Cisco ThousandEyes Leadership & Management

Tell us a bit about why you were brought on to lead this team. 

I bring 25 years of experience in the product development space, beginning my journey as a software engineer and evolving into an engineering leader. I joined ThousandEyes as a senior engineering manager of the Subscription Management team, and I have since advanced to lead the Platform Engineering group as a senior director of engineering. 

In this role, my team and I manage the core logic of our SaaS product, encompassing essential functionalities such as Role-Based Access Control, auditing capabilities, alerting infrastructure, third-party integrations, recommendations and subscription and account management.

How would you describe your approach to leadership and building team culture? 

My approach to leadership is rooted in situational leadership, allowing me to adapt based on the specific needs of the team and the tasks at hand. 

I believe teams thrive in an environment of trust. By providing space for my group to make decisions, learn and improve, they can quickly achieve their potential. Team agency is key to enable outcomes that are optimal for the teams themselves and our customer.

What are some issues in the industry that your team is tackling right now?

One of the constants I’ve observed throughout my career is the accelerating pace of change in the industry. ThousandEyes is no exception, and now that we are part of Cisco, the demand for new functionality has grown significantly. 

To address this, we are adopting asynchronous approaches such as event-driven architecture and self-service models to decouple engineering teams and increase velocity. This allows us to provide critical value to customers faster and pivot quickly when feedback indicates a need to shift direction.