Plus: The reality of being an FDE
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LeadDev Originals
Weekly words and voices on engineering leadership

Engineers are drowning! A new survey found engineers now spend 16.9 hours a week debugging compared to just 9.8 writing code.

Security is piling on too: 93% of security leaders fear they can’t patch AI-driven exploits fast enough. Engineers pay the price.

Your tests won’t catch everything either. A poisoned model can pass every check and still do what an attacker trained it to.

It’s quite a time to be an engineering leader!

LeadDev Managing Editor, Michael Hill
Articles















C A R E E R S

The reality of being a forward deployed engineer (FDE)
You don’t need to know everything!
9 mins • Manas Verma

A I
The AI exploit gap is engineering’s problem now
Security sees the risk. Engineering owns the fix.
3 mins • Michael Hill

L E A D E R S H I P
Your engineering strategy has a new failure mode
AI changes faster than the plan.
6 mins • Robert Kimani

S O F T W A R E. Q U A L I T Y
AI code causes real world production outages
Faster code, slower debugging.
3 mins • Chris Stokel-Walker

A I
Your tests can’t catch a poisoned model
The risk engineering leaders aren’t talking about.
7 mins • Upendra Jadon
Digital events

O C T O B E R
21
• W O R K S H O PP
Prove your AI gains, then improve them
Turn real usage data into a clear read on your agents’ ROI – and a plan to improve it.

N O V E M B E R 4 • P A N E L
Code coverage makes code quality visible
Verification is where speed is won or lost.

O C T O B E R 22 • P A N E L
The truth about engineering team performance in 2026
What your metrics are actually measuring, and what they’re missing.


O C T O B E R 15 • P A N E L
Controlling your AI software factory
How do you stay in control of systems that never stop evolving? Last chance to register!


Events

LeadDev Berlin – November 9 & 10

Software doesn’t know how to die, and more generated code can mean more of it to carry. XING’s Laura Grau Ramírez shows how to tell when a system is no longer worth keeping, one of the sessions at LeadDev Berlin.

The event is less than four weeks away, and Wave 4 is almost gone, with fewer than 50 tickets left at this rate. Save up to €500 before prices rise. Get your ticket →

LDX3 London & New York 2027

Pre-sale tickets for 2027 are live in both cities, and these are the lowest prices available. London pre-sale sold out last week, so extra tickets have been released in response to demand, for a short time only. New York pre-sale tickets are still available from $995.

Not ready to book? Register your interest for London or New York to get the latest as more 2027 details are announced.

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