The Scaling Tech Podcast

On this episode of the Scaling Tech Podcast, host Arin Sime sits down with Hector Zelaya — DevOps engineer, AWS-certified developer, and musician — for a conversation that’s equal parts studio session and software deep dive. Hector pulls back the curtain on how he uses AI tools and spec-driven workflows to supercharge music production in […]

In part two of our Scaling Tech Podcast series on AI engineering in Mexico, recorded in Mexico City, host Arin Sime speaks with founders, engineers, and researchers about building real-world AI applications and the lessons learned in reshaping engineering teams. Guests discuss the strength of technical talent in Mexico and how AI is being used […]

In this episode of the Scaling Tech Podcast, host Arin Sime explores the landscape of AI engineering and adoption in Mexico, recording from Mexico City. He speaks with founders, engineers, and researchers about building real AI applications and the lessons learned in reshaping engineering teams. Discover how companies are moving past vanity projects to focus […]

Any technologist will be familiar with projects where the engineering team is asked to deliver on a long backlog of features, with unclear customer or business value. Instead, how can engineering teams use an evidence driven approach to support the business in building truly valuable applications? In this live episode of the Scaling Tech Podcast, […]

In this live episode 59th of the Scaling Tech Podcast, we welcome Mihir Vora, Senior Distinguished Engineer at Capital One, to explore how DevOps has evolved, from early automation and cloud migrations to the emerging influence of AI on developer productivity. We discuss what it takes to balance safety with speed, why “intent-based engineering” could […]

In this live episode 59th of the Scaling Tech Podcast, we welcome Mihir Vora, Senior Distinguished Engineer at Capital One, to explore how DevOps has evolved, from early automation and cloud migrations to the emerging influence of AI on developer productivity. We discuss what it takes to balance safety with speed, why “intent-based engineering” could […]

Continuing our series on emerging tech markets in Colombia, we look at Barranquilla in this episode. In this coastal Caribbean city, we visit the Tech Caribe conference, which brings together top talent and innovators in the region. We cover many aspects of the local tech community with Anuar Harb, the leader of the Tech Caribe event and founder […]

Continuing our series on emerging tech markets in Colombia, we look at Barranquilla in this episode. In this coastal Caribbean city, we visit the Tech Caribe conference, which brings together top talent and innovators in the region. We cover many aspects of the local tech community with Anuar Harb, the leader of the Tech Caribe […]

Continuing our series on emerging tech markets in Colombia, we look at Barranquilla in this episode. In this coastal Caribbean city, we visit the Tech Caribe conference, which brings together top talent and innovators in the region. We cover many aspects of the local tech community with Anuar Harb, the leader of the Tech Caribe […]

In this live episode of the Scaling Tech Podcast, host Arin Sime welcomed Ritavan, author of Data Impact: How Legacy Businesses Save, Leverage, Align, Simplify, Optimize, and Grow. As a seasoned data strategist, Ritavan helps traditional companies cut through the hype and unlock real business value through modern data practices. They explore Ritavan’s SLASOG framework […]

When companies think of Colombia’s tech hubs, Bogotá and Medellín usually top the list. But there’s another city that’s quietly becoming a magnet for BPO, KPO, and tech operations: Cali. In this episode, we sit down with Valery Sanclemente, Investment Manager for Services at Invest Pacific, to explore why Cali and the surrounding Valle del Cauca region […]

What happens when your CI/CD pipeline becomes a bottleneck instead of a boost? How do internal tools empower—or block—engineering teams from shipping confidently? In this live episode of the Scaling Tech Podcast, we sit down with Tom Elliott, founder of Ocuroot and former Engineering Productivity lead at Yext, where he supported over 200 engineers through […]

AI is changing developer interviews—for better and worse. Take-home tests are becoming obsolete. CVs can’t be fully trusted. Even live interviews falter as AI helps candidates craft responses. To stay ahead of these changes, we must decide when to encourage AI in interviews, and when to limit it. It’s time to give live coding interviews […]

Every team has to deal with tech debt, and they take a variety of approaches to how they address it within their team, and how involved product management is in those decisions. How should you allocate time for working on tech debt? Should it be represented on your roadmap? How should you prioritize tech debt […]

Technical debt is a reality we all face in software development. It’s something we all manage, constantly making trade-offs about when and how to best tackle it. Today, we’re diving into the best team practices for addressing tech debt with expert software engineering leader Lou Franco.  Lou is a software product development advisor and independent […]

The “build vs. buy” dilemma is a familiar challenge to software engineers, but with the rapid growth of AI and machine learning, it’s become even more nuanced. So, how should you approach this? We’ve got the perfect guest today to help you out! Meet Jean-Louis Quéguiner, Founder and CEO of Gladia. Gladia specializes in building […]

