Tilt Engineering

Empower's engineering team is redefining what it means to use "the best tools" in a world where AI isn’t just a novelty, but a game changer. In his latest post, James Garrett shows how innovative AI tools are transforming on-call support, QA, and code reviews—taking the timeless principles of the Joel Test into the future. Dive in to see how early adoption is turning everyday challenges into competitive advantages.

Onsites are crucial for remote teams to build strong bonds and a thriving company culture. While remote work offers flexibility and efficiency, in-person gatherings provide unique opportunities to deepen relationships, foster collaboration, and align on shared goals. Empower, a fully remote company, has successfully integrated onsites into their work culture by balancing purposeful work sessions with unstructured downtime and engaging team-building experiences. By thoughtfully planning events that are inclusive and cater to diverse interests, Empower ensures that every onsite is enjoyable and memorable for all team members. Clear communication, adaptability, and empathy are key to creating a positive experience for everyone, and gathering feedback is essential for continuous improvement and future success.

Finding the right engineering job goes beyond matching your technical skillset—it’s about creating a balance between your professional ambitions and personal lifestyle. As James shares from his own experience at Empower, achieving long-term career satisfaction means pinpointing your non-negotiables, asking insightful questions during interviews, and ensuring the culture, team dynamics, and leadership style truly align with your unique values and goals.

Struggling to balance speed, quality, and technical debt in your software projects? Discover actionable strategies to manage trade-offs, prioritize critical decisions, and deliver reliable products faster. Dive into insights from Empower's CTO, Justin Ammerlaan, and learn how to leverage technical debt without compromising on quality. Read now to transform your engineering processes!

Transitioning from Senior Engineer to Staff Engineer is a defining moment in your career—one that demands more than just technical expertise. At this level, your ability to influence, strategize, and lead initiatives takes centre stage. But how do you stand out and pave your way to the next milestone? In this post, we’ll explore three game-changing strategies to elevate your impact, showcase your achievements, and take control of your career trajectory. Whether you're eyeing a Staff Engineer role or aiming even higher, these actionable insights will help you unlock your full potential and accelerate your growth.

This article outlines six core principles for developing robust and maintainable Azure pipelines. The author, Paul Gradie, highlights the importance of decoupling build processes from deployment processes to improve efficiency and speed. He also emphasises designing pipelines at the job level to ensure clarity and maintainability. Furthermore, Gradie advocates for the use of templates as functions to encapsulate logical groupings of behaviours within pipelines, promoting reusability and readability. The article explores the distinction between intrinsic and non-intrinsic values when parameterising templates, suggesting that behaviours should be intrinsic to templates while details should be parameterised. It also stresses the importance of parameterising values likely to change to avoid hard-coding and potential maintenance issues. Finally, the author discusses the use of a global variable template as a convenient way to access common variables across multiple pipelines, while acknowledging the need for careful consideration to maintain transparency and avoid introducing "magic" into the pipelines.

The concept of Server-driven UI (SDUI), a technique that allows for more rapid iteration and deployment of mobile applications by shifting client-side logic to a remote server. The author, Hamish Cundy, details Empower's implementation of SDUI, using Kotlin and GraphQL to decouple the client app from the backend, enabling quicker updates and product experimentation. He provides a detailed overview of the architecture, including components, actions, and screen definitions, illustrating how SDUI empowers mobile developers to deliver new features and bug fixes with significantly reduced timeframes. The article concludes with a discussion of the benefits and future possibilities of SDUI, showcasing its potential for increased agility and user-centric development in the mobile landscape.