KotlinConf '26 Keynote to Address Leadership in Volatility
What happened
KotlinConf '26 has announced that Lena Reinhard, a VP of Engineering and SaaS founder, will be a keynote speaker. Her talk will reportedly address industry shifts and leadership strategies for navigating volatile times. The selection highlights a focus on management and strategy for engineering leaders at the upcoming conference.
Why it matters
- Lena Reinhard's experience in the developer tools space includes serving as VP of Engineering for two major CI/CD platforms, CircleCI and Travis CI. - She entered the tech industry after a career in finance, arts, and media, co-founding her first SaaS startup at age 26 and becoming its CEO. - The software built by her first company was designed to support Ebola outbreak response teams in West Africa, placing her in a high-stress leadership environment early in her career. - Reinhard currently works as a leadership coach and organizational developer for companies ranging from pre-founding startups to large corporations and NGOs. - A frequent keynote speaker at conferences like QCon and The Lead Developer, her past talks have focused on DevOps transformation, organizational scaling, and leading teams through rapid growth and change. - She hosts the "Leadership Confidential" podcast, which focuses on the less-discussed challenges of leadership, such as imposter syndrome, navigating power dynamics, and supporting neurodivergent team members. - Her writing and speaking often address how leaders can manage team stress and burnout, a theme she explored in the O'Reilly series "Tech Leadership Tuesday". - In recent podcast episodes and articles, she has analyzed the impact of industry-wide layoffs and the rise of AI, discussing how these shifts affect engineering leaders and team priorities.
Key numbers
- KotlinConf '26 has announced that Lena Reinhard, a VP of Engineering and SaaS founder, will be a keynote speaker.
- She entered the tech industry after a career in finance, arts, and media, co-founding her first SaaS startup at age 26 and becoming its CEO.
What happens next
- KotlinConf '26 has announced that Lena Reinhard, a VP of Engineering and SaaS founder, will be a keynote speaker.
- Her talk will reportedly address industry shifts and leadership strategies for navigating volatile times.
Quick answers
What happened in KotlinConf '26 Keynote to Address Leadership in Volatility?
KotlinConf '26 has announced that Lena Reinhard, a VP of Engineering and SaaS founder, will be a keynote speaker. Her talk will reportedly address industry shifts and leadership strategies for navigating volatile times. The selection highlights a focus on management and strategy for engineering leaders at the upcoming conference.
Why does KotlinConf '26 Keynote to Address Leadership in Volatility matter?
Lena Reinhard's experience in the developer tools space includes serving as VP of Engineering for two major CI/CD platforms, CircleCI and Travis CI. She entered the tech industry after a career in finance, arts, and media, co-founding her first SaaS startup at age 26 and becoming its CEO. The software built by her first company was designed to support Ebola outbreak response teams in West Africa, placing her in a high-stress leadership environment early in her career. Reinhard currently works as a leadership coach and organizational developer for companies ranging from pre-founding startups to large corporations and NGOs. A frequent keynote speaker at conferences like QCon and The Lead Developer, her past talks have focused on DevOps transformation, organizational scaling, and leading teams through rapid growth and change. She hosts the "Leadership Confidential" podcast, which focuses on the less-discussed challenges of leadership, such as imposter syndrome, navigating power dynamics, and supporting neurodivergent team members. Her writing and speaking often address how leaders can manage team stress and burnout, a theme she explored in the O'Reilly series "Tech Leadership Tuesday". In recent podcast episodes and articles, she has analyzed the impact of industry-wide layoffs and the rise of AI, discussing how these shifts affect engineering leaders and team priorities.
