Tech Teams Today

CTO Cube | Coding Got Easier. Engineering Didn't.

Every engineering leader is being told AI changed everything. But what actually changed? Josh Anderson sits down with Josh Holat, CTO of Cube, to draw a line between two things that have quietly gotten conflated: coding and engineering. The tools moved fast. The job didn't. Code review is the new bottleneck. Tests still have to pass. Your name is still on the commit, even when an LLM wrote half of it. They get into AI slop in pull requests, why "senior software engineer" became something not to put in a cover letter, how Cube interviews now that take-homes are dead, the shift to smaller teams and what's replacing agile, token budgets without theater, and the JSON test harness that lets a 20-person FP&A engineering team ship with confidence in a domain where rounding errors end careers. About Our Guest: Josh Holat is the CTO of Cube, a spreadsheet-native FP&A platform used by finance teams to plan, model, and report without leaving Excel or Google Sheets. He's been building and scaling engineering teams for over 15 years, including a prior co-founder role that ended in acquisition. At Cube, he leads engineering, architecture, and the company's AI strategy, with a particular focus on shipping reliable systems in a domain (finance) where being wrong has hard, immediate consequences. About Tech Teams Today: Tech Teams Today is a podcast by Revelo where we sit down with engineering leaders to talk about how they build, scale, and lead high-performing tech teams. Real conversations. No fluff. Subscribe and never miss an episode: - YouTube: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@revelohq⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://www.youtube.com/@revelohq] - Spotify: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://open.spotify.com/show/3ymzd0MC1YjnFy7hKzzR9x?si=51f3989aa4bc4308⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://open.spotify.com/show/3ymzd0MC1YjnFy7hKzzR9x?si=51f3989aa4bc4308] - Apple Podcasts: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/tech-teams-today/id1641545336⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/tech-teams-today/id1641545336] Connect with us: - Revelo: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.revelo.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://www.revelo.com] - Josh Anderson (Field CTO): ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuadavidanderson/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuadavidanderson/] - Revelo on LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/company/revelohq/⁠ [https://www.linkedin.com/company/revelohq/]

AVP GM Financial | Why This Engineering Leader Isn't Worried About AI

Most conversations about AI right now sound like either the world's ending or it's just beginning. Seng Lin Shee has a different read: we've been here before. In this episode, Seng Lin makes the case that multi-agent systems are essentially multi-threading with English, that good engineering principles don't expire just because the tooling changed, and that the leaders who've already seen a few cycles have most of the mental models they need for this one. We get into how he runs a team that spans interns to 30-year veterans, why he bakes learning directly into performance reviews, and how his team went from building one internal RAG tool to running a platform that helps the rest of a regulated finance company ship GenAI safely. If you've been feeling like the floor is shifting under engineering leadership, this one's a useful counterweight. Seng Lin is one of the more optimistic voices we've had on, and his optimism is grounded in something most people aren't talking about: pattern recognition. About the guest: Seng Lin Shee, PhD, leads innovation labs and generative AI work at GM Financial, where his team operates as a platform and accelerator for GenAI applications across the company. Before GM Financial, he held architecture and engineering roles spanning finance, cloud, real estate, HCM, and EV. He's been in the field long enough to have shipped his first product on Windows 2008 R2 and to have read his email in Pine, which is part of why his "we've been here before" thesis lands the way it does. About Tech Teams Today: Tech Teams Today is a podcast by Revelo where we sit down with engineering leaders to talk about how they build, scale, and lead high-performing tech teams. Real conversations. No fluff. Subscribe and never miss an episode: - YouTube: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@revelohq⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://www.youtube.com/@revelohq] - Spotify: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://open.spotify.com/show/3ymzd0MC1YjnFy7hKzzR9x?si=51f3989aa4bc4308⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://open.spotify.com/show/3ymzd0MC1YjnFy7hKzzR9x?si=51f3989aa4bc4308] - Apple Podcasts: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/tech-teams-today/id1641545336⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/tech-teams-today/id1641545336] Connect with us: - Revelo: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.revelo.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://www.revelo.com] - Josh Anderson (Field CTO): ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuadavidanderson/⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuadavidanderson/] - Revelo on LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/company/revelohq/⁠ [https://www.linkedin.com/company/revelohq/]

