From developer to builder/system designer, managing AI agents like team members & monday.com’s evolving R&D playbook w/ Daniel Lereya #239

The Engineering Leadership Podcast

In this episode, Daniel Lereya (Chief Product and Technology Officer @ Monday.com) shares how they are evolving their engineering roles from developers to builders & system designers, where the lines between product, engineering, and design are intentionally blurred, and developers manage AI Agents as team members, tackling an ever-expanding list of projects. We explore the shift from "developer" to "system designer" and why managing AI agents requires the same skills as managing people. Plus, a case study where the Monday.com team leveraged AI agents to decompose a monolith, autonomously manage the project board and assign strategic / high-risk tasks to humans.

ABOUT DANIEL LEREYA

Daniel Lereya has served as Chief Product and Technology Officer at monday.com since 2023. In this role, he focuses on advancing monday.com’s multi-product vision and operational efficiencies while driving execution to support company growth. Previously, he was Vice President of R&D and Product, leading global teams in shaping and executing the company’s product strategy through innovation and technology. Before joining monday.com, Daniel held leadership and engineering roles at IBM and SAP.

SHOW NOTES:

• The three core principles of monday.com’s culture: Ownership, Transparency, and Speed of Execution (3:59)
• How AI acts as an accelerant to implement these cultural principles at scale (8:36)
• Why the “Developer” role is evolving into a “Strategic Builder” and “System Designer” (13:47)
• Breaking silos: How the “Builder” role blurs the lines between product, engineering, and design (17:13)
• Real-world example: A designer using AI to submit code and fix UI issues independently (19:09)
• Case Study: The “Agent Factory” & how a weekend prototype by one leader shifted the product roadmap (21:25)
• Operationalizing transparency: Using internal tools (“Big Brain”) to align every builder on daily business impact (25:58)
• The “Kickoff Meeting” framework: A strict protocol for falling in love with the problem, not the solution (32:26)
• The new management paradigm with AI agents as team members (37:31)
• Rapid fire questions (42:09)

This episode wouldn’t have been possible without the help of our incredible production team:

Patrick Gallagher - Producer & Co-Host

Jerry Li - Co-Host

Noah Olberding - Associate Producer, Audio & Video Editor https://www.linkedin.com/in/noah-olberding/

Dan Overheim - Audio Engineer, Dan’s also an avid 3D printer - https://www.bnd3d.com/

Ellie Coggins Angus - Copywriter, Check out her other work at https://elliecoggins.com/about/

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.