Anton Pleshivtsev spent over eight years at Bravado, climbing from Head of Engineering to VP, before stepping into a new chapter as Director of Engineering at Sendblue in the San Francisco Bay Area. He talks about the pivot from hands-on engineer to engineering leadership, what it's like to join a small, fast-moving startup after a long tenure at one company, and how he scaled, coached, and developed engineering teams as Bravado grew.

His technical roots are in Python, Django, Redis, and high-load systems, and the conversation traces what changes when an individual contributor becomes a leader, and what keeps external vendor relationships from breaking down.

What we covered:

• The pivot from hands-on engineer (Python, Django, Redis, high-load systems) to engineering leadership, and the shift in mindset that move requires.
• What it's like to join a small, fast-moving startup after a long tenure at one company, and the value of in-person team interactions.
• How he scaled, coached, and developed engineering teams as Bravado grew, building trust and relationships along the way.
• Navigating the challenges of management, and how he thinks about the engineering versus management career tracks.
• How he thinks about external vendors and contractors, what makes those relationships break down, and what makes them stick.
• The role of AI in engineering and management, interviewing for new engineering roles, the evolving role of product managers, and creating context for engineering tasks.

Episode 159 of the PreVetted Podcast.