cTENcf and Beyond - Leading Teams in an AI-Native World

Explore leadership transformation in the AI-native era through this keynote presentation delivered at a Cloud Native Computing Foundation conference. Discover how engineering managers and technical leaders must reinvent their approach to building and leading teams as AI becomes foundational rather than experimental. Learn from real-world experiences and global peer conversations about breaking down silos, creating flexible organizational structures, and fostering cultures where infrastructure and intelligence are tightly interwoven. Examine the critical leadership qualities needed—vision, adaptability, and conviction—to not just survive but actively shape the transformation from traditional cloud native practices to AI-native operations. Gain insights into moving beyond conventional organizational charts to embrace bold leadership approaches that can navigate uncertainty and drive innovation in an AI-first world. Understand why this inflection point in cloud native computing demands more than adaptation and requires complete reinvention of how teams operate, collaborate, and deliver value in the evolving technological landscape.