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Friday, October 17, 2025

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MAIN TRACK
08:30–09:30

Arrival & Coffee

09:30

Talk

Director+

Welcome to LeadingEng New York 2025

A welcome from the host.

+ More

Talk

Welcome to LeadingEng New York 2025

This session is suitable for:

Director+

A welcome from the host.

  • FEATURING
    Nivia Henry
    Engineering DirectorNetflix

    Nivia is a technologist with over 20 years of engineering and leadership experience.

    Her career path has included nearly every role in tech; but her true passion is inspiring people to do their best work.

    These days Nivia applies her talents as the Defiantly Sparkly Director of Engineering for Netflix’s Growth Product Experiences; the organization that enables Netflix’s multibillion dollar commerce and subscription business. Prior to that she spent 8 years at Spotify, building ads and listener experiences.

    Nivia gives back to the tech community by speaking at, chairing and attending tech conferences.

    Her hobbies include: mentoring Black engineering leaders; reading; and relaxing on her farm with her hubby Andre and their feline overlord Zuko.

    View Nivia’s profile
09:55

Talk

Director+

Taking a seat in the C-Suite: Transitioning from the highest-level operational roles to the executive team

A look at the transition to executive leadership, examining the skills, mindset, and priorities needed to succeed.

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Talk

Taking a seat in the C-Suite: Transitioning from the highest-level operational roles to the executive team

This session is suitable for:

Director+

There’s significant literature around the topic of engineering management – we’re in a golden age of understanding operational roles in the technology disciplines. However, there’s scant writing or discussion about moving from those operational roles, e.g., Director or VP across the thermocline to executive roles like CTO, CIO or Head of Engineering.

What skills and behaviors that make a strong manager will also support a successful executive – and what can hold you back? How should you balance operational versus strategic concerns? Should you spend more time with your team, your peers, your boss(es) or your supervisory board? How have others met this challenge?

This talk will address all of these concerns, as well as deliver the fundamentals of a roadmap to navigating the transition from manager to executive successfully.

  • FEATURING
    Jeremy Bowers
    Chief Technology OfficerPOLITICO

    Jeremy Bowers is POLITICO’s global Chief Technology Officer, where he manages the globally distributed technology team.Bowers comes to POLITICO from the Washington Post where he served as Director of Engineering, leading a team of 40+ engineers supporting newsroom engineering and publishing tools. Prior to the Washington Post, he held various roles at the New York Times, NPR and the St. Petersburg Times.

    Bowers was one of the core developers behind the Pulitzer Prize-winning PolitiFact.com and was on the team that won an Emmy for his work on “Planet Money Makes a T-Shirt.” He holds a B.A. in Political Science from the University of South Florida, St. Petersburg. He resides in Washington, D.C., with his wife, Becky, and two daughters.

    View Jeremy’s profile
10:20

Talk

Director+

Crafting an effective tech strategy and getting buy-in for it

Talk details coming soon.

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Talk

Crafting an effective tech strategy and getting buy-in for it

This session is suitable for:

Director+

Talk details coming soon.
11:15–12:00

Morning Break

12:00

Talk

Director+

Building a cost-conscious culture: Technical and team strategies

Discover proven strategies to optimize cloud infrastructure costs and build a cost-aware engineering culture without slowing delivery.

+ More

Talk

Building a cost-conscious culture: Technical and team strategies

This session is suitable for:

Director+

Practical tips on technical and process strategies to optimize cloud infrastructure costs and create cultural change leading to a more cost-aware team.

From managing escalating cloud costs to achieving significant savings, this talk will cover the proven strategies Strava implemented to optimize our cloud infrastructure costs over the last 18 months. We’ll share effective approaches across networking, compute, and data storage that delivered meaningful reductions in cloud spending. Beyond the technical details, you’ll learn how we successfully aligned our engineering teams around cost optimization while maintaining focus on core product delivery. Whether you’re looking to trim cloud expenses or just build a more cost-aware engineering culture, this session provides actionable insights.

Key takeaways

  • Key metrics to track cloud cost drivers and optimization progress over time
  • Systematic approaches to identify and prioritize cost reduction opportunities across your tech stack
  • Strategies to build cost awareness into your engineering culture without compromising overall development velocity
  • A practical framework for evaluating cost-benefit tradeoffs in future-looking architectural decisions
  • FEATURING
    Elyse Kolker Gordon
    Senior Director of EngineeringStrava

    Elyse Kolker Gordon is an engineering leader who is passionate about developing engineers, building cohesive teams and creating great consumer apps. Currently, she is Director of Web Engineering at Vevo where she regularly solves challenges with isomorphic apps. She speaks and writes regularly about web development topics and is the author of Isomorphic Web Applications. She is also an avid musician who plays the drums and dabbles with other instruments. When she is not at work you can find her hanging out with her husband and dog, either at home or at the beach.