VP at Yahoo | Your Bench Is Your Ceiling: Leadership in the AI Era

Josh sits down with Siva Jagadeesan, VP of Product, Engineering, and Optimization at Yahoo, where he leads the monetization group behind advertising across all Yahoo properties. Siva still writes code because he loves it, but his real conviction lives in how engineering leaders should be operating right now: not as the smartest person in the room, but as the architect of conditions where the smartest answer surfaces, wherever it comes from. What you'll learn: * Why the "movie general" model of leadership stops working the moment your domain gets complex, and what actually replaces it * How to build a real bench by delegating authority instead of tasks (and why your bench is the actual ceiling on your scope) * How to engineer psychological safety into your team's process instead of trying to talk it into existence * Why combining product and engineering creates "organizational liquidity," and why that matters more than just faster decisions * How to read AI's productivity gains honestly: where it's actually moving the bottleneck, and where it isn't * Why the future two-person team isn't shrinking. It's capability expansion, and that changes how you staff * The mindset shift that separates leaders whose teams thrive in this moment from leaders whose teams freeze About the guest: Siva Jagadeesan is VP of Product, Engineering, and Yield Optimization at Yahoo, where he leads ad monetization across all Yahoo consumer properties, including Mail, News, Finance, Sports, and more. He owns the full picture: product strategy, engineering execution, and revenue optimization. A software engineer at heart who still codes today, Siva has spent 20+ years building technology for Fortune 500 companies and startups. He was a founding member of Amazon Publisher Services, helped build the ML engineering team at TubeMogul, and co-founded the engineering function at Runa, an early-stage SaaS startup using predictive modeling to personalize offers in real time. Before any of that, he spent seven-plus years at ThoughtWorks, where mentoring future engineers was the moment he realized leadership was where he wanted to build his career. His north star is non-linear scalability, the belief that aligning technology, culture, and process is how great teams multiply their impact. About Tech Teams Today: Tech Teams Today is a podcast by Revelo where we sit down with engineering leaders to talk about how they build, scale, and lead high-performing tech teams. Real conversations. No fluff. Subscribe and never miss an episode: - YouTube: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@revelohq⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://www.youtube.com/@revelohq] - Spotify: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://open.spotify.com/show/3ymzd0MC1YjnFy7hKzzR9x?si=51f3989aa4bc4308⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://open.spotify.com/show/3ymzd0MC1YjnFy7hKzzR9x?si=51f3989aa4bc4308] - Apple Podcasts: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/tech-teams-today/id1641545336⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/tech-teams-today/id1641545336] Connect with us: - Revelo: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.revelo.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://www.revelo.com] - Josh Anderson (Field CTO): ⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuadavidanderson/⁠⁠⁠ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuadavidanderson/] - Revelo on LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/company/revelohq/⁠ [https://www.linkedin.com/company/revelohq/]

VP at Zinnia | When Does AI Actually Earn Trust in a Data Org?

