Show Notes
Wondering what it really takes to lead engineers – not just manage tickets? In this episode of SEEK Bytes, Bridget, Seamus and Elliot sit down with Lester Dong, Head of Selection at SEEK, to talk about the leap from developer to engineering leader and what it means to “build powerful people”. Lester shares how he moved from hands‑on software development into management, how he now looks after 56 engineers across three teams, and why great engineering leadership is about context, scaling yourself, and solving human problems – not just technical ones.
This episode's special guest: Lester Dong (SEEK Head of Engineering - Selection)
In this episode, we explore: • Engineer vs developer (and why it matters for your career) – moving from “just writing code” to joining the dots between systems, people and business outcomes, building self-awareness, and learning to zoom in to bugs then “helicopter out” to see the bigger picture. • How to grow from ammo to “barrel” and beyond – Lester’s take on ammunition vs barrels, solving bigger problems to move up, collaborating instead of competing for the one tech-lead slot, and using rotations and context to build a career that outgrows any single team. • Patterns, microservices & high-performing teams (without the hype) – why design patterns and microservices get overused when people don’t understand the problem, how Seek thinks about monoliths vs microservices, and the practical signals of healthy teams: build pipelines, flaky tests, and change-failure rates under 5%.
If you’re a software engineer, tech lead or aspiring manager who wants to grow beyond code and lead high‑impact teams, this episode is for you.
🔔 Follow the SEEK Bytes podcast so you never miss a new episode
More from SEEK Bytes
This special Season 3 finale of SEEK Bytes – a podcast for engineers by engineers – dives into one of the biggest AI engineering shifts of the moment: spec-driven development with GitHub Spec Kit. If you’ve been wondering how teams are using AI for more than just code completion, this episode unpacks a workflow designed to help engineers plan better, reduce drift and build higher-quality software faster.
What happens when you give 100 high school students four days, real SEEK mentors and a crash course in how tech actually works? In this episode of SEEK Bytes – we're joined by special guests Asha Ioculari and Leon Belobrov and go behind the scenes of Camp SEEK, SEEK’s immersive program designed to open the doors of tech to girls and non-binary students and show them there’s far more to this industry than just writing code. From design thinking and user research to pitching in front of 200+ people and senior SEEK leaders, this is a brilliant look at how SEEK is building confidence, broadening horizons and helping shape a more inclusive future for tech.
Ever shipped a UI that “works” but still feels clunky, janky or confusing to users? In this episode of SEEK Bytes, Elliott and Will chat with lead engineer Eddy Nguyen about Bleeds – a simple but powerful way to design every UI state your users actually experience, not just the happy path.
AI might look simple on the surface — just send a prompt, get a response — but behind the scenes, there’s a whole platform challenge to solve. In this episode of SEEK Bytes – we’re joined by Thet Ko, Senior Staff Engineer in SEEK’s AI Platform Services team, to unpack how SEEK is building an AI Gateway to centralise AI calls, improve governance and make it easier for teams to build with AI without reinventing the foundations every time. From cost visibility and PII protection to guardrails, resilience and shared memory across agents, this episode lifts the lid on the platform work that makes enterprise AI actually usable at scale.
AI is moving fast — but are we building it responsibly? In this episode of SEEK Bytes – we sit down with Sreyna Rath, CEO and co-founder of jaimee.ai, who arrived in Australia as a refugee and is now running her own AI company with the aim to create something truly transformative for women. Elliott sits down with Reyna to unpack her journey and the real-world risks of AI bias, why safety can’t be bolted on at the end, and what developers can do to build tools that are fairer, safer and more human from day one. From biased hiring systems to sexualised image outputs and AI companions designed for vulnerable users, this conversation is a powerful reminder that AI doesn’t just reflect technology — it reflects us.