    View Elyse’s profile
12:25

Talk

Director+

Build features, not fragile foundations

Learn how to balance feature delivery with technical debt reduction to maintain system health, velocity, and long-term stability.

+ More

Talk

Build features, not fragile foundations

This session is suitable for:

Director+

Learn how balancing feature work with technical debt remediation leads to sustainable software delivery.

Engineering teams often face intense pressure to deliver features fast, but building on a shaky foundation eventually slows things down. This talk explores the hidden cost of neglecting operational excellence and shows how technical debt, if left unmanaged, compromises security, scalability, and team velocity. We’ll unpack why brittle systems are harder to change, debug, and maintain, and how they quietly erode customer trust and developer morale.

Attendees will learn how to assess the health of their systems using qualitative and quantitative inputs, including developer sentiment, customer experience feedback, and usage patterns. We’ll introduce a simple, actionable framework for assigning system health scores and using those scores to drive investment decisions.

Rather than choosing between feature velocity and technical stability, we’ll explore how to balance both, ensuring teams can innovate without trading away long term performance.

  • FEATURING
    André Henry
    Director, Platform EngineeringFleetio

    André Henry is an Engineering leader at Fleetio and a lifelong hacker. He is the type of person who would buy a supercomputer off of eBay. André lives at the intersection of lasers, cats, and tech. You can find him at a bookstore or home, with his wife Nivia and his cat Zuko, always learning and sharing.

    View André’s profile
13:20–14:40

Lunch

14:40

Talk

Director+

The AI-augmented team: Rethinking roles, skills, and leadership

Explore how AI assistants and agents are reshaping team structures, required skills, and leadership in modern engineering organizations.

+ More

Talk

The AI-augmented team: Rethinking roles, skills, and leadership

This session is suitable for:

Director+

Discover how AI assistants and agents are transforming software teams, roles, and leadership models

AI is no longer just a tool – it’s becoming a true collaborator on software teams. In this session, Darva Satcher explores how AI Assistants and Agents are reshaping engineering teams, dissolving traditional role boundaries, and redefining what it means to lead in a modern tech organization.

Attendees will learn how to structure AI-augmented teams that operate more efficiently, embrace new patterns of hybrid human-AI collaboration, and adopt agent-based workflows that scale productivity without scaling headcount. The session dives into the emerging skill sets engineers need – including AI fluency, systems thinking, and critical review of AI-generated work – while also outlining leadership frameworks that foster trust, ethical oversight, and adaptive performance metrics.

Through practical examples, this talk prepares engineering leaders to integrate AI not just as an assistant, but as a working team member.

15:05

Talk

Director+

From idea to impact: Engineering innovation through collaboration at Duolingo

How Duolingo’s engineering, product, and design teams collaborate to rapidly build and launch innovative, AI-driven features.

+ More

Talk

From idea to impact: Engineering innovation through collaboration at Duolingo

This session is suitable for:

Director+

A behind-the-scenes look at how engineering, product, and design work together at Duolingo to build and launch innovative features like AI-powered video calls and our new Chess course.

At Duolingo, engineering, product, and design collaborate deeply to advance our mission: to develop the best education in the world and make it universally available. In this session, we’ll share two case studies that highlight how a culture of experimentation and fast iteration drives innovation.

First, we’ll dive into Video Call – a feature that lets learners have spontaneous, free-flowing conversations with Lily, powered by generative AI. We’ll share how we approached the design, technical challenges, and rollout through A/B testing.

Next, we’ll explore how we built and shipped Duolingo Chess in under 8 months by going AI-first from day one – and how we’ve iterated since launch.
Together, these stories illustrate how strong cross-functional collaboration and a shared focus on data, speed, and user experience enable Duolingo to continuously deliver high-quality, innovative features.

Key takeaways

  • Tactics for effective collaboration across engineering, product, and design
  • How to use A/B testing at scale to guide feature development and iteration
  • Lessons from adopting an AI-first approach to building new products
  • FEATURING
    Natalie Glance
    Chief Engineering OfficerDuolingo

    Natalie is a lifelong learner and seasoned leader with extensive experience at startups and established companies. She’s currently the Chief Engineering Officer at Duolingo.

    At Duolingo, Natalie ensures engineers can help set product direction and strategy. She’s championed a culture of extensive A/B testing, and is excited about the ways generative AI can both build new features and accelerate content creation for these features. She oversees many of the efforts dedicated to scaling Duolingo’s technology to new subjects, like Math and Music.

    Natalie is passionate about mentorship and education. She co-founded the Int’l AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media (ICWSM), which offers an annual Adamic-Glance Distinguished Young Researcher Award for a promising young independent researcher in the field computational social science in the early stage of their career.

