Speaking

Talks From the Trenches

Conferences, panels, workshops, and podcasts on engineering leadership, distributed systems, and AI adoption. Every talk is built on things I have actually run, not read about.

Talks

Featured Topics

Leading Distributed Teams Across Time Zones

How to build and run engineering teams across countries and cultures, drawn from managing teams spread between Europe and the US.

Key Takeaways

  • Asynchronous communication strategies
  • Building trust across time zones
  • Scheduling and meeting best practices
  • Cultural awareness and inclusion

Balancing Velocity and Stability in Cloud Systems

Shipping fast without breaking things, with real examples from systems handling millions of requests per day.

Key Takeaways

  • Progressive deployment strategies
  • Observability and monitoring practices
  • Incident response frameworks
  • Technical debt management

Coaching Engineers to Become Leaders

Framework for developing leadership skills in senior engineers and building a strong technical leadership pipeline. Based on mentoring 50+ engineers across multiple organizations.

Key Takeaways

  • Identifying leadership potential
  • Creating growth opportunities
  • Effective coaching frameworks
  • Measuring leadership development

Cloud Cost Optimization at Scale

Practical strategies for cutting cloud infrastructure costs without sacrificing performance, including how I cut AWS spend by 30% while traffic grew.

Key Takeaways

  • Cost visibility and tracking
  • Right-sizing and optimization
  • Architecture efficiency patterns
  • FinOps culture and processes

Building Engineering Culture in Remote-First Organizations

How to create and maintain a strong engineering culture when your team is fully distributed. Practical approaches to psychological safety, continuous learning, and sustainable delivery.

Key Takeaways

  • Remote-first culture principles
  • Virtual team bonding strategies
  • Documentation and knowledge sharing
  • Recognition and celebration practices

Scaling Microservices Architecture

Lessons learned from scaling distributed systems to handle millions of requests. Architecture patterns, anti-patterns, and practical guidance for teams moving to microservices.

Key Takeaways

  • Service boundaries and design
  • Inter-service communication patterns
  • Data consistency strategies
  • Testing and deployment approaches

Formats

Speaking Formats

Conference Keynotes

45-60 minute presentations for large audiences at technical conferences and industry events.

Panel Discussions

Moderated conversations with other engineering leaders on current industry challenges and trends.

Workshops

Half-day or full-day interactive sessions with hands-on exercises and group activities.

Fireside Chats

Intimate conversational format for smaller groups, ideal for company events and meetups.

Podcasts & Webinars

Remote appearances for podcasts, webinar series, and virtual events.

Custom Topics

Presentations built for your event’s specific themes and audience.

Booking

Book Me to Speak

Tell me about your event: format, date, audience, and the theme you want covered. I will answer within a week.

Available for both in-person and virtual events