Meet our @DevTalks speakers - Federico Fregosi - VP of Engineering at Contino

DevTalks 2022 - AI & Innovation. Humanity Reimagined will be back on track on 8-10th of June with an Online & In-Person great edition! Go through the interview below to get to know better Federico Fregosi, whom you will meet on Future of Engineering Stage, on 8th of June.

#Can you give us a short introduction about your role as a VP of Engineering at Contino?

 

Contino is a leading transformation consultancy that helps large, heavily-regulated enterprises to become fast, agile, and competitive. Here, my role is two-folded: inwards, I'm responsible for the technical strategy of the company, our capabilities, the Engineering resources, and the overall direction of travel. Outwards, there's a lot of exec peering, working with senior execs in large companies trying to help them solve their problems. I try to attend and speak at many conferences as well!

 

#Why did you choose engineering, how it started?

 

I have the "traditional" IT background; I've loved computers since I was a kid! I couldn't think of doing anything else.

I have a Bachelor's degree in Computer Engineering and an MSc in Software Engineering from City University, London.

I've worked in IT my entire career. Before Contino, I was building the payment systems at Curve (www.curve.com), one of the leading fintech in Europe.

 

#You worked for years in Technical Leadership roles, focused on infrastructure management and Cloud on the 3 major public cloud providers and you bear a huge responsibility for being a leader. What is the most important part of your role? 

 

I think that the most relevant topic in IT right now is definitely how to deal with "the great resignation/reshuffling." This is true across all sectors, but in Professional Services firms in particular. We're seeing a workforce that has specific needs for hybrid/remote ways of working and clients that more and more want consultants on-site. From a technical perspective, I see, after COVID, an increased maturity, even in larger enterprises, in adopting modern technologies and ways of working. For example, Machine Learning which has been hyped for years with several deployments without a clear use case is now being adopted in a standardized way clearly connected to business value. 

 

#Moving to the latest trends in the IT field, what do you think is the most important topic right now. Can you share some future predictions?

 

I think that the globalization of the workforce available to a company is a structural change that we have to embrace and accept. Smart companies will redefine policies and processes as soon as possible to benefit from this shift. They will not only be encouraging pure remote work but also have solid hybrid solutions that enable the best of both worlds.

It will be interesting to see also what will be the governmental/tax response to this. 

 

#We constantly have to adapt as professionals and having in mind future predictions, what are the must have changes that we need to take in the working field?

 

I'm a firm believer in having an L&D mindset. I see people, sometimes even working long hours, fully absorbed in their day-to-day jobs, being entirely tactical without any space for strategic growth or long-term thinking. I think it's a mistake and taking ownership of your career and making deliberate decisions, investing in your personal development is a key predictor of success.

 

#You will join the Future of Engineering stage on 8th June with a keynote on How to prepare your engineering team for a Technical Due Diligence or a company exit. Can you share 3 ideas about your keynote? 

 

I think that the increased M&A activity we've seen over the past few years and the level of maturity now expected from startups mean that technical leads need to be ready to support and assist Tech Due Diligence at transaction time in a more robust way. Given the impact that Tech DD has on a company's valuation, in my opinion, few other activities in IT have a more direct ROI. In my keynote, I will briefly cover the DD process during M&A, how to prepare for Tech DD, and how to deal with external assessors.  

#Are there any facts that you want to share with our audience or a message for the 8000 developers & IT Professionals that will join DevTalks?

I'm gonna go "Ezra Klein" on this and recommend three things to read:

1) Become an Effective Software Engineering Manager by James Stainer

2)Agile Conversations: Transform Your Conversations, Transform Your Culture by Douglas Squirrel, Jeffrey Fredrick
3)Pirates In The Navy: How Innovators Lead Transformation by Tendayi Viki

 

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