    View Natalie’s profile
15:30

Talk

Director+

Building aligned strategies

Talk details coming soon.

+ More

Talk

Building aligned strategies

This session is suitable for:

Director+

Talk details coming soon.

  • FEATURING
    Neha Batra
    VP of EngineeringGitHub

    Neha Batra is a VP of Engineering at GitHub, where she leads the Core Productivity org that focuses on the tools in developer’s daily workflows like Repos, Projects, Issues, Pull Requests, Desktop, CLI, and Mobile. Her passion lies in making the tech industry easier and more inclusive to work in, which is why she focuses her talks and blogs on tactical tips and tricks, like Facilitation 202, Managing your Mentorship, and Delegation.

    She holds a bachelor’s in Mechanical Engineering from MIT and enjoys foodie adventures, planning trips, and collecting national park magnets. If you want to hear her ramble on a topic, ask her about experimenting with manager processes and playbooks or how much she misses Miami and its cafecitos.

    View Neha’s profile
16:15–16:55

Afternoon Break

16:55

Talk

Director+

Beyond sentiment: A practical framework for evaluating and growing the leaders who report to you

This talk offers a practical, opinionated framework for evaluating and growing the people managers who report to you, using a model that goes beyond sentiment and 360s to focus on observable impact, leadership competencies, and the systems you all operate within.

  • Senior Director of Engineering The New York Times
+ More

Talk

Beyond sentiment: A practical framework for evaluating and growing the leaders who report to you

This session is suitable for:

Director+

This talk offers a practical, opinionated framework for evaluating and growing the people managers who report to you, using a model that goes beyond sentiment and 360s to focus on observable impact, leadership competencies, and the systems you all operate within.

“Engineering leaders are often asked to evaluate and develop managers based on indirect signals: team sentiment, 360 feedback, engagement surveys, or the occasional skip-level. But these signals—while valuable—rarely tell the full story. Managers who are well-liked may be avoiding hard conversations; those delivering results may be holding their teams together with unsustainable effort. Without direct observation, senior leaders risk rewarding surface-level traits while missing the deeper work of effective management.

This talk introduces a practical framework for evaluating leadership against impact and competencies. We’ll explore how to embed observational shadowing as a leadership development tool, offering a clearer view into how managers are actually leading day-to-day. We’ll talk about translating team metrics into actionable feedback. Finally, we’ll cover how to translate those insights into high-leverage coaching, targeted interventions, and systemic improvement. Attendees will walk away with language, structure, and tools for developing stronger leaders—and stronger teams—at scale.

Key takeaways

  • What matters when assessing leadership performance?
  • What observable competencies should I expect from my managers—and how do I coach to them?
  • How can shadowing be used to gain real insight into someone’s leadership system?
  • How do I manage developing individuals and improving the systems they’re building in real-time (rather than waiting for the results of long feedback cycles)?
  • FEATURING
    Meg Adams
    Senior Director of EngineeringThe New York Times

    Meg Adams is an experienced technology leader sought out by multi-billion dollar companies like Estée Lauder, Etsy, and Condé Nast to create cultures of high performance and high engagement within their engineering teams.

    She is passionate about deepening the community of workplaces and infusing the everyday with joy and purpose, all while increasing profitability. Meg is also a trusted advisor to remarkable women when it comes to career development and negotiation.

    View Meg’s profile
17:20

Talk

Director+

Leading resilient reorgs that actually work

Talk details coming soon.

+ More

Talk

Leading resilient reorgs that actually work

This session is suitable for:

Director+

Talk details coming soon.
17:50

Talk

Director+

End of day wrap-up

Closing thoughts from the host.

+ More

Talk

End of day wrap-up

This session is suitable for:

Director+

Closing thoughts from the host.

  • FEATURING
    Nivia Henry
    Engineering DirectorNetflix

    Nivia is a technologist with over 20 years of engineering and leadership experience.

    Her career path has included nearly every role in tech; but her true passion is inspiring people to do their best work.

    These days Nivia applies her talents as the Defiantly Sparkly Director of Engineering for Netflix’s Growth Product Experiences; the organization that enables Netflix’s multibillion dollar commerce and subscription business. Prior to that she spent 8 years at Spotify, building ads and listener experiences.

    Nivia gives back to the tech community by speaking at, chairing and attending tech conferences.

    Her hobbies include: mentoring Black engineering leaders; reading; and relaxing on her farm with her hubby Andre and their feline overlord Zuko.

    View Nivia’s profile
18:00–19:30

Networking Mixer

INTERACTIVE SESSIONS
10:50
10:49

Office Hours

Director+

Meet the speakers

Chat with the speakers face-to-face in a relaxed, conversational environment.

