#158 - Sustainable Engineering Lessons From Scaling Up Wise - Balazs Barna

Tech Lead Journal

“A team has to be able to go fast if they have to. But they should always choose to go at a steady pace, most of the time. In the long run, what we emphasize is for each team to find their own space and pace."

Balazs Barna is the Head of US Engineering at Wise. In this episode, we delved into his insights on building sustainable engineering from scaling up Wise. Balazs started by touching on the engineering management role and described the traits of good and bad engineering management. We then went to discuss two different aspects of sustainable engineering, which are sustainable tech and sustainable teams. Throughout the discussion, Balazs outlined several key practices, such as weak code ownership, microservice strategy, stable pace, and building a bench.

Listen out for:

• Career Journey - [00:03:42]
• Building on Strengths - [00:05:52]
• Traits of a Good Engineering Management - [00:07:11]
• Limiting Work in Progress - [00:09:51]
• Traits of a Bad Engineering Management - [00:12:33]
• Sustainable Tech - [00:14:17]
• Weak Code Ownership - [00:19:25]
• Transitioning to Weak Code Ownership - [00:24:04]
• Microservice per Integration - [00:26:57]
• Managing Change Coupling - [00:30:12]
• Sustainable Team - [00:32:46]
• Dealing With Technical Debt - [00:35:57]
• Steady Pace - [00:37:41]
• Building a Bench - [00:39:59]
• 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:44:51]

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Balazs Barna’s Bio
Balazs Barna is the Head of Austin Operations & US Engineering at Wise. At Wise, Balazs oversees the newly formed Austin office and the global engineering team, building the tech and infrastructure needed to facilitate instant, convenient and affordable cross border transactions. Balazs led and helped his team build the company’s historic direct access integration to the Hungarian banking sector’s instant payment system, the first of its kind for a company with a payment service license. He also oversaw and built Wise’s core infrastructure that enables the company’s European operations. Prior to joining Wise, Balazs worked at MSCI and Morgan Stanley. He graduated from Corvinus University of Budapest in Business Information Systems (BSc), and Computer Engineering (MSc) from Pannon University.

Follow Balazs:

• LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/balazsbarn

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