The best VPs of Engineering in Australia
Best in Tech is published by That's Heaps Pty Ltd, Sydney. Tash Jamieson works at That's Heaps. How the lists work.
A VP of Engineering runs the engineering organisation day to day: hiring, delivery, reliability and the way teams work. This list ranks people in Australia in that role, on what their public record shows.
How this list is scored
To qualify, a person must hold or have held a VP Engineering, Head of Engineering or Director of Engineering title at a tech company while based in Australia. Each person is scored out of 10 on 6 criteria, 60 points in all. Scores measure how much of a person's work is publicly documented, not how good they are at the job: plenty of excellent people keep their results private, and they score lower here for that reason alone.
- Outcomes
- Results tied to the person's own work.
- Verification
- How independently those results can be checked.
- Breadth
- Team scaling, delivery, reliability and engineering culture they have documented.
- Teaching
- What they have published or presented for others in the field.
- Peer citation
- Awards, press and peers pointing at them.
- Currency
- Whether they are verifiably working in Australia in 2026.
The list at a glance
| # | Name | Role | Outcomes | Verification | Breadth | Teaching | Peer citation | Currency | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Artem Yakimenko | Engineering Director, Site Reliability, Culture Amp | 7 | 7 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 8 | 42 |
| 2 | Paul Hughes | Director of Engineering Enablement, Culture Amp | 4 | 5 | 7 | 8 | 6 | 8 | 38 |
| 3 | Jason Cornwall | Head of Engineering Enablement and Experience Platforms, SEEK | 4 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 8 | 34 |
| 4 | Moss Ebeling | Head of AI Engineering, Optiver Asia Pacific | 3 | 5 | 4 | 6 | 5 | 8 | 31 |
| 5 | Anatoli Kazatchkov | Head of Engineering, JIRA, Atlassian | 3 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 8 | 30 |
| 6 | Claire Tran | VP of Engineering, Sendle | 3 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 4 | 29 |
| 7 | Dave Berner | Co-founder and VP Engineering, Kinde | 4 | 4 | 3 | 6 | 5 | 6 | 28 |
| 8 | Paul Keen | VP of Engineering, Culture Amp | 3 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 7 | 26 |
| 9 | Stefano Fratini | Director of Engineering, Rokt | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 25 |
| 10 | Ray Tung | VP of Engineering, Kasada | 2 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 8 | 24 |
The ranking, with the workings
- 142/60
Artem Yakimenko
Engineering Director, Site Reliability, Culture Amp · Australia
Artem Yakimenko is Engineering Director, Site Reliability at Culture Amp, where he leads platform and reliability. In a 2025 Blackbird interview he reported, by his own account, ~12% monthly cloud cost savings and a 49% reduction in cloud emissions. Frontier Enterprise quoted him in December 2025 on Culture Amp's observability stack. A former Google SRE/CRE and open source maintainer, he mentors engineers on ADPList and presents on code complexity and coding agents at AI Engineer Sydney 2026.
Scores and evidence for Artem Yakimenko Outcomes 7 Cites ~12% monthly cloud cost savings and a 49% cut in cloud emissions at Culture Amp. Verification 7 Results and role reported by Blackbird (Feb 2025) and Frontier Enterprise (Dec 2025). Breadth 6 Leads platform and reliability across Culture Amp's polyglot estate; ex-Google SRE/CRE. Teaching 7 AI Engineer Sydney 2026 talk, Blackbird interview, open source projects and ADPList mentoring. Peer citation 7 Featured by Blackbird and Frontier Enterprise and selected as a Web Directions speaker. Currency 8 Listed at Culture Amp for AI Engineer Sydney, December 2026; Australian flag on ADPList. Public sources: Artem Yakimenko - AI Engineer Sydney 2026 (Web Directions) · Culture Amp taps Datadog to raise end-user experience (Frontier Enterprise) · Engineering climate impact: how Culture Amp found win-win solutions on their path to net zero (Blackbird) · Artem Yakimenko, Engineering Director at Culture Amp | ADPList (ADPList)
- 238/60
Paul Hughes
Director of Engineering Enablement, Culture Amp · Australia
Paul Hughes is Director of Engineering Enablement at Culture Amp, where he shapes the culture of a 200-person engineering organisation. He has led software teams for over 20 years and is writing a book, 'Love Your Team'. He spoke on 'The power of potential' at Code Leaders '22, presented at AgileAus24, and co-presented with Eric Grigson on a culture-first approach to AI adoption at AI Engineer Melbourne 2026.
