The Confident Commit

CircleCI

Covering topics ranging from pipeline security to engineering team efficiency, The Confident Commit is for anyone looking to join the conversation on how to deliver software better and faster. Listen in today!

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August 20 · 39 min
The only context LLMs can’t fake ft. Dennis Pilarinos of Unblocked
Spinning up an agent is like hiring a brilliant engineer on day one: capable of almost anything, completely in the dark about how your organization actually works. That gap is expensive, and most teams are only starting to feel it. Dennis Pilarinos, founder and CEO of Unblocked, has been thinking about this problem longer than most. His argument is that the hardest part of software engineering was never writing code. It was always the context layered around it: the architectural call buried in a Slack thread, the incident postmortem that quietly changed a naming convention, the tribal knowledge that lived in someone's head until they left. AI made that problem viscerally visible. Agents burn tokens chasing answers that experienced engineers already carry. Dennis and Rob dig into what it actually takes to compete on context beyond just indexing source code, why the pull request is quietly becoming the uber class of the modern SDLC, and why the tokenomics reckoning that's coming for engineering leaders might finally give us the through-line from AI spend to business outcomes that the industry has never had. Dennis built developer tools across every major platform shift of the last 20 years, from the .NET framework at Microsoft to AWS, mobile CI at Buddybuild, and now agentic infrastructure at Unblocked. Why agents are "disgustingly inefficient" without organizational context The limits of source code alone, and what fills the gap How the pull request is changing form and function in an agentic world Context-powered code review and what it surfaces that standard tools miss Connecting AI spend to business outcomes: closer than ever, further than we think The 3-5% of engineers who are "AI-pilled" and what they've already figured out Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
August 6 · 30 min
Junior developers have one big advantage right now
Everyone keeps saying we don't need junior engineers anymore. This episode makes the case that's exactly wrong. Rob sits down with two CircleCI colleagues at opposite ends of the experience spectrum: Hanabel Mengistu, a new grad less than a year into her first engineering role, and Michael Webster, who has been writing software professionally since 2012. Together they explore what it actually feels like to enter the industry right now, when AI has reshuffled the deck for everyone. The conversation covers the gap between what college teaches (computer science) and what the job actually requires (everything else), the apprenticeship model and how AI is quietly eroding it, and why Hanabel's lack of preconceptions turns out to be a genuine advantage. Rob frames it well: when the tools change fast enough, everyone is back at the beginning together. That's disorienting for veterans, but it might be the best possible moment to be starting out. Hanabel Mengistu is part of CircleCI's Associate Rotational Program. Webster is a Staff Engineer at CircleCI with over a decade in the industry. Topics covered: Why "we don't need junior devs" is a short-sighted take The college-to-industry gap: CS education vs. real software engineering How AI is disrupting the apprenticeship model (and creating isolation for juniors) The "great leveler" effect: when nobody has 10 years of experience in tools that are 1 year old Curiosity as the defining trait for engineers in 2026 Essential vs. accidental complexity (and why Fred Brooks still matters) Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
July 23 · 30 min
Guardrails for shipping with AI agents, feat. Luca Rossi of Refactoring.fm
Code review has always been a time sink. AI just makes the dysfunction undeniable. Luca Rossi, founder of Refactoring.fm and builder of the open source tool Tolaria, has been running one of engineering's most-read newsletters for five years, with over 170,000 subscribers. He's also been doing what a lot of engineering leaders talk about but rarely do: building a real product with AI agents to pressure-test what's actually possible today. In this conversation, Rob and Luca dig into the state of AI adoption at the midpoint of 2026; what high-performing teams are getting right, why most orgs are still just bolting AI onto a broken process, and why code review was already a questionable practice before AI came along. Luca also walks through the "guides, gates, and guards" framework he uses to keep AI agents productive and honest on Tolaria: the instructions that steer agent behavior, the deterministic hooks that catch what agents ignore, and the nightly reflection loops that catch the rest. Luca is the founder of Refactoring.fm, a newsletter and community covering software engineering and engineering leadership. He spent a decade as a CTO and startup founder before going independent, and now builds in public as both a writer and a solo product builder. In this episode: Why adopting AI without fixing your process just means moving faster in the wrong direction What the most mature engineering teams are doing differently in 2026 The guides, gates, and guards framework for AI-assisted development Why Luca has been a code review skeptic since before the AI era How building Tolaria became a way to get ground truth about what AI agents can actually do The unexpected differences between running a startup and running an independent content business Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
