
Reena Dayal on the Science of Leadership
In this episode we explore leadership through the lens of Neuroscience and Ayurveda. Reena Dayal is an executive Mentor, Team Coach and Leadership Accelerator with the Collaborators UK where she focusses on helping leaders to unleash their superpowers in order to make a real difference while refining their leadership legacy.If you've feel the need to unlock your leadership potential and accelerate your own journey towards self actualisation this episode is not to be missed!
6/18/2022 • 56 minutes, 34 seconds
Mo Shalchi on all things Javascript
Today on the Engineering Leader I’m joined by Mo Shalchi, a director of Engineering at GSK where he works as part of my team focussed on building core platform capabilities and web propositions predominantly within the MERN tech stack. In this episode we talk about all things Javascript and why it it our language of choice within our Engineering teams. We also explore some of the challenges enterprises have developing applications at scale and some of the ways we can mitigate enterprise risk through effective engineering management principles.
6/12/2022 • 41 minutes, 37 seconds
Chris Hay on Web 3.0 and the Metaverse
Today on the Engineering Leader I’m joined by Chris Hay, a distinguished Engineer at IBM IX where he focusses on exploring technology trends so that he can effectively guide teams and customers on their digital transformation journey.Chris is a futurist and spends a lot of time thinking about and evangelising about what is next for technology. In this episode we explore Web 3.0 and where the Metaverse might take us.
6/5/2022 • 48 minutes, 55 seconds
A Moment on the Metaverse with Chris Hay
In this moment Chris Hay from IBM IX evangelises about how he believes we will engage with the metaverse within the next 5-10 years.
6/1/2022 • 2 minutes, 54 seconds
Rob Whitaker on Developing Inclusive Mobile Apps
Rob is an iOS engineer working at Curva, previously having worked at Capital One. He specialises in mobile accessibility and is the author of the book Developing Inclusive Mobile Apps.In this episode we talk about all things to do with mobile accessibility. We explore tools and libraries that engineers can use to build accessible apps and chat about the reasons why organisations should care that their technology is inclusive.
5/28/2022 • 45 minutes, 26 seconds
Amar Mehan on the Role of a Solution Architect
Amar is Lead Technologist at Boots where is focusses on leading solution architecture, tech design and governance for business solutions being developed across customer platforms including Boots.com and the Boots Mobile App.In this episode we discuss the role of a Solution Architect and how individuals working in this capacity can help organisations to unlock agility. We discuss frameworks such as C4Model and explore how Boots have leveraged this to align stakeholder groups and ensure that the right level of detail is presented at the right time.Amar goes on to share some of the challenges experienced working within a legacy tech stack and outlines some of the strategies employed at Boots that have enabled the organisation to embrace modern cloud native technologies to develop performant applications at scale.
5/21/2022 • 56 minutes, 52 seconds
A Moment on C4 Architectural Design with Amar Mehan
In this moment Amar Mehan, Lead Technologist at Boots describes how the C4 Model revolutionised the Boots approach to Architectural Design.For more information about C4 check out http://c4model.com
5/19/2022 • 2 minutes, 57 seconds
7 Things Every Engineering Leader Must Do to Build an Effective Engineering Organisation
In this Episode Steve shares his thoughts on 7 Things Every Engineering Leader Must Do to Build an Effective Engineering Organisation.1. How can we align patterns, principles and standards across teams to improve maintainability and minimize disruption when individuals leave teams?2. How can we minimize team silos and develop a cross functional collaborative working relationship between disciplines?3. How can we create a culture of continuous learning?4. Right now what does our business value most? Speed? Or Quality?5. How can we recruit the very best Engineers to work within our teams?6. What technologies do we want to use within our teams and how much autonomy is each team able to have in technology selection?7. How can we create phycological safety within our teams and encourage a culture of fast failure?
5/16/2022 • 21 minutes, 52 seconds
Chris Roberts on Improving Agility
In this Episode I chat to Chris Roberts, CEO at Nimble Approach. Chris is passionate about Agile ways of working and is a strong proponent of building cross functional teams. Chris has worked as Agile Delivery Lead at Team level, as an Agile Coach leading transformations and set up an Agile Development Hub for the Home Office. He now through his own consultancy Nimble approach helps organisations with digital transformation, embracing agility and delivery value to customers.During our conversation we explore agile ways of working, the benefits and limitations of adopting an agile framework as well as the concept of design thinking to drive effective project delivery.
5/15/2022 • 34 minutes, 30 seconds
Chris Barker on the State of Mobile in 2022
This week I'm joined by Chris Barker a principal software engineer working at Jagular Landrover. Chris is also a published author having released books focussed on iOS with Swift and Swift UI.In this episode we chat about the state of mobile engineering, pros and cons of cross platform development and explore how to structure engineering teams in order to drive effective product delivery.
5/7/2022 • 1 hour, 3 minutes, 36 seconds
A Moment with Chris Barker
In this moment Chris Barker, a principal engineer at Jagular Landrover reflects on the production stability of Swift UI.
5/6/2022 • 1 minute, 56 seconds
Dario Incalza on Cyber Security
In this episode I chat to Dario Incalza, CTO for Accounton and Lawren where he manages the software and security teams that build and secure scalable platforms that digitise the ways that accountants and lawyers work.Dario is a highly technical hands-on strategist, with expertise in cybersecurity and artificial intelligence. He enjoys coaching and steering technical teams to build highly scalable, intelligent and secure systems.In this episode we explore DevSecOps and how to ensure cyber security is embraced as part of a holistic engineering strategy.
4/30/2022 • 48 minutes, 18 seconds
A Moment with Dario Incalza
Meet Dario Incalza, CTO for Accounton and Lawren. In this moment he reflects on the importance of DevSecOps being a core foundation of your engineering approach.
