What we’re about
***[IMPORTANT] ***
SFELC has migrated from Meetup to its own website (https://sfelc.com/). Please register on the website instead of here. All future events will be announced there. Through the website, you can see videos and photos of past events, as well as other resources, such as book lists, etc.
ABOUT US
SFELC is a curated community of engineering leaders with 2000+ leaders from over 800 companies. Although we started in San Francisco, we are here to serve all engineering leaders.
OUR MISSION
To connect world's engineering leaders and help evolve the way leadership is implemented in the tech industry.
OUR BELIEFS
• Most problems we face have been solved by others in the community. What's missing is the connection.
• Everyone (even the least experienced) has learnings valuable to others.
• Our challenges are often nuanced and context-dependent, so having dialogs is critical.
RESOURCES
• YouTube channel for some of our past events: http://bit.ly/2ySKaRD ;
• Slides from our past speakers: http://bit.ly/2JZetrj ;
• Photos from recent events: http://bit.ly/2wh9kch
PAST SPEAKERS
• Tim Correia, SVP and General Manager @ Trulia
• Jason Fennell, Former SVP of Engineering @ Yelp
• Samantha Stoller, Sr. Staff Engineer @ Slack
• Kimber Lockhart, CTO @ One Medical Group
• Tomas Barreto, VP, Product & Engineering @ Checkr
• Deep Varma, VP of Engineering @ Trulia
• Dan Portillo, Former Talent Partner @ Greylock
• Wade Chambers, CTO & SVP of Engineering @ Grand Rounds
• Li Fan, Head of Engineering @ Lime
• Andy Fang, Co-founder & CTO @ DoorDash
• Jerry Krikheli, VP of Engineering @ Houzz
• Adam Wolff, VP of Engineering @ Robinhood
• Jean Hsu, Co-Founder @ Co Leadership
• Ming Hua, Engineering Director @ Facebook
• Jessica McKellar, Founder & CTO @ Pilot
• Erika Reinhardt, Engineering Manager @ Stripe
• Joanne Pons, VP of Engineering @ MyVest
• Allen Cheung, Senior Director of Engineering @ Affirm
• Rolf Jensen, SVP Engineering @ Tradeshift
• Maria Latushkin, SVP Engineering @ Omada Health
• Souvik Das, SVP Engineering @ Zenefits
• Dan Pupius, Co-Founder & CEO @ Range Labs
• Lei Yang, VP & Head of Engineering, Quora
• Jocelyn Goldfein, Managing Director @ Zetta Venture Partners
• Raylene Yung, Head of Payments, Stripe
• Mike Riccio, Director of Engineering, Google
• Krishna Bhagavan, GM, Alexa Reminders, Amazon
• Michael White, Head of Engineering, Caviar, Square
• Jason Warner, SVP of Technology, GitHub
• Dave Camp, VP of Engineering, Firefox at Mozilla
• Wade Foster, CEO & Co-founder @ Zapier
• Dana Lawson (moderator), VP of Engineering @ InVision
• Tim Olshansky, CTO @ Aconex
• John Thimsen, VP of Engineering @ Qualtrics
• Edward Kim, Co-founder & CTO @ Gusto
• Andy Chen, Partner @ Kleiner Perkins
• Naveen Gavini, Head of Product Engineering @ Pinterest
• David Silverman, former Navy SEALs Officer, Author of "Team of Teams", Founder & CEO @ CrossLead
• James Birchler, VP of Engineering @ SmugMug
• Wade Chambers, CTO & SVP of Engineering @ Grand Rounds
• Daniel Portillo, Talent Partner @ Greylock
• Scott Shumaker, VP of Engineering @ Credit Karma
• Jessica McKellar, Founder & CTO @ Pilot
• Soren Harner, VP of Engineering @ Mulesoft
• Nik Koblov, VP of Engineering @ Affirm
• Adrian McDermott, President of Products @ Zendesk
• Soren Abildgaard, Senior VP of Engineering @ Zendesk
• Mark Rabkin, VP of Engineering @ Facebook
• Deborah Liu, VP of Product, Marketplace @ Facebook
• Rob Mee, CEO @ Pivotal
• Steve Herrod, Managing Director @ General Catalyst, Former CTO & SVP of R&D @ VMware
• Jason Warner, SVP Technology @ GitHub
• Raylene Yung, Senior Engineering Leader @ Stripe
• Joe Binney, VP of Engineering @ Robinhood
• Lee Edwards, CTO @ Teespring
• Bill Portelli, Managing Partner @ CEO Quest, Co-founder and former CEO @ CollabNet
• Nick Caldwell, VP of Engineering @ Reddit
• Tim Correia, VP of Engineering & Product @ Zillow Group
• Wade Chambers, VP of Engineering @ Twitter
• Ron Lichty, Author of Manage the Unmanageable
• Simon Perryman, Director of Engineering @ Twitch
• Matt Greenberg, Sr. Director of Engineering @ Credit Karma
• Dan Pupius, former Head of Engineering @ Medium
OUR SPONSOR:
We are proudly partnering with Greylock Partners as our sponsor, who has been helping us tremendously since our early days.