+ More

Office Hours

Meet the speakers

This session is suitable for:

Director+

Chat with the speakers face-to-face in a relaxed, conversational environment.
12:00

Table Talks

Director+

Table Talks

Join facilitated conversations and dive into key issues facing engineering teams.

+ More

Table Talks

Table Talks

This session is suitable for:

Director+

Join facilitated conversations and dive into key issues facing engineering teams.
12:00

Next Steps AMA

Director+

Next Steps AMA

Dedicated sessions on how to take the next step in your career.

+ More

Next Steps AMA

Next Steps AMA

This session is suitable for:

Director+

Dedicated sessions on how to take the next step in your career.
12:00

Speed Coaching

Director+

Speed Coaching

Watch or participate in free 1:1 coaching.

+ More

Speed Coaching

Speed Coaching

This session is suitable for:

Director+

Watch or participate in free 1:1 coaching.
12:00

Solution Swap

Director+

Solution Swap

Work together to find ways of solving a common problem posed by our moderator.

+ More

Solution Swap

Solution Swap

This session is suitable for:

Director+

Work together to find ways of solving a common problem posed by our moderator.
12:00

Meet the Author

Director+

Meet the author

Bring a book and get it signed – or just have a chat.

+ More

Meet the Author

Meet the author

This session is suitable for:

Director+

Bring a book and get it signed – or just have a chat.
12:00

Expert Clinic

Director+

Expert Clinic

Book a 1:1 session where you can hear from the experts.

+ More

Expert Clinic

Expert Clinic

This session is suitable for:

Director+

Book a 1:1 session where you can hear from the experts.
12:55
12:00

Office Hours

Director+

Meet the speakers

Chat with the speakers face-to-face in a relaxed, conversational environment.

+ More

Office Hours

Meet the speakers

This session is suitable for:

Director+

Chat with the speakers face-to-face in a relaxed, conversational environment.
12:00

Table Talks

Director+

Table Talks

Join facilitated conversations and dive into key issues facing engineering teams.

+ More

Table Talks

Table Talks

This session is suitable for:

Director+

Join facilitated conversations and dive into key issues facing engineering teams.
12:00

Next Steps AMA

Director+

Next Steps AMA

Dedicated sessions on how to take the next step in your career.

+ More

Next Steps AMA

Next Steps AMA

This session is suitable for:

Director+

Dedicated sessions on how to take the next step in your career.
12:00

Speed Coaching

Director+

Speed Coaching

Watch or participate in free 1:1 coaching.

+ More

Speed Coaching

Speed Coaching

This session is suitable for:

Director+

Watch or participate in free 1:1 coaching.
12:00

Solution Swap

Director+

Solution Swap

Work together to find ways of solving a common problem posed by our moderator.

+ More

Solution Swap

Solution Swap

This session is suitable for:

Director+

Work together to find ways of solving a common problem posed by our moderator.
12:00

Meet the Author

Director+

Meet the author

Bring a book and get it signed – or just have a chat.

+ More

Meet the Author

Meet the author

This session is suitable for:

Director+

Bring a book and get it signed – or just have a chat.
12:00

Expert Clinic

Director+

Expert Clinic

Book a 1:1 session where you can hear from the experts.

+ More

Expert Clinic

Expert Clinic

This session is suitable for:

Director+

Book a 1:1 session where you can hear from the experts.
16:00
12:00

Office Hours

Director+

Meet the speakers

Chat with the speakers face-to-face in a relaxed, conversational environment.

+ More

Office Hours

Meet the speakers

This session is suitable for:

Director+

Chat with the speakers face-to-face in a relaxed, conversational environment.
12:00

Table Talks

Director+

Table Talks

Join facilitated conversations and dive into key issues facing engineering teams.

+ More

Table Talks

Table Talks

This session is suitable for:

Director+

Join facilitated conversations and dive into key issues facing engineering teams.
12:00

Next Steps AMA

Director+

Next Steps AMA

Dedicated sessions on how to take the next step in your career.

+ More

Next Steps AMA

Next Steps AMA

This session is suitable for:

Director+

Dedicated sessions on how to take the next step in your career.
12:00

Speed Coaching

Director+

Speed Coaching

Watch or participate in free 1:1 coaching.

+ More

Speed Coaching

Speed Coaching

This session is suitable for:

Director+

Watch or participate in free 1:1 coaching.
12:00

Meet the Author

Director+

Meet the author

Bring a book and get it signed – or just have a chat.

+ More

Meet the Author

Meet the author

This session is suitable for:

Director+

Bring a book and get it signed – or just have a chat.
12:00

Expert Clinic

Director+

Expert Clinic

Book a 1:1 session where you can hear from the experts.

+ More

Expert Clinic

Expert Clinic

This session is suitable for:

Director+

Book a 1:1 session where you can hear from the experts.