Your Team's AI Spend Is a Black Box - Even to You
Every engineering leader can quote the token bill. Here's how to tie it to what actually got built - and use that in your next call with product.
I'm an engineering manager who's also been the product manager and the architect.
Today I'm at Maersk. Before that, Sky News and Now TV. Along the way I've become hands-on with AI, and I write and speak about what it means for engineering teams.
The short version, if you'd asked me to tell you about myself.
I care about two things in equal measure: software that moves the business, and the people who build it. Software with no business impact means nothing, and a team that doesn't work well together won't deliver it.
When Apple News launched, its technical constraints threatened to leave an entire newsroom on the sidelines. I found a way in. One product I designed and built added 4% to annual recurring revenue.
The less visible part of the job is individuals, one at a time, and then the dynamics between them. That's the part I enjoy most.
Engineering manager, sometime product manager, still close to the code. In practice, that means four things.
Career coaching and progression, one person at a time, then the dynamics between them.
I act as architect for my teams, shaping the systems and the trade-offs, including how we build with AI.
Working with product to sharpen what we build before we build it. I've done the PM job too.
Organising delivery across the UK , the Netherlands and India . I've also briefed CPOs and CTOs on progress and risk.
> what I believe
AI is on its way to being a commodity. When everyone has the same tools, the real advantage is the people, and how well they work together.
It's the thread running through everything I speak and write about.
I write and speak about how AI is changing engineering teams, and the parts of management that rarely show up in the metrics. Some recent pieces:
Every engineering leader can quote the token bill. Here's how to tie it to what actually got built - and use that in your next call with product.
Most engineers think better code means faster promotion. Their manager is watching something else entirely.
What to do when your data and your team tell you different things.
I'm grateful to have received these comments from past colleagues.
Some say that your first manager has a major impact on your career progression. Well, if my career goes just half as well as Filipe was as my first proper manager, I have a bright future ahead of me.
Filipe is a consummate professional who had the respect of both his team and senior stakeholders alike.
Filipe is very adaptable and open to learning new things. He is approachable, patient and focused on the needs of the teams he works with. He has a positive attitude and looks for ways he can drive impact.
That 90s-style terminal docked at the bottom of the screen is my AI Twin. It answers questions about my career the way I would, drawing on my CV and career history.
I built it to showcase the same AI skills my teams use every day. It runs on Cloudflare Workers and Gemini. Automated evals, with a second AI as the judge, check its answers for accuracy, tone and security.