LeadDev Meetup - London

LeadDev London meetup

🎟 Please RSVP BELOW! 🎟
Join us for our next LeadDev meet-up on June 18th and enjoy an evening of networking and talks.

Date: Thursday, 18th June
Time: 6 - 9pm
Location: Softwire, 315, Highgate Studios, 53-79 Highgate Rd, London NW5 1TL

Spaces are limited - you must RSVP to attend. We hope to see you there!

⏰ SCHEDULE ⏰
18:00 - Arrival, networking and refreshments
18:30 - Welcome from our host
18:40 - Unchartered territory: From Engineering Manager to Head of Engineering - Natalie Parker, Head Of Engineering at ENSEK
19:00 - Extreme Curiosity: The solution to all of AI's challenges - Andy Huang, Technical Lead at Softwire
19:10 - Break
19:40 - Certainty is an illusion - Mary Gudman, Senior Engineering Manager at ENSEK
20.00 - Networking
21.00 - Close

🎤 SPEAKERS 🎤
Unchartered territory: From Engineering Manager to Head of Engineering - Natalie Parker, Head Of Engineering at ENSEK
Making the leap from engineering manager to head of engineering is one of the least-documented transitions in a technical career. There's no shortage of advice for moving from senior engineer to tech lead or engineering manager, yet the step up to senior leadership remains rarely documented. It's also the point when your day to day will likely change most significantly from previous roles.
This talk is the resource I wish I'd had. I'll walk through the five biggest shifts you'll encounter when moving from managing a single team to leading multiple teams and workstreams: where intentional time management becomes non-negotiable, why "disagree and commit" hits differently at this level, how organisational politics become unavoidable, why you'll need a crash course in product, marketing and finance, and why getting your team right is the foundation for everything else.
For each area I'll share practical tips from my own experience, followed by honest advice on how to assess whether this transition is right for you — and how to prepare when the time comes.
Whether you're actively considering a move into senior leadership or simply curious about what could lie ahead, this talk will give you an honest, grounded picture of what the role actually demands.

Extreme Curiosity: The solution to all of AI's challenges - Andy Huang, Technical Lead at Softwire
The impact that agentic AI tooling has had on the industry is undeniable, destroying barriers-to-entry and producing immeasurable levels of output. Working applications can be created by non-coders in a matter of minutes in a chat window, and unmanageable numbers of pull requests, issues, and vulnerabilities are demanding the attention of engineers. How does the unrelenting drive to explore digressive questions help us thrive where AI would otherwise threaten our very existence?

Certainty is an illusion - Mary Gudman, Senior Engineering Manager at ENSEK
Most engineering leaders have been here: the company is restructuring, the strategy is shifting, and your team is looking to you for answers you don't have. The instinct is either to project confidence you don't feel, or to be radically transparent in a way that destabilises everyone around you. Neither works.
Leading through uncertainty when you're uncertain too is a skill. It can be learned. This is what learning it looked like for me.