Engineering Productivity and Developer Experience

In an increasingly complex technical landscape, the productivity of engineering teams is deeply intertwined with their developer experience. As modern software development cycles demand efficiency, seamless collaboration, and rapid iteration, the focus is shifting toward optimizing environments and workflows that empower developers to perform at their best. This track delves into the frameworks, tools, and practices that elevate both individual and team performance by prioritizing developer experience.

Topics covered include leveraging AI to enhance developer workflows, exploring the unique approach to developer experience at Monzo, and understanding how large tech firms structure their environments to optimize productivity. We will also dive into what makes golden paths and reusable patterns adoptable and shareable across an entire organization, enabling teams to work more efficiently. Additionally, we’ll explore how fostering developer joy contributes to building a thriving, innovative culture. Join us as we explore strategies to boost productivity, enhance toolchains, and cultivate an environment that supports innovation, creativity, and speed.

From this track

Session

Developer Experience at Monzo

Details coming soon.

Session

Impact of AI in Developer Experience

After almost 2 years of high attention on coding assistants, many engineering managers are disappointed by the measurable results, and engineers are suffering from hype fatigue, even the ones who have learned to love their new AI team mate.

Speaker image - Birgitta Böckeler

Birgitta Böckeler

Global Lead for AI-assisted Software Delivery @Thoughtworks

Date

Monday Apr 7 / 10:35AM BST

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Track Host

Blanca Rojo

Executive Director, Distinguished Engineer and Cloud Engineer @UBS

Blanca Rojo is a Distinguished Engineer and Executive Director at UBS, specializing in cloud engineering. Originally from Spain, she holds a degree and MSc in Software Engineering and was introduced to coding early by her parents, both math teachers. After moving to London, she began her career at an investment bank, initially as a Java engineer working with Spring and tackling complex challenges through code. Over time, Blanca transitioned to cloud engineering and data engineering, pivoting her career focus in 2019.

Blanca has been a passionate advocate for community involvement since 2017, volunteering with internal networks and organizing both in-person and virtual events. In 2021, she became the leader of the Women in Tech network in the UK, revamping its focus to include coding initiatives, upskilling women, and expanding the network's influence. Her technical expertise and community leadership led to her recognition as a Distinguished Engineer, a role that involves shaping technology and engineering practices across UBS.

In her current role, Blanca works in a Center of Excellence team, focusing on helping the department adopt a central Kubernetes offering to streamline cloud infrastructure and improve scalability. She is also the department’s AI champion, with a focus on enhancing developer experience and engineering productivity. Blanca and her team design, build, and maintain reusable cloud artifacts and best practices, ensuring high engineering standards across the organization. She leads proof-of-concept work, provides technical guidance to a department of 400+ engineers, and helps drive the adoption of innovative technologies and practices that optimize engineering workflows.

Blanca is also an emerging public speaker with a growing focus on AI-augmented development and its potential to improve developer experience. She has spoken at events such as London Tech Week, the Staff+ conference by Lead Dev, and internal tech conferences, sharing insights on topics like cloud-native architectures, patterns for monolith decompositions, and how AI can transform development processes to boost efficiency and collaboration.

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