LeadDev Berlin Puts Engineering Leadership Under AI Pressure

LeadDev Berlin returns to the Estrel Congress Center on November 9 and 10 with a program built for engineering leaders whose responsibilities are changing faster than the management playbook around them. The official agenda moves across AI adoption, technical debt, organizational pressure, developer performance, career development, and the work of protecting system coherence while output accelerates.

Pat Kua is the named conference host. Confirmed speakers include Laura Tacho of AWS, Bhavana Hindupur of Meta, Darragh Curran of Fin, Mathieu Bastian of GetYourGuide, Becki Wordsworth of Meela, Diana Nanuti of Chainalysis, Yemi Ogoundélé of Personio, and additional engineering leaders across product, platform, data, and management roles.

Why this room matters now

Engineering leadership has always required translation. A leader carries product urgency into technical choices, technical limits back into executive expectations, and organizational decisions into the daily experience of the team. AI adds another layer because the promise of acceleration can arrive before the company has decided what quality, accountability, or useful return should mean.

LeadDev's 2026 program makes that tension visible. Laura Tacho's session challenges output measures such as token spend and generated code volume. Bhavana Hindupur examines technical debt created when code generation outpaces system understanding. Mathieu Bastian brings the question into production by looking at how a broader engineering organization can ship AI products without leaving the work inside a small specialist team.

Those are not separate management topics. They describe one system under pressure. Leaders are being asked to prove AI impact, keep architecture legible, support teams through uncertainty, and make decisions that may outlast the tool that triggered them.

What the conference includes

LeadDev lists main-stage talks, workshops, table discussions, speaker office hours, coaching sessions, career programming, and an exhibition hall. The official agenda notes that timings and sessions may change as the program is finalized.

Event details

• Dates: November 9-10, 2026
• Location: Estrel Congress Center, Berlin
• Organizer: LeadDev
• Format: Two-day engineering-leadership conference
• Agenda: Official agenda
• Tickets: Official ticket page

The agenda, speaker roster, pricing, and availability remain controlled by LeadDev.