June 18 · 35 min
Untested AI is unshippable AI, with Laurie Voss of Arize
Most AI applications in production right now were shipped on vibes. A developer ran a few queries, liked what they saw, and pushed to prod. Laurie Voss argues that's the core reason so many AI products feel broken, and the fix is simpler to name than it is to do: write the tests. Laurie is Head of Developer Relations at Arize AI. He's spent his career watching developer behavior at scale, and now building the case for rigorous eval practices in AI engineering. In this episode, he makes the case that evals aren't a specialized ML concept but a natural extension of software testing discipline that most engineers already understand. Rob and Laurie dig into what makes evals hard (non-determinism, the need for LLM-as-judge), how to keep costs manageable without sacrificing coverage, and the emerging pattern of capability evals that drive software improvement without any human in the loop. They also get into context engineering, context graphs, and whether software development is a narrow enough domain for agents to one-shot it anytime soon. Topics covered: • Why "evals are just tests" is the reframe that unlocks adoption • LLM-as-judge: how it works and how to tune it • Regression evals vs. capability evals, and why the distinction matters • How to run evals cost-effectively without going to Opus for everything • Context graphs as a compression strategy for large domains • Whether non-technical builders can ship reliable software with agents today Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts!
June 4 · 43 min
The skill gap AI can't close, with Hywel Carver of Skiller Whale
If 90% of code is now AI-generated, what happens to the engineers who never had to write it themselves? The ability to review code well, to catch what the LLM missed, depends on mental models that only come from practice. That tension sits at the center of this conversation. Rob and Hywel dig into how software engineers actually develop expertise, why knowledge transfer and real learning are not the same thing, and what it means to grow junior engineers in an era when the reps that used to build skill are disappearing. They also get into what separates engineers who get serious leverage from AI tools from those who don't, and why the answer has less to do with prompting tricks than with understanding how LLMs actually work. Hywel Carver is the founder and CEO of Skiller Whale, a human-led technical learning platform focused on building engineering skills through coached, hands-on practice. His teams have worked with organizations including Pleo, where one cohort saw a 235% productivity improvement through structured skills development. Topics covered: Why knowledge transfer is not the same as learning Bloom's taxonomy and what it takes to evaluate code effectively How AI adoption is changing the skill development path for junior engineers What separates high-leverage AI users from low-leverage ones Mental models as the durable foundation for navigating constant change Whether agile principles still hold in an AI-accelerated world Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
May 21 · 37 min
Same team, but building more ft. Chris Kelly of Augment Code
Most teams obsessing over token costs are measuring the wrong thing. The real savings from AI aren't in lines of code written faster. They're in the coordination overhead that disappears when fewer humans need to align before anything gets built. Chris Kelly, Head of Product at Augment Code, joins Rob to cover why prototypes have replaced specs, how agents enable dynamic team capacity the way cloud replaced over-provisioned servers, and what "good code" even means when your primary reader is an LLM. In this episode: Why coordination costs are the hidden savings of AI-assisted development How agents make dynamic team capacity finally achievable What junior engineers actually need to know as abstraction layers keep rising How self-improving agents could change incident response and code quality Have someone you’d like to hear on the show? Reach out to us on X at @CircleCI!
March 6 · 38 min
AI at Superhuman (before it was cool) feat. Loïc Houssier
What does it actually look like to build an AI-native product and lead an engineering team through the AI era when you've been doing it longer than most? Rob Zuber sits down with Loïc Houssier, CTO at Superhuman, to talk about what it meant to be an AI company before AI was everywhere, and how that early foundation shapes the way they build, ship, and think today. The conversation covers how Loïc drove AI tool adoption across his engineering org without mandates (and which senior engineer's change of heart became a cultural turning point), why great UX is still the real moat in an age where anyone can ship an average product fast, and how email, despite everything, remains the connective tissue of professional life. Plus: what it's like to rethink your entire SDLC when the economics of building software change overnight. Have someone you’d like to hear on the show, reach out to us on X at @CircleCI!