What does it take to scale a data science and engineering team from 5 to 20 people in a single year — while also navigating the chaos of AI adoption in a space where the data has to be perfect every single time? Dustin Tucker, VP of Data Science and Data Engineering at Zinnia, joins Tech Teams Today for a grounded, no-hype conversation on building data teams, leading through change, and the leadership mindset shift that took him years to figure out.Dustin has a contrarian take that will rattle a lot of engineers: stop bringing him solutions. Bring him the problem.What you'll learn:- How Dustin structures his data engineering team — client-facing, foundational, and an emerging analytic engineering function- Why he scaled from 5 to 20 engineers in one year and what he learned about hiring fast without sacrificing quality- The short, hard skills test approach to hiring that cuts through AI-assisted resumes and keeps the bar high- Why he refuses to bike-shed on AI tools — and how focusing on Snowflake Cortex and DBT Copilot is driving real outcomes- The ROI equation he runs on every AI project before a single token gets spent- Where AI trust actually stands in a data org where client-facing output has to be perfect- How AI has changed his day-to-day as a leader — and where documentation and follow-up have gotten a serious upgrade- The leadership framework from Situational Leadership II that he still uses to diagnose every struggling report- Why the best thing he ever did as a leader was learn to meet people where they are instead of expecting them to meet him- His advice to aspiring leaders: there is no template, it takes time, and that's okayAbout the guest:Dustin Tucker is VP of Data Science and Data Engineering at Zinnia, a technology company transforming the life insurance and annuities space through data, automation, and AI. With nearly 20 years of experience across Fortune 500 companies, including Lowe's and Disney, Dustin has spent his career building data teams before the field even had a name — and leading them through every technology shift since. About Tech Teams Today: Tech Teams Today is a podcast by Revelo where we sit down with engineering leaders to talk about how they build, scale, and lead high-performing tech teams. Real conversations. No fluff. Subscribe and never miss an episode: - YouTube: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@revelohq⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://www.youtube.com/@revelohq] - Spotify: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://open.spotify.com/show/3ymzd0MC1YjnFy7hKzzR9x?si=51f3989aa4bc4308⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://open.spotify.com/show/3ymzd0MC1YjnFy7hKzzR9x?si=51f3989aa4bc4308] - Apple Podcasts: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/tech-teams-today/id1641545336⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/tech-teams-today/id1641545336] Connect with us: - Revelo: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.revelo.com⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://www.revelo.com] - Josh Anderson (Field CTO): ⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuadavidanderson/⁠⁠ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuadavidanderson/] - Revelo on LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/company/revelohq/⁠ [https://www.linkedin.com/company/revelohq/]

CTO/COO @ KOHO | When Your Developers 10x, You Hire More — Not Fewer

Jonathan Klein is the CTO and COO at KOHO, a Canadian fintech company, which means shipping AI slop into production is simply not an option. He's also someone who grew an engineering org from 20 to 600 people at Wayfair, then deliberately chose to go smaller again to get back closer to the work. Jonathan has a take on token capping that he's happy to defend. What you'll learn: * Why KOHO moved to a full-stack model and how Figma Code Connect is changing what front-end development even means * How AI is shrinking the atomic unit of a team from six devs to four — and where those people are going * Why judgment and architectural taste are now the scarcest skills on any engineering team, now that code itself is cheap to produce * The "swarm of code reviewers": specialized AI agents reviewing security, maintainability, and architecture separately before a human ever looks at the PR * Why he requires candidates to use AI in interviews and designs problems hard enough that they have to * The hype anxiety problem — why people feel like they need an agent running 24/7, and how to give your team permission to shut it down * His contrarian take: if your developer goes from 1.5x ROI to 10x ROI, the answer is to hire more, not fewer * The insight from The Power of Full Engagement he keeps coming back to: the fundamental currency of productivity is energy, not time About the guest:Jonathan Klein is the CTO and COO at KOHO, a Canadian fintech company reimagining banking for Canadians. With a career spanning Wayfair (twice), Etsy, and multiple early-stage startups, Jonathan has led engineering organizations from a team of five to a team of 600 and brings a rare combination of deep technical credibility and organizational leadership experience. About Tech Teams Today: Tech Teams Today is a podcast by Revelo where we sit down with engineering leaders to talk about how they build, scale, and lead high-performing tech teams. Real conversations. No fluff. Subscribe and never miss an episode: - YouTube: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@revelohq⁠⁠⁠ [https://www.youtube.com/@revelohq] - Spotify: ⁠⁠⁠https://open.spotify.com/show/3ymzd0MC1YjnFy7hKzzR9x?si=51f3989aa4bc4308⁠⁠⁠ [https://open.spotify.com/show/3ymzd0MC1YjnFy7hKzzR9x?si=51f3989aa4bc4308] - Apple Podcasts: ⁠⁠⁠https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/tech-teams-today/id1641545336⁠⁠⁠ [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/tech-teams-today/id1641545336] Connect with us: - Revelo: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.revelo.com⁠⁠⁠ [https://www.revelo.com] - Josh Anderson (Field CTO): ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuadavidanderson/⁠ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuadavidanderson/] - Revelo on LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/company/revelohq/⁠ [https://www.linkedin.com/company/revelohq/]