How Zapier Makes Learning the Key to Performance—with Mojtaba Hosseini, VP of Engineering at Zapier

Brought to you by: Adeva — Global network of top developers connecting businesses with world-class talent.

In this episode of CTO Insights, Katerina Trajchevska is joined by Mojtaba Hosseini, VP of Engineering at Zapier, to explore how Zapier built a culture of strong customer focus, meaningful metrics, and long-term performance — and how they're using AI to drive real impact across the organization.

What You’ll Learn

- Why engineering is applied science in service of the customer

- How customer focus shapes culture and drives engineering decisions

- What “high performance” really means, and why it’s about the slope of learning

- How Zapier built a team-driven approach to metrics over four years

- What to measure—and what not to—when evaluating developer productivity

- How engineering can support other teams in adopting AI

- Why “always be learning” is a core engineering principle

- How to build habits of sharing and experimentation across teams

Mojtaba Hosseini is VP of Engineering at Zapier, where he’s spent the last several years building high-performing teams grounded in customer focus, data, and continuous learning. With a systems-thinking approach to leadership, Mojtaba has led Zapier’s engineering team through a four-year journey of defining meaningful metrics, shifting measurement from a top-down requirement to a team-driven habit.

He’s been leading Zapier’s efforts to bring AI into day-to-day work—helping engineers work more efficiently and supporting other teams across the company. He combines deep technical experience with hands-on leadership to build engineering teams that scale with focus, clarity, and impact.

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