Yang Zhao

About Yang Zhao

AI won\'t replace your engineering team. But it will expose every dysfunction in how that team works — the unclear requirements, the review bottlenecks, the cargo-cult processes nobody questions. I know because I led an AI infra project from zero to 1,200 users in five months. It didn\'t succeed because the technology was groundbreaking — it succeeded because we treated developer adoption like a product problem, not a rollout. The teams that thrive with AI tools are the ones that were already building a strong culture. The rest just automate their problems faster.That\'s been the thread through my 25+ years in enterprise software: building things people actually want to use, then building the teams and cultures that sustain them. I\'ve led engineering organizations from 5 to 34 people across the US and China, shipping SaaS products, distributed systems, and cloud-native platforms. I stay hands-on because I believe the best leaders never lose touch with the craft.Right now I\'m obsessed with the question reshaping our industry: how do AI-native tools like Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, Pi fundamentally change the way engineering teams work? Not just faster code — different workflows, different team structures, different definitions of what productivity even means.Let\'s connect if you\'re leading engineering teams through the AI transition, building developer-facing products, or rethinking what engineering leadership looks like in an AI-augmented world. I\'m also exploring coaching and mentoring for technical leaders making this shift. DMs are open — I\'d love to trade notes.

Experience

1. Engineering Manager

   SAP

   Present

Education

• Beihang University

  Bachelor, Computer Science and Technology

  1994 — 1998