Kelly Vaughn
Sr. Engineering Manager, Zapier
Atlanta, Georgia, United States
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Kelly Vaughn is an engineering leader, entrepreneur, and side project aficionado. She is currently a Sr. Engineering Manager at Zapier and is passionate about coaching individual contributors into leadership roles and mentoring engineering managers to be impactful, empowering leaders. When she's not working, you'll probably find her running or doing Pilates, traveling to a new country, or spending time at a coffee shop to make a tiny dent in her never-ending book collection.
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Topics
Engineering Leadership in the AI Era
The role of engineering leaders has never been more complex or more critical. Technical skills still matter, but the true measure of leadership is how effectively you can guide teams through change, empower them to do their best work, and adapt to disruptive forces like AI.
Over the past decade, I’ve managed and mentored engineers and engineering leaders across startups and enterprise organizations. The same challenges surface again and again:
- Brilliant engineers promoted to manager without the tools to succeed.
- ICs struggling to influence without authority.
- Leaders defaulting to “more output” instead of creating meaningful impact.
In this interactive workshop, you’ll learn how to thrive as an engineering leader in today’s AI-driven landscape by focusing on three pillars of leadership:
- Empowerment: Identify opportunities for growth on your team and guide people toward them.
- Communication: Build clarity and trust across direct reports, peers, and executives.
- Trust: Lead with transparency and consistency so your team feels safe to take risks, innovate, and grow.
We’ll also explore how AI is reshaping engineering work and how leaders can harness it to unlock new possibilities without losing the human side of management.
Leadership isn’t about your title. It’s about the influence you build and the impact you leave. This workshop gives you the mindset, skills, and tools to do exactly that.
Humanizing Hiring in Tech
Hiring in tech is broken. With so much competition out there for seemingly limited roles, how do you make yourself stand out in the application and interview process? And what can hiring managers do to make interviewing a less painful experience for everyone? Join Kelly Vaughn (hiring manager) and Taylor Desseyn (technical recruiter) for an unfiltered look at how to play—and win—the hiring game.
Turning curiosity into opportunity: How to inspire and mentor others on their engineering journey
No matter where you're at in your programming career, there will always be someone who can learn from you. This keynote will leave you inspired to expand your network, share your story, and seek out mentorship opportunities whether you're a junior or senior engineer.
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