What's inside high-performing engineering teams | In conversation with VP, Engineering at ServiceNow скачать в хорошем качестве

What's inside high-performing engineering teams | In conversation with VP, Engineering at ServiceNow

Michael Avrahamov, VP of Engineering at ServiceNow, joins Mala Ramakrishnan to discuss what it really takes to lead large engineering teams in the age of AI. From early startup work building developer platforms to leadership roles at Siebel, Oracle, and now ServiceNow, Michael shares how he built a niche in observability and reliability engineering—and why falling in love with hard technical problems shaped his career. The conversation dives deep into AI-assisted coding, the risks of auto-generated code, IP concerns, and whether locking down engineers slows innovation. Michael also unpacks how ServiceNow infused AI into discovery, CMDB, and ITSM workflows—and what it means to scale responsibly with 170+ engineers. If you’re a founder, engineering leader, or developer navigating AI productivity tools, governance, and code quality, this episode is packed with practical insight. _________________________________________________________________ Timestamps 00:00 Intro and Michael’s journey into tech 01:00 Early startup days and developer platforms 02:20 Discoverability, observability, and reliability focus 03:40 From Siebel to Oracle to ServiceNow 05:00 Reverse engineering the JVM and deep debugging 06:40 ServiceNow’s early AI efforts before GenAI 08:00 The ChatGPT pivot and accelerating product development 09:30 Infusing AI as a co-pilot into product workflows 10:50 Automating ITSM tickets with AI agents 12:00 Managing a 170-engineer organization 13:00 AI adoption vs locking down engineers 14:30 Preparing internal systems for AI usefulness 15:50 Where AI actually improved productivity 17:00 The 2 million lines of AI-generated code problem 18:30 Code quality, review discipline, and verification risks 19:40 Should AI intentionally inject errors to test humans? 20:30 Freedom vs governance in AI usage 21:40 Prioritizing roadmap vs one-off customer demands 23:00 Startup advice: protect focus and your moat 24:00 Final thoughts on leadership in the AI era _________________________________________________________________ 🔗 Connect with Michael Avrahamov →   / michaelavr   🔗 Connect with Mala Ramakrishnan →   / malaramakrishnan   🎧 Subscribe to the podcast Youtube:    / @mala-podcast   Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1NIDE4c... Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... Visit our Website: www.malaramakrishnan.com | www.founderscreative.ai