Ex - Amazon & Google Shares his Journey | Rippling's Tech Culture | Shiva Chinnasamy | SCALER POD 19

In this episode of Scaler Pod, we have Shiva Chinnasamy, Vice President of Engineering at Rippling. He unravels his illustrious career and gains valuable insights from his experiences at major tech giants such as Amazon, Google, Target, and more. Also, he explains about Rippling, a workplace management SaaS company and explains how their team is organised, the challenges they have while hiring and the importance of being adaptive in times when AI tools like ChatGPT and GitHub Copilot are gaining popularity. Shiva takes us on a deep dive into his leadership roles in diverse domains like eCommerce, Retail, Search, and Performance Advertisements. He shares intriguing stories and pivotal moments that shaped his journey, providing a unique perspective on the challenges and triumphs he encountered along the way. As the conversation unfolds, Shiva enlightens us about Rippling, a prominent workforce management SaaS company. He delves into the company's origins, shedding light on what intrigued him about the founder's vision and the pivotal reasons that led him to join Rippling. He also touches upon the B2B hurdles for engineers and also about their Billboard Advertisement campaign 'Engineers Run Rippling' that helped them get visibility and brand recognition. Through his firsthand experiences, Shiva offers valuable insights into the tech culture and organizational structure at Rippling, highlighting the company's commitment to maintaining a high hiring bar and the diamond shape structure that they have internally. He explains why Rippling primarily seeks out principal or staff engineers, emphasizing the value of exceptional talent in driving innovation and maintaining industry leadership. Furthermore, Shiva touches upon the ever-growing AI boom and its impact on the tech industry. He shares his perspectives on how individuals can prepare themselves for this transformative wave of technology, emphasizing the importance of adaptability and a growth mindset. Also, check out other Scaler Pod Episodes: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLhBy6YSIT0DjPC-a9j-Alz21GHOjzrVe Timestamps: 00:00 Introduction

00:20 Day in His Life at Work

03:45 His Journey and Tech Career (Amazon, Google, Target and more)

08:30 Becoming Manager, Building team and analysing Maxima - Minima

13:30 His Experiences at Amazon and AWS

18:27 Setting up Ads for Amazon, Problem Statement and advice from Jeff Bezos

21:56 Moving back to India and joining Amazon India Team

26:01 Working at Target, Massive Spends and Scale

32:58 Being Technology Director at Tesco

34:26 His Attempt to do a Startup

35:56 His learnings from Google & leading engineering for Gpay

40:14 Why he joined Rippling and Rippling's Idea?

44:54 SaaS, HRIS Systems and Issues

47:54 Rillping Architecture, Product Offerings and Flow

52:39 Tackling Regulations, Payroll and Client Centricity

57:14 Aligning Engineers with Business Logic and Regulatory Complexations

01:01:26 Engineering Challenges at Rippling and Managing Scale

01:05:30 Optimising for Cost and Managing Bandwidth for Engineers

01:10:46 B2B Challenges for Engineers and How rippling deals with it

01:14:56 How to adapt as a Builder & Amozon's Research Case Study

01:20:00 Different Management Styles and Managers

01:24:59 Advise for Team Leaders

01:26:58 Tech Culture at Rippling, Org Complexity and growth opportunities

01:31:02 Onboarding/ Hiring at Rippling and Employee Cycle

01:34:14 Hiring Challenges, Staff Engineers and Effect of Rippling's Billboard Campaign

01:37:05 Being Adaptive and on AI Boom ( ChatGPT, GitHub Copilot)

01:41:55 Outro #Amazon #Google #Scalerpod #rippling #scaler #podcast #scaleracademy