Sebastian Gierlinger on Scaling Remote Engineering at Storyblok

Sebastian Gierlinger on Scaling Remote Engineering at Storyblok

From Semaphore Uncut by Semaphore

January 14, 2026 · 31 min

About this episode

Sebastian Gierlinger discusses scaling remote engineering at Storyblok and the challenges faced as the team grows.

In this episode of Semaphore Uncut , Sebastian Gierlinger, VP of Engineering at Storyblok, shares what it really takes to scale a fully remote engineering organization—from early startup days to a 250-person company. The conversation explores how Storyblok scaled engineering across multiple time zones without losing alignment or delivery speed. Sebastian explains why Scrum stopped working as the team grew, what changed after adopting Shape Up, and how specialization—if left unchecked—can quietly turn into a bottleneck for growing teams. They also discuss what remote-first organizations need to get right as they scale, from decision-making and trust to execution at speed. The episode closes with a candid look at how AI is already changing day-to-day engineering work—and why scaling engineering is ultimately less about hiring faster and more about designing better systems. 👉 Read the full blog post for the complete conversation — and happy listening! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit semaphoreio.substack.com

People in this episode

Guest: Sebastian Gierlinger

Topics covered

  • remote engineering
  • scaling teams
  • Scrum
  • Shape Up
  • decision-making
  • trust
  • AI in engineering

Keywords

  • remote work
  • engineering organization
  • team alignment
  • delivery speed
  • specialization
  • bottleneck
  • execution
  • AI impact

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Storyblok, Scrum, Shape Up, AI

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