$ cat career.log
30 years of showing up
where systems are broken
and making them work.
Not a resume. A pattern.
[0] whoami
I've spent 30 years in the gap between what engineers build and what organizations need. I've been an engineering manager, a program lead, a platform engineer, a founder, a product strategist, and a keynote speaker. The common thread: I fix the system, not the symptom.
Right now I'm a Chief Developer Advisor at Microsoft, working with engineering leaders across EMEA on what happens when AI isn't a demo anymore — it's a coworker. The frameworks I built (Agentile, ISEE) exist because I got tired of watching smart teams fail with good tools.
[1] the pattern
My career isn't a ladder. It's a loop: see the broken system → understand why it's actually broken → build the fix → move on when it's boring. I just keep running it at increasing scale.
The Trenches
The early yearsGovernment, telecom, ISPs, networking, security. I didn't plan a diverse portfolio — I followed broken systems across domains. Every industry had the same problem wearing different clothes: teams building the wrong thing, platforms held together with duct tape, and nobody connecting engineering decisions to business outcomes.
→ I learned that technology problems are almost never technology problems.
The Scale-Up
Engineering management & program leadershipLed engineering teams, ran transformation programs, managed large-scale platform migrations. Moved from writing code to designing the systems that let other people write better code. Discovered that the hardest engineering problem is the one where the variable is a human with a calendar and opinions.
→ Shipping faster means nothing if you're shipping the wrong thing faster.
The Bridge
DevRel, product strategy & advisoryWorked across Microsoft, Spotify, Port, and developer tooling vendors. Built developer marketing strategies, fostered open-source communities, and learned to translate between engineers who hate marketing and marketers who don't understand engineers. Led sales enablement, technical marketing, and community growth — always measuring what actually moved the needle.
→ Trust with developers isn't built with swag. It's built by knowing what you're talking about.
The Founder
Great SuccessFounded Great Success to do interim IT leadership and tech strategy for organizations going through complex transformations. Worked across EMEA as a trusted advisor for CTOs — aligning strategy, stakeholders, and engineering teams to deliver outcomes, not just output. Backstage, Port, Azure DevOps, GitHub — I've operated the platforms I advise on.
→ Your success is my success. That's not a slogan. It's a billing model.
The Thesis
Microsoft & AgentileCurrently at Microsoft as Chief Developer Advisor. Created the Agentile operating model and the ISEE framework because Agile assumed all work is done by humans — and that assumption broke. I work with CxOs and engineering leaders on the shift toward human-agent collaboration. I built two multi-agent systems to prove the frameworks work. Then I wrote the 8-part series so everyone else could argue about them.
→ I didn't pivot to AI. AI pivoted to the problems I've been solving for 30 years.
[2] things i built
The receipts. Not a portfolio — a rap sheet.
[3] the current commit
I'm not coasting on history. Here's where the energy goes right now.
Microsoft — Chief Developer Advisor
Working with CxOs and engineering leaders across EMEA. Shaping strategy around developer experience, AI adoption, and the shift toward human-agent collaboration. Translating what engineers know into what executives need to hear — and vice versa.
Agentile & ISEE Framework
The operating model I built because Agile broke when AI entered the loop. ISEE (Intent, Structure, Execution, Evidence) gives teams a framework for speed that doesn't sacrifice accountability. Eight articles. One working multi-agent system. Infinite conference arguments.
Multi-Agent Systems
I don't just theorize — I build. Git-Ape is a cooperative multi-agent platform for infrastructure. The detective game is an adversarial multi-agent system where AI agents lie to your face. Same design patterns. Different vibes.
Speaking & Writing
Keynotes and sessions on Agentile, platform engineering, and multi-agent orchestration. The "Engineering Beyond Agile" series on Substack. I say this stuff out loud so people can argue with me in person.
[4] stack trace
Not a skills list. A diagnostic. Find your symptom.
›Your platform team is a bottleneck, not an accelerator
→ Platform Engineering
Your platform team is a bottleneck, not an accelerator
→ Platform Engineering
I've built and advised on internal developer platforms with backstage.io, getport.io, Azure DevOps, and GitHub. I know the difference between a platform that ships golden paths and one that ships friction.
›Your developers hate your tools and nobody knows why
→ Developer Productivity & DevEx
Your developers hate your tools and nobody knows why
→ Developer Productivity & DevEx
Developer experience isn't about better IDEs. It's about removing the 60% of time engineers spend not writing code. I've optimized SDLCs and DevEx programs across organizations of 50 and organizations of 5,000.
›Your AI adoption is all demos and no production
→ AI Strategy & Adoption
Your AI adoption is all demos and no production
→ AI Strategy & Adoption
I work with CxOs on what happens after the pilot. The org design, the guardrails, the decision frameworks, the parts that make AI actually stick. Not the vibes — the structure.
›Agile is making you slower, not faster
→ Agentile & Operating Model Design
Agile is making you slower, not faster
→ Agentile & Operating Model Design
I created the Agentile operating model because sprints and standups were designed for humans coordinating with humans. When agents enter the loop, you need new structures. I built them.
›Your agents can deploy but nobody can tell them no
→ Multi-Agent Orchestration & Governance
Your agents can deploy but nobody can tell them no
→ Multi-Agent Orchestration & Governance
Codified trade-offs, blocking gates, policy-as-code. I've built two multi-agent systems — one cooperative, one adversarial — and the governance patterns transferred across both.
›Your transformation program is stuck in committee
→ Change Management & Stakeholder Alignment
Your transformation program is stuck in committee
→ Change Management & Stakeholder Alignment
I align strategy, stakeholders, and engineering teams to deliver outcomes, not output. Across government, telecom, financial services, ISVs, and security — complexity is the constant.
$ echo "What now?"