Nov 21, 2025 · 32 min
Shipping at AI speed: velocity, code review, and engineering culture ft. Greg Foster, Co-Founder & CTO of Graphite
In this episode of The Confident Commit, Rob Zuber sits down with Greg Foster, Co-Founder and CTO of Graphite, for a timely conversation about what it really means to ship software fast in the age of AI. Greg challenges the "996" grind culture with a provocative billboard campaign, arguing that speed comes from smart tooling and agency rather than endless hours, and shares how AI code generation is fundamentally reshaping the code review bottleneck while creating new trust and context challenges for engineering teams. The conversation explores the paradox of our current moment—where developers can generate more code than ever, yet senior engineers wake up to 20 AI-generated PRs that still require careful human review. Greg discusses why companies like Google’s techniques for handling high volumes of code changes are suddenly relevant again, the emerging role of AI code review as a "super linter," and why he believes the best engineering cultures prioritize being "urgent, expert, and kind." Whether you're an engineering leader navigating the AI transformation or a developer trying to understand how code review needs to evolve, this episode delivers practical insights on maintaining quality and velocity as AI reshapes software delivery. Have someone you'd like to hear on the show? Reach out and let us know on X at @CircleCI!
Nov 7, 2025 · 35 min
Product-minded engineering and leadership authenticity ft. Johnny Austin, VP of Engineering at Upwell
In this episode of The Confident Commit, Rob Zuber sits down with Johnny Austin, VP of Engineering at Upwell, for an honest conversation about what it really takes to grow as an engineering leader. The conversation explores the critical distinction between making your team happy versus setting them up for long-term success, why the most impactful engineers are those who ask questions about the business and product rather than just technical implementation details, and how to effectively communicate context across multiple levels of an organization. Whether you're an early-career engineer learning to think beyond the code or a leader working to build teams that drive real business value, this episode delivers practical wisdom grounded in real-world challenges. Have someone you'd like to hear on the show? Reach out and let us know on X at @CircleCI!
Oct 10, 2025 · 41 min
Navigating AI transformation ft. Meg Adams, Senior Director of Engineering at The New York Times
In this episode of The Confident Commit, Rob Zuber sits down with Meg Adams, Senior Director of Engineering at The New York Times, for a deep dive into leading engineering teams through the AI revolution while staying true to organizational mission. Meg shares how the Times approaches AI adoption with a "measured but focused" strategy, emphasizing experimentation and opinion-formation over mandates, and why she believes AI serves as a force multiplier for what already exists in your organization and workflows. The conversation explores the unique challenges of product engineering in media, from building cooking products for users across the entire spectrum of culinary expertise to navigating digital transformations that honor legacy while embracing an uncertain future. Meg discusses the importance of mission-driven leadership through technological transitions, why she prioritizes helping her engineers stay valuable in the marketplace, and her unconventional path from elementary education to retail management to engineering leadership. Whether you're an engineering leader managing AI adoption or someone thinking about the intersection of technology and human-centered products, this episode delivers insights on building resilient teams that can adapt while maintaining their core purpose. Have someone you'd like to hear on the show? Reach out and let us know on X at @CircleCI!
Sep 26, 2025 · 29 min
Building community-first brands ft. Edreece Arghandiwal, CMO & Co-Founder of Oakland Roots SC
In this episode of The Confident Commit, Rob Zuber sits down with Edreece Arghandiwal, CMO and Co-Founder of Oakland Roots Soccer Club, for an inspiring conversation about building purpose-driven organizations from the ground up. Edreece shares how the Roots challenged traditional sports business models by putting community first, turning a simple question—"Why isn't there professional soccer in Oakland?"—into a movement that raised $3.5 million from 6,000+ community investors with zero paid advertising. The conversation explores the parallels between building tech products and sports organizations, from using merchandise as a "landing page" to prove market demand, to the critical importance of obsessing over customer-facing touchpoints while maintaining operational flexibility behind the scenes. Edreece discusses the challenges of scaling while preserving authentic brand identity, why purpose should lead to profit (not the other way around), and how hiring good humans with strong moral compasses becomes the foundation for sustainable growth. Whether you're a startup founder looking to build authentic community engagement or a leader working to maintain organizational purpose at scale, this episode delivers actionable insights on creating brands that people proudly represent in their daily lives. Have someone you'd like to hear on the show? Reach out and let us know on X at @CircleCI!