From Greylock Partners:
"Greylock Partners backs entrepreneurs who are building disruptive, market-transforming consumer and enterprise software companies. We invest early in companies that define new markets, including Airbnb, AppDynamics, Arista Networks (NYSE: ANET), Cloudera (NYSE: CLDR), Docker, Dropbox, Facebook (Nasdaq: FB), LinkedIn (NYSE: LNKD), Medium, Nextdoor, Okta (NASDAQ: OKTA), Palo Alto Networks (NYSE: PANW), Pandora (NYSE: P), Pure Storage (NYSE: PSTG, Redfin (NASDAQ: RDFN) and Workday (NYSE: WDAY)."
Upcoming events (4+)
See all- [ELC Dinner] Unlock AI-Driven Vulnerability Management & Risk ReductionSan Francisco, CA, San Fran, CA
ELC is organizing a private, invite-only dinner in San Francisco on April 29 - AI in Action: Transforming Vulnerability Management and Reducing Risk.
At this small-group dinner, we’ll explore how security leaders are applying AI not just for faster detection, but for smarter prioritization and meaningful risk reduction.
Srinath Kuruvadi, Managing Director & Head of Product Security at JPMorganChase, will be joining as a guest speaker — alongside confirmed attendees from Tanium, Intuit, Slack and others.
You can learn more or request to join here (our new platform):
https://elc.community/public/events/executive-dinner-ai-in-action-transforming-vulnerability-management-and-reducing-risk-jtq082de42If this topic aligns with your work, feel free to submit a request via the link or message me directly — we’ll get back to you shortly！
- Roundtable: Reimagining Technical Interviews When AI Writes CodeLink visible for attendees
As generative AI continues to reshape the development landscape, traditional technical interviews need to evolve. Join us for a dynamic roundtable where engineering leaders will explore the future of technical hiring in an AI-driven world.
In this interactive session, we’ll unpack:
- How AI-generated code is shifting the focus from syntax to problem-solving, design thinking, and critical reasoning
- New evaluation frameworks that prioritize algorithmic understanding, creativity, and collaboration over pure coding proficiency
- Best practices for mitigating bias, ensuring fairness, and maintaining integrity in AI-influenced hiring processes
- Innovative interview strategies to assess candidates’ ability to adapt, debug, and solve complex challenges
Hosted by Nikrad Mahdi, technical advisor and former VP of Engineering at DeepScribe (AI scribe) and a veteran of engineering leadership roles at Dropbox, Figma, Quip, Salesforce, and Slack. Nikrad brings deep expertise in building collaborative, productive, and creative engineering cultures.
Join us to exchange actionable strategies, explore new interview frameworks, and connect with peers shaping the future of technical hiring.
We'd love you to join us - please click here (our new platform) to register！
- Roundtable: Taming the Cloud: Engineering Leadership's Role in Cost OptimizationLink visible for attendees
Cloud infrastructure unlocks speed and scalability—but with growing usage comes growing cost. As engineering leaders, how do we optimize cloud spend while keeping delivery on track?
Together, we'll explore:
- Cloud spend visibility strategies that empower teams to understand and own their resource usage
- Practical approaches to reduce cloud expenditure without compromising delivery timelines
- Effective FinOps practices tailored to different company stages and organizational maturity
- Cultural shifts needed to make cost optimization a shared engineering responsibility
- Tools and techniques for ongoing monitoring and continuous improvement
Join Sarah Duitsman, Engineering Director at C2FO, for a deep dive into cost-conscious cloud leadership. With nearly two decades of experience spanning both startups and large enterprises, Sarah has built high-impact teams that consistently deliver value while maintaining strong stakeholder partnerships. She’ll share practical insights into how engineering leaders can help their teams make smarter cloud decisions—balancing performance, velocity, and spend.
Let’s rethink cloud leadership—where transparency, efficiency, and business impact go hand in hand.
We'd love you to join us - please click here (our new platform) to register！
- Roundtable: Unlocking Strategic Thinking in Engineering LeadershipLink visible for attendees
Great engineering leaders don’t just execute—they shape the future. Strategic thinking separates those who react to problems from those who anticipate, influence, and drive lasting impact. In this discussion, we’ll dive into:
- How to move beyond tactical execution to long-term vision and decision-making.
- Balancing short-term product wins with scalable, future-proof architectures.
- Navigating market shifts, technology trends, and organizational dynamics with foresight.
- Developing systems, teams, and cultures that sustain growth and innovation.
Meet Your Host
Manju Abraham is a 30-year engineering leader who has scaled top R&D teams and delivered enterprise products at HPE, NetApp, Delphix, and HP. Her journey began at the Indian Space Research Organization, and she has since earned accolades for driving productivity, engineering culture, and transformation. Passionate about results and mentorship, Manju will share hard-won insights for leading with impact.Let’s break down real-world strategies, challenges, and insights that transform leaders from executors to visionaries. Are you thinking strategically enough?
We'd love you to join us - please click here (our new platform) to register！
![[ELC Dinner] Unlock AI-Driven Vulnerability Management & Risk Reduction cover photo](https://secure.meetupstatic.com/photos/event/8/b/c/a/event_527435786.webp "[ELC Dinner] Unlock AI-Driven Vulnerability Management & Risk Reduction")
