What does it take to lead large engineering teams without drowning them in process?

In this episode of CloudNext, Jonathan Spies, VP of Engineering at Cloudflare, shares hard-earned lessons from scaling engineering organizations across multiple products. Jonathan talks about keeping teams small and autonomous, why fixed formulas for innovation and maintenance often fail, and how alignment, not control, enables speed at scale.

The conversation explores hiring and culture during rapid growth, the importance of giving engineers business context, learning from failure, and how leaders can build systems that help teams make the right decisions without constant escalation.