Sep 12, 2025 · 43 min
Strategic career decisions ft. Cate Huston, Engineering Director at DuckDuckGo
In this episode of The Confident Commit, Rob Zuber sits down with Cate Huston, Engineering Director at DuckDuckGo and author of "The Engineering Leader," for a deep dive into career ownership and sustainable engineering leadership. Cate challenges the common misconception that career growth equals promotion, introducing the concept of being the "directly responsible individual" for your own career and the crucial difference between "buying" versus "renting" your skills in the marketplace. The conversation explores how to shift engineering teams from a "ticket factory" mindset to outcome-focused delivery, the tension between servant leadership and strategic leadership, and why the best engineering cultures encourage productive disagreement. Whether you're an individual contributor looking to take ownership of your trajectory or a leader working to create environments where people thrive, this episode delivers actionable wisdom for engineering professionals at every level. Have someone you’d like to hear on the show? Reach out and let us know on X at @CircleCI!
Aug 29, 2025 · 32 min
Unprecedented industry turbulence: leading through change ft. Pat Kua, author of LevelUp newsletter
Engineering leadership has never been more challenging, or more critical. In this episode, Rob sits down with Pat Kua, seasoned technology leader, author of three books including Building Evolutionary Architectures, and creator of the popular Level Up newsletter for technical leaders. Pat reveals how today's engineering leaders are navigating unprecedented industry turbulence: from AI disruption and talent shifts to economic uncertainty and constant organizational change. Drawing from his 20+ years coaching CTOs, VPs of Engineering, and emerging tech leads, he shares practical strategies for making decisions without perfect information and building resilient, adaptable teams. Key insights include: Why embracing uncertainty is a defining leadership skill, not a weakness How to apply agile principles beyond code—from team structures to strategic decisions The critical importance of creating "forcing functions" that drive continuous learning Why exposure to high-performing teams transforms your entire worldview Practical approaches for leading through AI adoption and industry shifts From small startups to global enterprises, Pat's guidance helps leaders focus on what they can control while building systems that thrive in constant change. Whether you're a first-time manager or seasoned executive, discover how to turn uncertainty into competitive advantage. Have someone in mind you'd like to hear on the show? Let us know on X at @CircleCI!
Aug 15, 2025 · 35 min
How engineers can improve creativity ft. Corey Latislaw of Trainline
Engineering leadership isn't just about technical execution—it's about unlocking the creative potential that drives individual and team success. CircleCI CTO Rob Zuber sits down with Corey Latislaw, Head of Engineering at Trainline and executive coaching expert, to explore how creativity transforms both careers and team dynamics. Corey challenges the myth that creativity is just for artists, revealing how engineering workflows are fundamentally creative processes. Her "Ideas, Not Art" framework shows how visual communication, coaching techniques, and strategic problem-solving help engineers and leaders thrive. From sketch notes to systems thinking, discover practical approaches for building stronger teams and accelerating personal growth in engineering. Have someone in mind you’d like to hear on the show? Let us know on X at @CircleCI!
Aug 1, 2025 · 45 min
The strategic art of build vs. buy in software delivery ft. Tara Hernandez of MongoDB
Rob Zuber sits down with Tara Hernandez, VP of Developer Productivity at MongoDB and former Netscape engineer who helped create early continuous integration systems, to explore strategic frameworks for build vs. buy decisions in modern software delivery. Hernandez shares insights from scaling MongoDB's proprietary CI system—processing 10 engineer years of compute daily—and reveals how organizations can evaluate when custom infrastructure drives competitive advantage versus when strategic partnerships accelerate growth. Her perspective on navigating the evolving landscape of CI/CD tooling offers actionable guidance for engineering leaders balancing innovation with operational efficiency. Have someone in mind you'd like to hear on the show? Reach out to us on X at @CircleCI!
