RETHINKING ENGINEERING TEAMS

Bringing together perspectives from software, applied AI and deep tech, this panel looks at how engineering teams are built, scaled and evaluated, and what AI changes along the way.

We’ll discuss

✅ Engineering Team Design & Ownership
How AI affects team composition, responsibility and ownership of technical work. What to develop in-house, what to source externally, and how accountability is maintained.

✅ Engineering Productivity: Scaling Efficiently
How to scale engineering capacity, accelerate delivery and maximise business impact with lean, high-performing teams.

✅ Engineering Expertise & Technical Judgement
What counts as engineering expertise as AI capabilities grow, how technical decisions are judged, and what technical due diligence reveals about the team behind a product.

✅ Engineering Systems & Industry 5.0
How to combine automation and human expertise while keeping engineering systems reliable and resilient

Speakers:

→ Sergei Irisov, Head of IT & Digital Transformation, ZeroAvia

Winner of the Next CIO 2026 award, with a background in rocket science and deep tech. Built ZeroAvia’s global digital infrastructure from scratch, from enterprise architecture to applied AI. ZeroAvia develops hydrogen-electric engines for zero-emission aviation (backed by Amazon).

→ Andrei Nita, former CTO, McKenzie Intelligence Services (acquired by Verisk in July 2026)

Hands-on CTO who transformed the tech function at McKenzie Intelligence Services (geospatial SaaS), accelerating releases 4x and leading technical due diligence through its M&A exit. Led team-wide adoption of AI coding tools, including Windsurf (formerly Codeium), to build high-velocity, AI-native engineering teams.

→ Aliaksandr Kazhamiakin, Founder & CEO, Yotewo

Building Yotewo, a VC-backed AI staffing platform modernising how startups scale their engineering teams. Focuses on automated, data-driven networks that eliminate traditional recruitment friction, connecting global tech talent with high-growth businesses.

→ Katerina Kolomeytseva, ML Engineer, Bumble

Builds machine-learning systems for large-scale Trust & Safety and content moderation, specialising in NLP and production AI. International speaker and researcher with publications at ACL and EACL.

Speaker - Moderator

→ Alexey Shagraev, Co-founder, CEO & CTO, Lovi (AI -powered, fast growing beauty tech platform)

With a PhD in Applied Mathematics and expertise in AI and human science, he currently manages a team of 30+ innovators building AI-driven beauty solutions. Previously, led projects in web search, advertising, and recommendation systems at Yandex and Google.

✅ Who should attend
Founders, CTOs, engineers, product and engineering leaders, tech recruiters, and anyone curious about where engineering teams are heading.

Agenda

• 🤝 6.00 – 6.45 pm doors open, networking
• 🎤 6.45 – 7.30 pm moderated discussion
• 💬 7.30 – 7.45 pm Q&A
• 🤝 7.45 – 08.30 pm networking

🇬🇧 Language: English

Spaces are limited; early booking is advised.

Organised by: Founders Connect in partnership with Beyond Tech and Yotewo

Founders Connect: a network and event series bringing together founders and tech experts for curated discussions, workshops and forums.

Yotewo: helps startups and scaleups hire vetted IT talent and build their engineering teams.

Beyond Tech: helps tech and science professionals prepare their UK Global Talent endorsement applications.

Partners

Coventry Street Advisors: an IAA Level 3 licensed firm providing end-to-end UK visa, relocation and corporate onboarding services.

Y.A.R.P.N.: connecting 4500+ young professionals with Anglo-Russian background in the UK through speed networking events on the first Friday of every month since 2016.