Scores and evidence for Paul Hughes Outcomes 4 Shapes the culture of Culture Amp's 200-person engineering organisation. Verification 5 Role and talks listed by Web Directions, Conffab and Agile Australia. Breadth 7 Over 20 years leading software teams; focus on engineering culture and AI adoption at scale. Teaching 8 Talks at Code Leaders '22, AgileAus24 and AI Engineer Melbourne 2026; writing a book, 'Love Your Team'. Peer citation 6 Selected as a speaker by Web Directions and Agile Australia. Currency 8 Co-presented at AI Engineer Melbourne 2026 as Culture Amp's Director of Engineering Enablement. Public sources: Paul Hughes (Conffab (Web Directions)) · Eric Grigson & Paul Hughes (Web Directions) · Paul Hughes, AgileAus24 (Agile Australia) · AI Engineer Melbourne 2026 (Web Directions)
- 334/60
Jason Cornwall
Head of Engineering Enablement and Experience Platforms, SEEK · Melbourne
Jason Cornwall is SEEK's Head of Engineering for Engineering Enablement and Experience Platforms, leading the teams that work on the productivity of SEEK's 500+ engineers. At AI Engineer Melbourne 2026, held 3 to 4 June, he presented 'Why AI coding tools might not make the slightest difference', a talk on how AI tooling relates to engineering productivity. His Conffab presenter profile records his role and focus on developer experience at one of Australia's larger technology employers.
Scores and evidence for Jason Cornwall Outcomes 4 Leads teams working on the productivity of SEEK's 500+ engineers. Verification 5 Role stated on Conffab; 2026 talk listed by Web Directions. Breadth 6 Covers engineering enablement and experience platforms across SEEK's engineering org. Teaching 6 Presented 'Why AI coding tools might not make the slightest difference' at AI Engineer Melbourne 2026. Peer citation 5 Selected as a speaker by Web Directions. Currency 8 Spoke at AI Engineer Melbourne in June 2026 as SEEK's Head of Engineering. Public sources: Jason Cornwall (Conffab (Web Directions)) · AI Engineer Melbourne 2026 (Web Directions)
- 431/60
Moss Ebeling
Head of AI Engineering, Optiver Asia Pacific · Sydney
Moss Ebeling is Head of AI Engineering at Optiver Asia Pacific, leading a team focused on changing how Optiver conducts research and builds software with AI. He presented 'Close your agentic loop' at AI Engineer Melbourne on 3 June 2026, and the talk recording and transcript are published on Conffab. In that talk he said he moved to Sydney for work.
Scores and evidence for Moss Ebeling Outcomes 3 Leads Optiver's AI Engineering team on how it conducts research and builds software. Verification 5 Role and talk listed by Web Directions and Conffab. Breadth 4 Heads an AI engineering team at a trading firm's Asia Pacific arm. Teaching 6 Presented 'Close your agentic loop' at AI Engineer Melbourne 2026, with transcript on Conffab. Peer citation 5 Selected as a speaker by Web Directions. Currency 8 Spoke in June 2026; said in his talk he moved to Sydney for work. Public sources: AI Engineer Melbourne 2026 (Conffab (Web Directions)) · Moss Ebeling (Web Directions) · Close your agentic loop (Conffab (Web Directions))
- 530/60
Anatoli Kazatchkov
Head of Engineering, JIRA, Atlassian · Sydney
Anatoli Kazatchkov is Head of Engineering for JIRA at Atlassian. He was a panel speaker on 'Why Every Engineering Organisation is Becoming a Platform Organisation' at the Sydney Engineering and DevOps Summit on 19 August 2026. His Atlassian career goes back to at least February 2014, when, as a Confluence developer, he co-hosted the company's Do Agile Right webinar on lessons learned as a software engineer.
Scores and evidence for Anatoli Kazatchkov Outcomes 3 Heads engineering for JIRA at Atlassian. Verification 5 Role listed by Clutch Events; earlier work documented on Atlassian's blog. Breadth 4 Career at Atlassian from Confluence developer in 2014 to Head of Engineering for JIRA. Teaching 5 Co-hosted Atlassian's Do Agile Right webinar in 2014; panel speaker on platform organisations in 2026. Peer citation 5 Selected as a panellist at the Sydney Engineering and DevOps Summit 2026. Currency 8 Listed for an August 2026 Sydney summit as Head of Engineering, JIRA. Public sources: Sydney Engineering and DevOps Summit 2026 (Clutch Events) · Watch the Do Agile Right webinar (Atlassian Blog)
- 629/60
Claire Tran
VP of Engineering, Sendle · Sydney
Claire Tran is VP of Engineering at Sendle and a Director of Women Who Code Sydney. By her own account she had over 16 years of industry experience by 2022, with earlier roles at eBay Classifieds Group, Gumtree, Fairfax, Stayz, Expert360 and SafetyCulture. She has volunteered with Women Who Code since 2014, running workshops and events, and was quoted by IT Brief for International Women's Day 2024 on support from upward management.