Jul 18, 2025 · 37 min
Looking beyond dev productivity to increase speed ft. Brian Guthrie of Justworks
Speed isn't just about developer productivity—it's about market dominance. Rob sits down with Brian Guthrie, Director of Engineering at Justworks and former ThoughtWorks consultant, to explore why lead time from conception to production should be your organization's north star metric. Brian challenges conventional CI/CD wisdom, arguing that asynchronous pull request processes create hidden context transfer costs that cripple time-to-market. His "Move Faster Manifesto" reveals how continuous integration was originally designed for speed, the real cost of feature branching versus trunk-based development, and why reducing integration problems translates directly to competitive advantage. Have someone you'd like to hear on the show? Let us know on X at @CircleCI!
Dec 6, 2024 · 29 min
How Fidelity Investments drives software innovation at scale ft. Ger McMahon
In this episode, Rob sits down with Ger McMahon, Head of ALM Tools and Platforms at Fidelity Investments, to explore the unique challenges of delivering software rapidly in a large enterprise. They dive into strategies for fostering innovation and effectively sharing ideas across diverse teams within the organization. Ger highlights the delicate balance between building internal tools and creating customer-facing applications, emphasizing the critical role of keeping the customer at the center of decision-making. He also shares insights into why Fidelity prioritizes being a "technology company that delivers financial services," and how that mindset shapes their approach to software development. Whether you’re part of a large organization or navigating the complexities of enterprise software delivery, this episode offers valuable perspectives and actionable ideas. Have a guest suggestion? Connect with us on X at @CircleCI!
Sep 20, 2024 · 34 min
Using observability to ship faster with confidence ft. Christine Yen, CEO of Honeycomb
In this episode of The Confident Commit, Rob sits down with Christine Yen, CEO of Honeycomb, to delve into the evolving role of observability in modern software development. They discuss how observability goes beyond traditional metrics and monitoring, and allows developers to be better prepared for the unknown and embrace the complexities of distributed systems. Christine shares insights on how observability not only boosts developer confidence but also enhances productivity by reducing toil and enabling teams to focus on delivering value for customers. The conversation shifts to the value of Service Level Objectives (SLOs) and why discussions around them often focus heavily on measurement tools and technical implementations. Christine offers valuable advice on steering these conversations towards healthier, more customer-centric perspectives. By reframing the conversation, developers and teams can focus on delivering real value, aligning technical goals with customer needs and driving meaningful outcomes. Have a guest you’d like to hear on the podcast? Reach out to us on X at @CircleCI!
Sep 6, 2024 · 33 min
Improving dev experience through trust and data ft. Laura Tacho of DX
In this episode, Rob is joined by Laura Tacho, CTO at DX, to explore the continuous rising focus on developer experience and its impact on both engineers and businesses. They discuss how investing in developer experince is not just about making life easier for developers; it’s also a smart business move that cuts down on waste and boosts efficiency. Laura emphasizes the importance of trusting developers to identify their own challenges, as they’re the ones navigating the daily complexities of their work. The conversation also touches on how recent global changes have influenced engineering leadership and made dev experience a higher priority. Laura shares her thoughts on the value of combining survey data with peer metrics to enhance developer experience. If there’s anyone you’d like to hear on the show, please reach out to us on X at @CircleCI !
Aug 23, 2024 · 30 min
The current state of AI ft. Birgitta Böckeler of Thoughtworks
In this episode of The Confident Commit, Rob is joined by Birgitta Böckeler, Global Lead for AI-assisted software delivery at Thoughtworks, to dive deep into the dynamic world of GenAI and its impact on software development. They explore the shifting landscape of GenAI usage and adoption over the last 18 months, tackling critical questions like how to leverage fast-moving advancements without building solutions that become obsolete in weeks. Birgitta shares her insights on when it might be better to build something yourself to avoid the instability of rapid technological change. They also discuss what aspects of AI she currently considers stable and which are still in flux. Birgitta issues a crucial warning: don’t overestimate AI by using it as a band-aid to cover up deeper issues in your software pipeline. Whether you're a seasoned developer or just curious about the future of software delivery, this episode offers valuable perspectives on navigating the complexities of AI in today’s fast-paced tech environment. Have someone in mind you’d like to hear on the show? Reach out to us on X at @CircleCI!

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