The Tech Trek

What you’ll learn: Proactive vs reactive problem management Managing the multiple touchpoints involved in a service incident Balancing needs vs the squeaky wheel Meet:  Kevin Recio is an Information Technology professional with 6+ years of experience across multiple companies and industries. His IT experience includes enterprise platform implementations, management of IT service operations ro...

What you’ll learn: Work fast and iterate very quickly Try to think with a clear mind - communicate through writing over talking Shorten time to ideation Happiness of the customer as a measure of product quality Meet: David Ting, Vice President of Nylas, has over 20 years of leadership experience in mobile development, scalable architecture, cloud infrastructure, big data, and machine learning.&nbs...

What you’ll learn: Upskilling the data analyst role Medical knowledge is doubling every 73 days; pushing the technical envelope to cope with the increase Organizational maturity will drive the analytics hiring needs Meet: Nana Somuah the Director for Data Analytics at Cityblock, responsible for Data Strategy and managing a team of data analysts. My main goal within the company is to improve our me...

What you’ll learn: Deeper partnership between platform and security engineering teams Security by design Focusing on a handful of problems that really matter Meet: Aidan Anderson is a Security Engineering Manager at FloQast, where he is focused on building a best-in-class security program that delivers resilience, confidence, and trust in the solution.  Aidan has had the privilege of helping...

What you’ll learn: Delivering analytics in a hypergrowth industry Simplifying and pinpointing the direct analytic needs Meet: Martin Corso is the Director of Measurement and Analytics for Surfside, a data-driven customer acquisition platform that specializes in activating and expanding 1st party data for marketing, insights, and measurement. Martin has diverse experience utilizing digital and offl...

What you’ll learn: Team health as a good barometer for team velocity Tech debt is inevitable; keeping it at a sustainable rate Balancing team size Meet: Scott Persinger is the VP Engineering at Tatari. He previously managed alternative payments at Stripe and was Director of Platform Services at Heroku. Scott was a co-founder at Cloudconnect (acquired by Salesforce), and a co-founder at Remixation...

What you’ll learn: Reasons why you should hire a data product manager Data product manager roadmaps are typically longer Being data-informed rather than being data-driven Meet: Murali Bhogavalli has a proven track record of building data products that span the entire spectrum from raw data to self-serve analytics tools. Currently, he is a Group Product Manager at Tinder, leading, directing, and ma...

What you’ll learn: Benefits of incorporating security earlier in the process Balancing between business and security goals Avoid looking for the “unicorn” hires Meet: Eiwe Lingefors leads Director of Engineering, Cybersecurity & Platform at Teachable, an edtech company that enables independent professionals to turn experience and know-how into thriving businesses. If you have any questions for...

What you’ll learn: Leading with empathy in managing your team Making sure to allocate time to prioritize learning Meet: Nathan Wan is the Director of Machine Learning Platform at Freenome where he leads a team of researchers and engineers building a blood test to detect early-stage cancer. He believes that technology is most powerful when applied to the hardest problems we face not just as individ...

What you’ll learn: Moving from a non-traditional degree program into data and machine learning Stubbornness as a superpower (sticking to a problem is key) Improving the hiring process by understanding the limitations of using a data-driven hiring process Meet: George London is the Director of Engineering at Survata and the Co-Organizer of the San Francisco PyData Meetup Group. He has over a decade...

What you’ll learn: Looking at the number of merges to evaluate team velocity Reducing wait times during code reviews Software is getting cheaper to make and faster to deliver Meet: Ben Garvey heads up the team building the next generation of financial management software at Betterment for Advisors. Previously, he led world-class SAAS data engineering teams at RJMetrics, Magento Commerce, and Adobe...

What you’ll learn: Using stand-downs to check-in at the end of the day Clarifying expectations and establishing a clear technical ladder Doubling down on creating communication channels within the team Meet: Myles Guanzon is a servant engineering leader with a strong passion for data-driven, lean product development, Myles comes from a non-traditional engineering background. His career started in...

