Build Infrastructure, Not Features: Farhan Thawar (Shopify)
From Tools for Tech Leaders by Mattermost
July 24, 2025 · 1h 8m
About this episode
Farhan Thawar discusses building and scaling high-performance engineering teams at Shopify in the context of AI and remote work.
Shopify VP of Engineering Farhan Thawar reveals how to build and scale high-performance engineering teams in the age of AI. Drawing from his experience managing over 1,000 engineers remotely, Farhan shares Shopify's unique approach to weekly demos over burndown charts, their controversial decision to hire 1,000 interns in 2025, and why they're moving back to a monorepo architecture. Learn how Shopify's leadership stays deeply involved in project details through their intensive monthly review process, why they built custom internal tools instead of adopting industry standards, and how they're preparing their entire organization for an AI-first future. Essential insights for engineering leaders navigating rapid growth, remote work challenges, and the fundamental shifts happening in software development.
People in this episode
Host: Mattermost
Guest: Farhan Thawar
Topics covered
- engineering teams
- AI
- remote work
- software development
- monorepo architecture
- intern hiring
Keywords
- engineering
- AI-first future
- remote management
- interns
- monorepo
- custom tools
- project reviews
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Shopify
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