Cillers Developer Experience

Meet Jose Plans, Former Engineering Director at Citrix Jose Plans is a former Engineering Director at Citrix, where he spearheaded the transition to cloud-based solutions, achieving exceptional system reliability and enhanced security. At Citrix, he managed a large team of 50, focusing on streamlining operations and boosting system performance. Currently, he is on a career break, deepening his ski...

Meet Varun Shrivastava, Senior Software Engineer at AWS Varun Shrivastava is a seasoned Full Stack Developer at AWS, specializing in the development of scalable enterprise software for the finance and retail sectors. His passion for continuous learning and development is matched only by his belief in the transformative power of collaboration. Working alongside like-minded tech enthusiasts to advan...

Meet Arhaan Saksena, Head of Customer Engineering, Google Cloud Arhaan Saksena is a technology leader specializing in cloud solutions and customer success. As Head of Customer Engineering for Google Cloud, he focuses on acquiring new enterprise customers and maximizing their value through innovative solutions. With over 15 years of pre-sales experience, Arhaan excels at building trusted relationsh...

Meet Bernd Drothen, Pre-Sales Expert, former Vice President of Solution Engineering at Salesforce (Austria and Germany) My guest today spent nearly two decades at Salesforce, most recently as Vice President of Solution Engineering for Germany and Austria. He played a key role in growing Salesforce's presence in these countries from the very early days. Now, he's excited to share his expertise with...

Meet Bassem Dghaidi, Senior Software Engineer at Github Bassem is a Senior Software Engineer at GitHub. He has led major projects in the Netherlands, USA, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and his native Lebanon. He was a founding member of SE Factory, Lebanon's top coding bootcamp that's been featured in The Guardian, TechCrunch, and Forbes. Additionally, he is a very active content creator, sharing his tec...

Meet Zohaib Hassan Shaikh, Founding Member & Head of Engineering, Krave Mart Zohaib Hassan Shaikh is the Head of Engineering at Krave Mart, a leading startup revolutionizing the grocery delivery industry in Pakistan. With a background in scalable systems and a passion for using cutting-edge technology to solve real-world problems, Zohaib has spearheaded multiple projects involving AI, ML, and...

Meet Kristofer Vernmark, PhD, MSc, Linköping University. Kristofer is a well-known researcher at Linköping University and co-author of the groundbreaking book "Dream! Hack! Build!". He is also the creator of the Build for Earth program. In collaboration with the Hack for Earth foundation, Kristofer has worked with diverse and innovative teams from around the globe, united in their mission to devel...

Abhinav Mehta, Director Software Engineering, Photon Photon, a global leader in AI and digital solutions, helps clients accelerate AI adoption and embrace DigitalHyper-expansion® to make tomorrow happen today. Working with 40% of the Fortune 100, Photon enables them to remain agile and future-ready in an era of converging digital and AI boundaries. Powering billions of touchpoints daily, Photon co...

Meet Jesse Ralston, NetSec CTO, Palo Alto Networks Jesse joined Palo Alto Networks in 2008 as a Software Engineer in the Platform team. Since then, he has held various leadership roles managing PAN-OS and Cloud Delivery Security Services Engineering and Product teams. He is currently the NetSec CTO, focusing on forward-looking technologies including new security offerings, AI security, and the use...

Meet Satej Mirpagar, Senior Technical Program Manager, Atlassian Satej is a Senior Technical Program Manager at Atlassian with over 20 years of experience optimizing performance across various tech stacks. His journey has taken him through some of the largest banks and security companies. Currently, he is working on enhancing the performance of Jira Cloud, used by 83% of Fortune 500 companies. Rem...

Meet Erik J. Kudler, Senior Software Engineer, AWS, BBC etc Eric is an experienced Software Engineer who has developed web apps for software and broadcast companies, such as Amazon and the BBC. At Amazon, he worked on AWS Jam, a platform for teaching engineers how to use Amazon Web Services in a gamified, hackathon-style environment. In this episode, we talked about AWS Jam and the Unhackathon con...

Meet Bob Sira Sira, Software Engineer, Microsoft Bob Sira Sira is part of the Cloud + AI team, focusing on the Windows Containers Operating System.  In this episode we dive into the fascinating worlds of hackathons and competitive programming, exploring their similarities and distinct differences. In this episode Bob shares insights on how experience from coding competitions can provide invaluable...

