Career growth for engineering leaders in the AI era: Building your thesis, the “running framework” & developing technical depth w/ Chris Chiu #251
From The Engineering Leadership Podcast by The Engineering Leadership Community (ELC)
March 19, 2026 · 44 min
About this episode
Chris Chiu discusses navigating non-linear career paths for engineering leaders in the AI era.
Career progression is rarely a straight line. More often, it only makes sense in hindsight. Chris Chiu (VP of Engineering, Agentforce @ Salesforce) joins us to deconstruct how to navigate these non-linear career paths! We talk about identifying the mismatch in your current role, building a personal "career thesis," how to engineer a productive exploration phase and leverage your relationships / VC networks to understand the market. Plus, how to apply the "Running Framework" to ensure success in your next role and why technical depth is no longer optional for modern engineering leaders.
People in this episode
Guest: Chris Chiu
Topics covered
- career growth
- engineering leadership
- AI era
- career thesis
- technical depth
- non-linear career paths
- Running Framework
Keywords
- career progression
- personal thesis
- exploration phase
- relationships
- VC networks
- market understanding
- success framework
- technical depth
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Agentforce, Salesforce
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