What you’ll learn: Focusing on predictability rather than velocity How the code base’s complexity can affect estimation Balancing the effect of technology change on the team David references the following book: Nicole Forsgren’s book: Accelerate Meet: David Kaplan is the head of engineering at Policygenius, the nation’s leading online insurance marketplace. David has been an engineering leader for...

What you’ll learn: Inversion of talent vs seniority Hiring is not all about the hard skills Focusing on employees motivations for the long term benefit to the company Meet: David Relyea received a Ph. D. in physics from Princeton in 2003. He has worked in the defense sector, ad tech, fintech, and cybersecurity, largely in the areas of machine learning and optimization. He is currently Director of...

What you’ll learn: Growing security awareness and maturity Starting with a security framework in mind Cybersecurity is an accessible field (moving past the myth) Meet: Ryan Weeks - As Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), Ryan is responsible for directing and managing Datto's Information Security program. Ryan spent 11 years securing enterprise applications, systems, and sensitive customer fi...

What you’ll learn: Challenges in moving to CI/CD What is continuous testing? The new skills required for people in testing Meet: Liliya Frye is a Technology Leader and a Manager of Quality Assurance Engineering with over 20 years of experience in IT. She is very enthusiastic about digital product quality, security, cloud computing, and leadership. She is naturally curious and loves the continuous...

What you’ll learn: Being curious, staying curious Servant leadership style Pushing for opportunities to grow Meet: I am an experienced technologist with over 10 years of experience in the Internet industry. I've worked with companies that build and distribute web applications internally within an organization as well as externally to users around the world. I've seen the industry grow and advance...

What you’ll learn: Evaluating where data science and machine learning can be applied Complimenting human decision making with algorithms Being aware of impacting existing processes Meet: George Bezerra is a strategic data executive with expertise in Machine Learning and Data Science. Currently VP of Data Science at Frontdoor, he was previously the head of data science at car insurance startup Metr...

What you’ll learn: Modernizing a legacy data infrastructure and culture Pushing people out of their comfort zone Quick wins while building the long term foundation Meet: George Bezerra is a strategic data executive with expertise in Machine Learning and Data Science. Currently VP of Data Science at Frontdoor, he was previously the head of data science at car insurance startup Metromile and spent f...

What you’ll learn: Security professionals and mental health Accepting that there are inherent limitations in security If you burn yourself out you are doing more harm to the business than you think Simulate how you would handle a security breach Meet: Ian Amit is the CSO at Cimpress. Ian is an executive manager in the security and software industry with vast experience in multiple fields - from en...

What you’ll learn: Setting up an internal MSSP (managed security service provider) Establishing a baseline of security (using the NIST Cybersecurity Framework ) Using the M&A process to get a headstart on security Meet: Ian Amit is the CSO at Cimpress. Ian is an executive manager in the security and software industry with vast experience in multiple fields - from enterprise security, through r...

What you’ll learn: Managing the complexities of the modern data platform Balancing between hiring for the right data skill Breaking out roles by areas of specialization Meet:  Peter Fishman is the co-founder and CEO of Mozart Data (YCS20), the easiest way to spin up a modern data stack.  Previously, he was the Chief Strategy Officer at Eaze, a cannabis technology platform. He has also wo...

What you’ll learn: Security shifting left Taking security from afterthought to active participant Keeping up with the pace of change in security Meet: Cassio Goldschmidt is regarded as an internationally recognized, award-winning security expert. With more than 20 years of experience, Mr. Goldschmidt has a remarkable record of industry accolades and honors. They include: Winner of the 2019 (ISC)²...

Meet: Cassio Goldschmidt is regarded as an internationally recognized, award-winning security expert. With more than 20 years of experience, Mr. Goldschmidt has a remarkable record of industry accolades and honors. They include: Winner of the 2019 (ISC)² Information Security Leadership Award for all Americas Nominee for the 2019 TEN Information Security Executive Award for North America Winner of...

Meet: Michael Remyn is a product management executive who is passionate about creating intuitive user experiences within enterprise software. As a Director of Product Management at American Express, Michael has delivered products aimed to bring user efficiency and productivity to multiple instances of Salesforce, from complex transformations such as combining instances and overhauling the user int...