4/26/2022 • 1 minute, 13 seconds
Jaime Lopez on Building Great Engineering Teams
In this episode Jaime Lopez joins me to discuss how to build great engineering teams. During the conversation we explore influencing senior leadership and helping teams to understand the bigger picture in terms of what the organisation is trying to achieve and why.Jaime is a developer relations manager working at Jack Henry and Associates where his focusses on developing open banking API’s. He is also the co-host of the more than just code podcast. An accomplished software engineer and widely recognised within the community as DevWithTheHair.
4/23/2022 • 1 hour, 22 minutes, 44 seconds
A Moment with Jaime Lopez
Jaime Lopez is a developer relations manager working at Jack Henry and Associates where his focusses on developing open banking API’s. He is also the co-host of the more than just code podcast.Jaime will be joining me on the Engineering Leader this week to discuss how to build great engineering teams. In this moment Jaime reflect on the importance of truly understanding "why" a solution to a problem is needed in order to make sure that you build the right thing!
4/20/2022 • 2 minutes, 3 seconds
Tim Condon on Server Side Swift with Vapor
This week my guest is Tim Condon, a member of the Vapor core team and server side swift team lead at raywenderlich.com.In this episode we discuss all things Server Side Swift including the new concurrency features coming to Vapor with the introduction of Async Await. We also discuss whether Vapor really is production ready and what organisations can do to help engineers protect themselves from the dangers introduced by package dependencies.
4/17/2022 • 52 minutes, 55 seconds
A Moment with Tim Condon
Tim Condon is a member of the Vapor, Server Side Swift core team and in this moment he discusses some of the most recent developments in the framework as well as some of the changes that are coming to vapor in the near future.
4/11/2022 • 3 minutes, 1 second
Xavier Gouchet on Developing Performant Android Apps
In this episode Xavier Gouchet, a software engineering team lead at DataDog talks about the importance of focussing on performance right at the outset of any development project.It was also great to spend some time focussed on approaches to automated testing and we discuss the concept of mutation testing and how it can add value to your development life cycle and approach.If you would like to join The Engineering Leader on Discord follow this link
4/9/2022 • 1 hour, 13 minutes, 2 seconds
A Moment with Xavier Gouchet
In this moment Xavier Gouchet, a software engineering team lead at DataDog, shares his approach to Application performance testing and his recommendations for how leaders can help Engineers to create high quality maintainable code.
4/5/2022 • 2 minutes, 12 seconds
Rob Merrett on The Azure Cloud
Rob Merrett is Managing Director at Credera a company specialising in supporting clients to build out their cloud infrastructure. In this episode Rob talks about cloud strategy focussing on the Engineering hurdles that must be overcome in order for organisations to benefit from cloud adoption. During the conversation Rob shares insights regarding lift and shift, approaches to governance and the benefits derived by building cross functional collaborative teams.
4/2/2022 • 1 hour, 8 minutes, 52 seconds
Alex Karp on the Role of the Engineering Manager
In this episode Alex Karp, an Engineering Manager at Twitter, discusses the role of the Engineering Manager and the importance of valuing difference within Engineering teams.During the discussion we explore how we as leaders have the power to invest in our people and the benefits that this investment drives in the organisations that we work within.
3/27/2022 • 1 hour, 3 minutes, 22 seconds
A Moment with Alex Karp
In this moment Alex Karp, an Engineering Manager at Twitter discusses his views on how companies value diversity within their Engineering teams and in particular the value that companies place upon difference.
3/24/2022 • 4 minutes, 19 seconds
A Moment to Consider the Alignment of People Process and Technology
In this moment some of my guests reflect upon strategies that they have successfully applied to align people process and technology. This common theme is a consistent challenge across organisations and the alignment strategies suggested in this moment are applicable in every industry.
3/22/2022 • 5 minutes, 15 seconds
Michelle Kearns on #HealthcareTech
Michelle talks about the impact Software Engineering can have upon the Healthcare sector focussing on real world examples where technology has had a demonstrable effect on the lives of patients and consumers.
3/20/2022 • 50 minutes, 8 seconds
A Moment with Michelle Kearns
In this moment Michelle Kearns reflects on the need for us all to keep the needs of the end user front and centre of mind when developing software product.
3/16/2022 • 3 minutes, 14 seconds
Swiftly Rush on Developing for iOS
During the conversation Adam explains the importance of investing in people in order to create and build great organisations! We also explore the merits of native vs cross platform development and the benefits of making use of new functionality and features provided by Apple.
3/13/2022 • 1 hour, 8 minutes, 41 seconds
A Moment with Adam Rush
In this moment Adam discusses his recommended approach to adopting SwiftUI and in particular the importance of encouraging engineers to learn by doing.
3/9/2022 • 2 minutes, 41 seconds
Seven Days to Go
There is only seven days to go until the launch of the Engineering Leader - A brand new podcast where each week Steve is going to be talking with people working at the top of their game within the software engineering community! During this preview Steve talks more about his role as Global Head of Engineering at GSK Consumer Healthcare and also touches upon some of the topics that will be explored on the podcast in the coming weeks including new announcements from Apple and Google, evaluating both new and existing frameworks, as well as exploring topics that often cause companies challenges such as the adoption of DevSecOps, Embracing Agile principles or moving towards a build it own it model where engineers are responsible for their code from development right through to production!
3/6/2022 • 3 minutes, 3 seconds
Teaser
During the teaser Steve introduces himself and explains what this new podcast is about. Each week Steve will be speaking with people working right at the top of their professional game; people working within organisations who truly understand how to build great software product and change agents who are successfully helping their organisations to digitally transform.Steve also introduces the premise that we all write bad code. If you disagree you may as well switch off!