Scores and evidence for Claire Tran Outcomes 3 Holds the VP of Engineering role at Sendle after roles at eBay Classifieds Group, Gumtree and SafetyCulture. Verification 5 Role named by Lookahead (2022) and IT Brief (2024). Breadth 5 Over 16 years of industry experience across six Australian technology employers, by her own account. Teaching 6 Has run Women Who Code workshops and events since 2014. Peer citation 6 Interviewed by Lookahead and quoted by IT Brief for IWD 2024. Currency 4 Most recent third-party source is IT Brief, March 2024. Public sources: Claire Tran interview (Lookahead) · IWD 2024: Three steps to welcome women in technology (IT Brief Australia) · Claire Tran (claritee.github.io (own site))
- 728/60
Dave Berner
Co-founder and VP Engineering, Kinde · Byron Bay
Dave Berner is co-founder and VP of Engineering at Kinde and lives in Byron Bay. By his own account he has been coding since 1998, and he co-created Roast, a lightweight, server-rendered architecture. He spoke on 'Co-pilot, not auto-pilot' at Web Directions Engineering AI on 12 September 2025 and presented at Code '23.
Scores and evidence for Dave Berner Outcomes 4 Co-founded Kinde and co-created Roast, a lightweight server-rendered architecture. Verification 4 Role and talks listed by Conffab and Web Directions. Breadth 3 Coding since 1998; co-founder leading engineering at Kinde. Teaching 6 Spoke on 'Co-pilot, not auto-pilot' at Web Directions Engineering AI 2025 and at Code '23. Peer citation 5 Selected as a speaker by Web Directions twice. Currency 6 Listed as Kinde VP Eng for a September 2025 event; lives in Byron Bay. Public sources: Dave Berner (Conffab (Web Directions)) · Engineering AI 2025 (Web Directions)
- 826/60
Paul Keen
VP of Engineering, Culture Amp · Australia
Paul Keen is VP of Engineering at Culture Amp, with a career that spans Qantas, Airtasker and Tyro. Lookahead's 2026 whitepaper on AI and engineering quotes him saying designers have been the biggest unlock with AI tools. In March 2026 he was the guest on a 28-minute episode of Ambition & Life with Karis Dorrigan, discussing his path from Qantas to Culture Amp and measurable equity.
Scores and evidence for Paul Keen Outcomes 3 Quoted in Lookahead's 2026 whitepaper on designers as the biggest unlock with AI tools. Verification 4 Role named by Lookahead and a March 2026 podcast episode. Breadth 3 Career spans Qantas, Airtasker, Tyro and Culture Amp. Teaching 4 Guest on a 28-minute podcast episode published 29 March 2026. Peer citation 5 Cited by Lookahead and featured on Ambition & Life with Karis Dorrigan. Currency 7 Named VP of Engineering at Culture Amp in 2026 sources. Public sources: The State of AI & Engineering in 2026 (Lookahead) · From Qantas to Culture Amp: What Paul Keen Learned About Equity You Can Actually Measure (Ambition & Life with Karis Dorrigan (Apple Podcasts))
- 925/60
Stefano Fratini
Director of Engineering, Rokt · Sydney
Stefano Fratini was listed as Director of Engineering at Rokt for Code Leaders '22. By his own account he has lived in Australia for over 15 years and is based in Sydney. He spoke on 'How to manage Engineering managers' at Code Leaders '22 and on 'Building world class engineering teams' at Code Leaders 2018, with both talks recorded on Conffab.
Scores and evidence for Stefano Fratini Outcomes 3 Listed as Director of Engineering at Rokt in 2022. Verification 4 Role and talks listed by Conffab. Breadth 5 Talks cover managing engineering managers and building engineering teams. Teaching 6 Spoke at Code Leaders 2018 and Code Leaders '22. Peer citation 4 Selected twice as a Code Leaders speaker. Currency 3 Most recent source dated November 2022; lives in Sydney. Public sources: Stefano Fratini (Conffab (Web Directions)) · Code Leaders '22 (Conffab (Web Directions))
- 1024/60
Ray Tung
VP of Engineering, Kasada · Sydney
Ray Tung is VP of Engineering at Kasada, a bot-defence software company headquartered in Sydney, and is listed on its leadership page. Lookahead's 2026 whitepaper on AI and engineering quotes him observing that the people who use the most tokens each month are not necessarily the people who are best at using AI.
Scores and evidence for Ray Tung Outcomes 2 Leads engineering at Sydney-headquartered bot-defence company Kasada. Verification 5 Listed on Kasada's leadership page and quoted by Lookahead. Breadth 2 Holds the VP of Engineering role at Kasada. Teaching 3 Quoted on AI token use in Lookahead's 2026 whitepaper. Peer citation 4 Cited by Lookahead's 2026 whitepaper. Currency 8 Current on Kasada's About page and in a 2026 publication. Public sources: About Kasada (Kasada) · The State of AI & Engineering in 2026 (Lookahead)
Method notes
Candidates were found from industry press, awards, conference speaker pages, podcasts and company pages, then every source was opened and checked to confirm it names the person and supports the facts quoted. Where a person's 2026 role is not publicly listed, they are described by the role they are known for, and the Currency score reflects that.
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