The Engineering Leadership Podcast Podcast By The Engineering Leadership Community (ELC) cover art

The Engineering Leadership Podcast

The Engineering Leadership Podcast

By: The Engineering Leadership Community (ELC)
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We share the most critical perspectives, habits & examples of great software engineering leaders to help evolve leadership in the tech industry. Join our community of software engineering leaders @ www.sfelc.com!327413 Economics Management Management & Leadership
Episodes
  • Vision-first leadership & reimagining product w/ “Shift Out,” Do-It-as-a-Service & Jobs-to-Be-Done w/ John Amaral #226
    Jul 8 2025
    ABOUT JOHN AMARAL

    John Amaral, CTO and co-founder of Root.io, is a veteran cybersecurity leader with a proven track record of scaling and exiting successful companies. At Cisco, he led Product for Cloud Security—its fastest-growing Security and SaaS business. Before that, he ran product and engineering at CloudLock through its acquisition by Cisco in 2016. Earlier, as SVP of Product at Trustwave, John led its industry-leading security portfolio, culminating in a strategic acquisition by Singtel. Today, he’s building Root.io—a next-gen cybersecurity platform pioneering Agentic Vulnerability Remediation (AVR) to automate and eliminate software vulnerabilities at scale.

    This episode is brought to you by Side – delivering award-winning QA, localization, player support, and tech services for the world’s leading games and technology brands.

    For over 30 years, Side has helped create unforgettable user experiences—from indies to AAA blockbusters like Silent Hill 2 and Baldur’s Gate 3.

    Learn more about Side’s global solutions at side.inc.

    SHOW NOTES:
    • The evolving role of engineering leaders (2:13)
    • “Shift Left is Dead” - Why it’s time to “Shift Out” (5:59)
    • Applying Jobs-To-Be-Done & offloading toil with AI (11:00)
    • Root.io’s AI-driven approach to security (15:03)
    • Vision First Leadership (22:36)
    • Empowering developers & shipping daily (27:38)
    • Rethinking product & engineering orgs and building your vision muscle (30:47)
    • Unlocking creativity through hobbies (36:37)
    • Rapid fire questions (41:14)
    LINKS AND RESOURCES
    • The All-In Podcast - When the pandemic prevented four friends from convening their weekly poker game, they took to the airwaves to socialize and discuss the news of the day. What started on a whim has quickly become one of the top-ranked podcasts in the world.
    This episode wouldn’t have been possible without the help of our incredible production team:

    Patrick Gallagher - Producer & Co-Host

    Jerry Li - Co-Host

    Noah Olberding - Associate Producer, Audio & Video Editor https://www.linkedin.com/in/noah-olberding/

    Dan Overheim - Audio Engineer, Dan’s also an avid 3D printer - https://www.bnd3d.com/

    Ellie Coggins Angus - Copywriter, Check out her other work at https://elliecoggins.com/about/

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    45 mins
  • Quick Summer Break! Join us @ ELC Annual 2025 (Early Bird Tickets End Soon)
    Jul 1 2025
    We’re pausing the pod this week as we gear up final planning for ELC Annual 2025 - the premier event for engineering leaders. New episodes return next week (on a biweekly schedule!). This is our biggest event of the year… 1,000+ CTOs, VPs & Directors in San Francisco @ ELC Annual 2025 for two days of leadership breakthroughs, tactical peer learning & curated connections! We’d love for you to join us. 🎟️ Early Bird pricing ends soon – secure your spot at the best rate. 🔗 Get your ticket now → https://sfelc.com/annual2025
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    3 mins
  • Scaling decision-making, designing eng orgs for speed & scope as underrated leverage w/ Dhruv Parthasarathy #225
    Jun 25 2025
    ABOUT DHRUV PARTHASARATHY

    Dhruv Parthasarathy has spent the last 8 years focused on applying modern software and machine learning techniques in healthcare. Dhruv currently serves as the CTO of Commure, HATCO, and Augmedix. In the role of CTO, he leads product, engineering, and design teams. Prior to this, Dhruv helped found Athelas which eventually merged with Commure.

    In these roles, Dhruv has designed and developed end-to-end solutions for revenue cycle automation, ambient documentation, patient engagement, and at-home diagnostics for oncology.

    Before this, Dhruv was the Director of Machine Learning Programs at Udacity, where he led the development of the AI, Self-Driving Car, Deep Learning, and Machine Learning Nanodegree programs.

    Dhruv also worked as a Product Engineer at Udacity, where he rebuilt the main signed-in experience and was responsible for the backend development. Dhruv obtained a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2013. Following this, they pursued a Master's degree in Computer Science with a concentration in Artificial Intelligence at MIT from 2013 to 2014.

    This episode is brought to you by Side – delivering award-winning QA, localization, player support, and tech services for the world’s leading games and technology brands.

    For over 30 years, Side has helped create unforgettable user experiences—from indies to AAA blockbusters like Silent Hill 2 and Baldur’s Gate 3.

    Learn more about Side’s global solutions at side.inc.

    SHOW NOTES:
    • How the Commure team moves with speed & momentum (3:26)
    • Commure’s operational strategy / key leadership principles (4:57)
    • Hiring & cultivating multi-talented individuals (7:16)
    • How to optimize decision-making, push decisions down & minimize risk (8:40)
    • Why speed is a core principle for building successful eng orgs (11:36)
    • Getting unstuck in your decision-making as an eng team (13:07)
    • Challenges faced while building a high-performing eng team in healthcare (15:47)
    • Tactics for hiring less experienced engineers & bringing them up to speed (18:22)
    • Customization as a product principle and how it manifests in EPD (20:55)
    • Why the polymath style approach to engineering is more vital now than ever (23:47)
    • Lessons learned around scope & using it to create leverage (26:06)
    • Frameworks for assessing areas most likely to create a compound win (28:22)
    • Rapid fire questions (30:35)
    LINKS AND RESOURCES
    • Cinema Speculation - The long-awaited first work of nonfiction from the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling Once Upon a Time in Hollywood: a deliriously entertaining, wickedly intelligent cinema book as unique and creative as anything by Quentin Tarantino.
    This episode wouldn’t have been possible without the help of our incredible production team:

    Patrick Gallagher - Producer & Co-Host

    Jerry Li - Co-Host

    Noah Olberding - Associate Producer, Audio & Video Editor https://www.linkedin.com/in/noah-olberding/

    Dan Overheim - Audio Engineer, Dan’s also an avid 3D printer - https://www.bnd3d.com/

    Ellie Coggins Angus - Copywriter, Check out her other work at https://elliecoggins.com/about/

    Show more Show less
    38 mins
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