StaffEng
Episodes
A look inside an engineering team @OpenAI with Dylan Vassallo
10 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Dylan Vassallo is an engineering manager at OpenAI leading the People Innovation Labs team — an eng, product, and design team embedded within the Pe...
How BabyList Accelerated AI Adoption in Engineering with Karynn Ikeda
20 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Hosts: Alex Kessinger & David Noël-Ramos Guest: Karynn Ikeda — Former Engineering Manager → AI Enablement Program Manager at Babylist @ktike...
I Haven't Opened an IDE Since November — Will Maier
11 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Will Maier leads growth engineering at Stripe, where he's spent the last five years working across nearly every surface of the product. His backg...
We're back!
20 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
After 3 years, we’re coming out of retirement, because something fundamental broke open in the last few months—something that changes everything a...
Alex Kessinger (Stitch Fix) and David Noël-Romas (Stripe)
28 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This episode is a celebration of the journey we have been on as this podcast comes to a close. We have had such a great time bringing you these interv...
Peter Stout (Netflix)
14 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The structures of an organization can often be self-reinforcing, and in a changing environment, this becomes a recipe for future vulnerabilities. That...
James Cowling (Convex)
30 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Often the biggest impacts a Staff Engineer can make in their organization are not technical but rather people-related. When teams are value-aligned du...
Bryan Berg (Stripe)
16 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Staff engineers may not get much time to code anymore, but this does not mean problem-solving and system design is not an integral part of their day-t...
Ben Ilegbodu (Stitch Fix)
02 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Today we talk to Ben Ilegbodu, Principal Frontend Engineer at Stitch Fix, about how he manages to stay close to the code at a senior level. We hear ho...
Ashby Winch
19 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Moving from an architect role to a product-oriented one might seem like a big leap, but there are overlaps between the two roles. Today's guest, ...
Josh Kaderlan (Lob)
05 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Today’s guest is Josh Kaderlan, Staff Software Engineer at Lob, a direct mail and address verification API company that automates and simplifies dir...
Ben Edmunds (Wayfair)
21 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
During today’s conversation, we speak with Ben Edmunds, Senior Staff Engineer at Wayfair. You’ll hear all about his role at Wayfair, from his day-...
Nell Shamrell-Harrington (Microsoft)
07 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Today’s guest is a principal software engineer at Microsoft who works at the interface between external and internal elements of the organization. N...
Rich Lafferty (PagerDuty)
24 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Oscillating between the roles of individual contributor and management has been a recurring theme on this show. Our guest today, Rich Lafferty, has so...
Mason Jones (Credit Karma)
10 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Credit Karma is a company that helps people understand their credit. Today’s guest, Mason Jones, was brought onto the Credit Karma team to move the ...
Lorin Hochstein (Netflix)
27 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Today’s conversation is about resilience, and as today’s guest, Lorin Hochstein, notes; “Resilience is about the stuff that isn’t visible thro...
Stacey Gammon (Elastic)
13 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
What works for a small company may not work for a large company, so what do you do when your organization experiences rapid growth, and the old way of...
Will Larson (Calm)
29 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Please note that this episode contains brief mention of suicide.Today's guest needs no introduction! Of course, they will get one anyway:Will Lar...
Mahdi Yusuf (1Password)
15 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Today’s guest is Mahdi Yusuf, Tech Lead for the Server Architecture Team at 1Password. Our conversation is about what it means as well as what it ta...
Amy Unger (GitHub)
01 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Amy Unger, our guest on today’s show, is passionate about providing a high-quality service to the customers who use the products she is working on. ...
Brian Lawler (Iterable)
18 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Today we welcome Brian Lawler, who is a Principal Engineer at Iterable! Brian has a load of experience with software architecture, having worked in th...
Matthew Bilotti (Twitter)
04 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
On today’s episode of StaffEng, we speak with the formidable Matthew Bilotti who works as a Senior Staff Software Engineer at Twitter and has been a...
Natalia Tepluhina (GitLab)
20 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
As today’s guest, Natalia Tepluhina walks us through her professional history and describes her experiences at GitLab. After getting to know Natalia...
Jam Leomi (Honeycomb)
13 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Today we are joined by the inspiring Jam Leomi, who is currently the Lead Security Engineer at Honeycomb. Jam has worked in tech for over ten years, h...
Mike McQuaid (GitHub)
06 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Today we have a great guest to talk about his transition to, and current role as, a staff engineer: Mike McQuaid from GitHub! Mike is also a project l...
Sarah Dayan (Algolia)
30 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
A promotion might be a climb up the ladder but, in actual fact, it’s a step in many directions. Today, we speak with staff plus engineer Sarah Dayan...