Meet Zack Akil, Senior Machine Learning Engineer & Developer Advocate, Google Zack Akil is a senior machine learning engineer & developer advocate at Google specializing in practical AI. He spends most of his time building experimental Machine Learning applications - often inspired by his many random hobbies - that help and inspire other developers to build with ML in unique and better way...

Meet Ran Ribenzaft, Co-Founder and CTO at Epsagon Ran is the co-founder and CTO of Epsagon, an innovative company that was acquired by Cisco for $500 million. Recognized by Forbes 30 Under 30 and an AWS Serverless Hero, Ran is a passionate developer, influential leader, and dedicated mentor to early-stage founders. He provides actionable advice for starting a business through his podcast, drawing...

Meet Jacky Teng, CEO, Smart G Tech Jacky is an award-winning technologist and entrepreneur with a diverse background in AI, VR, and mobile development. As one of the top 100 developers in Southeast Asia, Jacky’s journey started with a deep interest in technology during childhood, which led him to his current role at Smart G Tech , where he leads innovative projects in cancer research AI, CRM solut...

Meet Sethu Pavan, Software Engineer at Microsoft. Sethu develops and maintains high-performance, scalable systems that serve tens of millions of end users. In this episode, we dive into his experiences with hackathons at universities and big companies like JP Morgan. Seth has an impressive track record of winning hackathons and takes us through three specific events. He also shares his winning str...

Meet Tengiz Tutisani, Senior Director and Head of Architecture and IT Operations at Bright Horizons Bright Horizons is known worldwide for its high-quality education and childcare services. Tengiz is a veteran tech leader with over 20 years of experience driving innovation at both startups and large companies. He's skilled in software development, technology leadership, and has a strong background...

Meet Suman Debnath, Principal Developer Advocate for Machine Learning at AWS. Suman has spoken at over 100 global events and meetups across multiple countries and has directed the AWS Developer Community expansion in India. He has also served as a judge at numerous hackathons. In this podcast, we discuss the differences between open-ended hackathons and client-based hackathons. We delve into the e...

Meet Ricardo Sueiras, Principal Developer Advocate at AWS. Ricardo assists developers in exploring innovative methods to construct software. He develops code and workshops that showcase how generative AI coding assistants, like Amazon Q Developer, can help developers work more efficiently, experiment with new ideas, and maintain focus. He also disseminates his work and insights through his blog, G...

Meet Sushant Hiray, Senior Director of Machine Learning at RingCentral RingCentral is a three-billion-dollar company offering cloud-based solutions for businesses, including video conferencing, voice calls, SMS, and other communication services. In this episode, we discuss how Sushant's victory at a hackathon became the starting point for his startup, which was later acquired by RingCentral. We al...

Meet Yash Sharma, Senior Software Developer at Google NYC! At Google, he is currently building a Gen AI platform that enhances observability across all Google products. Previously, he served as the Tech Lead for Search Experiments, helping to transform search in the era of Gen AI. Additionally, he initiated a Health AI project exploring AI's capacity to diagnose complex medical cases. He has autho...

Meet Andrei-Alexandru Tulbure, Head of AI at StockRx Andrei-Alexandru is a seasoned AI engineer and PhD student. He leads the AI team at StockRx, where he oversees projects in document processing, demand forecasting, and data analytics. His research has been presented internationally and has also led to practical AI solutions in areas like defect detection and sales analytics. In this episode, we...

Meet Matheus Guimarães, Senior Developer Advocate at AWS. Matheus boasts over 20 years of experience in the industry, ranging from developer to CTO and everything in between. He remains as enthusiastic as ever about the possibilities and the role that technology plays in bridging our present with our future. In this episode, we talked about how participating in top-tier hackathons not only broaden...

Meet Alex Astrum, Developer Relations at Google. Alex is a software architect, a hackathon enthusiast, public speaker, traveler, and musician. He has 20+ years of industry experience, including web development, software engineering, community building, management, and entrepreneurship. In this episode, we talk about what characterizes high-class hackathons and aspects of judging, mentoring, and te...

Meet Our Guest: Iida Loukkaanhuhta, CEO of Junction. Junction is the powerhouse behind world-class hackathons hosted throughout the year across the globe. Junction started in 2015 in Finland and grew to be one of the largest hackathon organizers in Europe. They host events with over a thousand participants and teams coming from all over the world to visit Finland at the darkest period of the year—...