Episode Summary LLMs are bringing so much to the table right now, with the potential to solve complex problems and automate tasks like never before. But getting the most out of these models requires new skills. And today, we’ve got just the expert to help you do that! Meet John Berryman, a true leader in […]

Episode Summary Change is a constant in every organization, but how leaders respond to it can truly define the outcome.  Today, we’re joined by Lisa Rogoff, an expert in guiding leaders through times of transition and complexity. Lisa is the founder of Launch Project, a certified executive coach, consultant, and facilitator with over 20 years […]

AI has the potential to amplify our skills, spark our creativity, and help us innovate faster than ever before—if we use it right.  In this episode of the Scaling Tech podcast, Arin sits down with Mike Todasco to discuss the use of AI in tech teams. Mike is a visiting fellow at San Diego State […]

One-on-ones are one of the most powerful tools a leader has for driving both team and organizational growth. But without a clear and intentional approach, they can easily become just another meeting on the calendar. That’s why we’re thrilled to welcome Doug Ramirez to the podcast! Doug has a proven structured approach to leading impactful […]

Generative AI is already transforming the way Agile teams operate. How far can it go? Can it take over the role of Scrumaster? In this special live episode of the Scaling Tech Podcast, host Arin Sime welcomes back past guest Sanjiv Augustine for a thought provoking discussion on hoe GenAI is shaping the future of […]

Fake agile is an unsuccessful way of being agile. It often creeps into organizations when teams adopt surface-level agility practices without embracing its core principles. In this episode of the Scaling Tech podcast, we dive deep into what true agility really looks like with our guest, Johanna Rothman. Johanna is known as the “Pragmatic Manager,” […]

Talent shortage is a common challenge in software development. This is where nearshoring comes in—it’s a great way to find skilled people while also saving costs. In this special episode of the Scaling Tech podcast, our host, Arin, explores this topic with three tech experts: Luisa Diaz, Pablo Miller, and Mariana Lopez. Luisa, a seasoned […]

Technology and software development know no borders. As more and more tech companies collaborate with talent from around the globe, navigating these international partnerships has become a critical topic. This week on Scaling Tech, Arin sits down with two industry experts, Val Narodetsky and Alexander Pozdniakov, to explore the ins and outs of managing global […]

Learning is a lifelong journey—successful leaders know this and live by it. They remain open to new knowledge, feedback, and ideas, which keeps their skills fresh and constantly makes them even better leaders. In this episode of Scaling Tech, we are excited to welcome back Allison McMillan, a Fractional VP of Engineering, leadership consultant, team […]

Every software team is different and requires a tailored approach to thrive. It’s essential to discover what works for your specific team to achieve product perfection. This week, we have a rare go-to subject matter expert on our podcast to help you get there! Meet Kent McDonald. Kent is a seasoned freelance product manager and […]

OpenTelemetry is a powerful tool that’s revolutionizing observability. Today, we dive into this emerging open-source standard and explore its growing role in tech. Our special guest is Adriana Villela, a Senior Tech Leader with over 20 years of experience in software development, DevOps, and site reliability engineering (SRE). Adriana is a leader in the OpenTelemetry […]

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a topic that sparks many debates. Everyone is curious about the future of AI, whether it can generate original ideas, and if it will ever replace humans. But the crucial question we should be asking is, how we can best work with AI to augment our own capabilities.  We dive into […]

Generative AI has moved beyond being just a buzzword—it’s now the new business norm. But while it holds a big promise to businesses across different industries, the road to adoption is not without challenges. This week, we’re diving into the complexities of generative AI with our expert guest, Sid Rao. Sid is the CEO and […]

Jen is a highly sought-after leadership coach, entrepreneur, brain tumor survivor, mom, podcast host, writer, and founder of Plucky, where she guides CEOs, entrepreneurs, and leaders across various levels to foster healthy dynamics and improve work-life balance for everyone. Jen has empowered professionals at over 200 companies, including industry giants like Google, Facebook, Slack, The […]

Mergers and acquisitions can be either the most exciting or the most daunting time in an engineering leader’s career. But as long as you prepare and take a strategic approach, you will be good to go! Our guest today is Mona Sabet. She is incredibly experienced in M&A transactions for tech companies, and she’ll share […]

There’s no better feeling than leading a high-performing team that consistently exceeds expectations and achieves remarkable results. Sound too good to be true? It doesn’t have to be. Today, Arin welcomes Sarah Milstein. Sarah is a seasoned leader in tech and media, with experience as VP of Engineering at Daily, ConvertKit, and in Engineering Leadership […]

As leaders, it’s our responsibility to unlock our team’s full potential. Or, as our guest nicely puts it, “Life is too short to lead an average team.” So, today, we’re diving into strategies to help you avoid this pitfall in your company and, instead, empower your software engineering team to thrive. Join us for a […]

