Season 2 of Her Head’s in the Cloud kicks off with a powerful conversation on leadership, empathy, and the human side of engineering. Egle sits down with Ed Groenescheij, Senior Engineering Manager at Xero, to unpack what it really takes to build and scale high-performing Site Reliability Engineering teams.

From hiring for curiosity over technical perfection to creating blameless cultures built on trust and transparency, Ed shares the leadership lessons he’s learned throughout his career across consulting, operations, and engineering management. Together, they explore the evolving meaning of DevOps and SRE, why reliability is “learning faster than you fail,” and how putting people first ultimately creates stronger teams and better business outcomes.

This episode also dives into the often-overlooked realities of engineering work, including the impact of night shifts on mental health, balancing empathy with accountability, and why authentic leadership can’t simply be taught as a technique.

If you’re passionate about engineering culture, leadership, DevOps, or building resilient teams, this is the perfect way to kick off the new season of Her Head’s in the Cloud.

This podcast is brought to you by the Technology Recruitment Department powered by Precision Sourcing.

Host: Egle Scerbaviciute

Guest: Ed Groenescheij