There’s a fine line between taking ownership and overstepping boundaries. So, how do you know where that line is? This week’s guest, Wes Kao, sheds some light on this topic. Wes is a well-known entrepreneur, speaker, coach, and advisor. She’s the Co-founder of Maven, an ad tech company that raised $25 million from First Round […]

Diversity in tech is essential for driving innovation and solving new, complex problems in new and effective ways. That’s why we need to intentionally create inclusive and diverse environments where our devs can have the space to thrive and bring their unique perspectives to the table. Today, our guest is Ben Parisot. Ben is the […]

There’s an ongoing discussion about the potential of voice technology and whether it’s really as revolutionary as we thought it to be. The answer is yes—it’s a matter of exploring its unique potential, not just copying existing technologies.  Tobias Dengel, a technology leader and author of a book about voice technology, joins us today in […]

Agile is more than just a buzzword. It’s an intuitive methodology that offers practical solutions to enterprises by simply breaking a big thing into smaller, more manageable chunks. Today on the Scaling Tech podcast, Arin welcomes David Asch to take a deep dive into agile methods. David is currently the Founder of 10xPrinciples, a consulting […]

David and Arin reflect on the lessons learned from the past nine episodes of the Scaling Tech Podcast in our third season. We recap lessons from all of our guests, covering topics that include mentoring engineering managers, scaling agile, software estimation and predictability, software security and site reliability engineering, engineering team health and offsites, data […]

Forecasting is inherently probabilistic – meaning that we cannot say anything definitively about the future, we can only give the probability that something may happen. This is intrinsic to software development but a hard concept to convey to those who just want to know “when will the work be done?”. In this conversation we speak […]

Scaling technology is one thing, but scaling technical teams is quite another. In this episode, we talk with author Jurgen Appelo about his “unFIX” pattern for scaling agile teams. We talk about the challenges of scaling agile teams, team empowerment, innovation, managers and mentoring. Jurgen is author of multiple books, including “Management 3.0” and most […]

How do you engineer your systems to be highly reliable, especially in a regulated environment like healthcare? Dr Vladyslav Ukis joins us on this episode of the Scaling Tech Podcast to explain the concepts of Site Reliability Engineering, how to choose and manage Service Level Objectives and Error Budgets, and how to combine it with […]

Building a good team is like solving a puzzle, as our guest Allison McMillan describes in this episode of the Scaling Tech Podcast. Allison is an engineering leadership consultant who works as a fractional VP of Engineering, and also consults to companies on Engineering Team Health and highly effective Team Offsites. Allison shares with us […]

What is the future of AI, and how will it affect the way that we conduct work? In this episode we speak with an expert in the field: Vijay Parthasarathy, Head of AI and ML at Zoom. Vijay will draw on his experiences in AI at Zoom, Meta, and Apple, as well as the unique […]

In today’s world, data is no longer the purview of data scientists alone. Data is Everybody’s Business, which is also the title of Professor Barb Wixom’s new book from MIT Press. On Episode 24, we learn how to monetize data via Improving, Wrapping, and Selling. Barb talks with us about acceptable data use, and shares […]

To achieve software resilience, you must design in security, and treat it as part of software quality. In episode 23 of the Scaling Tech Podcast, author and security expert Kelly Shortridge shares with hosts Arin Sime and David Alfaro exactly how to do that.They cover topics such as the philosophy of software resilience, Evaluation and […]

Most of us have a love/hate relationship with software estimation. Estimation is an important skill, but it’s often misused and misunderstood, especially in unhealthy team cultures. When used properly, it can be a powerful tool for team communication and to enable good business decision making. In this episode of the Scaling Tech Podcast, we speak […]

Getting promoted into management can be the most exciting and terrifying moment of a person’s career. On episode 21 of the Scaling Tech Podcast, hosts Arin Sime and David Alfaro speak with Leadership Coach Jen Dary about her work training and mentoring managers, and the particularly difficult aspects of being a first time manager.

David and Arin reflect on the lessons learned from the nine episodes of the Scaling Tech Podcast that made up our second season. These include some of the best advice from our guests on topics like engineering management, remote teams, team culture, leadership, infrastructure management, and hiring and onboarding.

How did you learn to become an engineering manager? If you’re like most people, you were largely self taught. Engineering managers are often promoted from senior engineering roles and they have probably not been taught best practices in managing teams. In this episode of the Scaling Tech Podcast, we talk with engineering leader and author […]

The notion of stable teams is fundamental to a lot of management advice, but unrealistic. Change is constant, and our teams are no exception. Therefore it’s necessary to be more thoughtful and proactive about team change instead of taking a purely reactive stance. Heidi Helfand is the author of “Dynamic Reteaming”, and she shares with […]