Tinatin Balavadze
Engineer at Zalando
Berlin, Germany
Actions
I build mobile apps that scale, mentor career changers breaking into tech, and rethink how teams grow. But my path wasn’t a straight line—it was a curveball-filled adventure through learning design, leadership, and reinvention.
By day, I’m an engineer at Zalando, solving complex problems with clean solutions. By night (and sometimes in between commits), I mentor, speak, and brainstorm ways to make tech more inclusive and careers more adaptable.
Before I wrote software, I designed learning programs, led high-impact teams, and built systems that empowered people to think, create, and grow. Now, I bring that same mindset into tech — blending creativity with code to build products (and careers) that actually make a difference.
Talks, Mentorship, & More: If you’re into AI productivity, career growth, or scaling impact without burning out, let's talk. I’m always up for sharing hard-earned insights and helping others debug their next big leap.
Area of Expertise
Topics
Refactor Your Career: Build It Like Your Best Codebase
Bad code is painful.
So is a career that’s stuck, messy, or silently rotting in production.
As engineers, we don't tolerate technical debt—we refactor. We debug. We improve. So why don't we do the same for our careers?
In this talk, I’ll show you how to apply the principles of great software to the one codebase you ship every day: yourself. You’ll learn to spot the warning signs of career entropy, clean up outdated thinking, and redesign your path with version control, modular thinking, and personal CI/CD.
This isn’t a motivational talk. It’s a migration strategy. If your career is in maintenance mode—or if you’re overdue for a meaningful refactor—this is your roadmap to build again, better.
Who Should Attend
Engineers, leads, and ICs asking “What’s next?”
People in transition: promotion, burnout, new role, or reinvention
Anyone who’s great at building systems—but hasn’t built one for themselves yet.
Key Takeaways
Spot career “code smells” and identify the tech debt holding you back
Apply branching and merging strategies to real-life decisions
Use retrospectives, feature flags, and feedback loops to test bold moves safely
Design a career roadmap that scales—with room to pivot
Treat your growth like a system. Because it is.
Careers don’t crash overnight. They bitrot.
This talk is your git reset.
Refactor now—or risk legacy mode for good.
Listen Deeply, Build with Purpose: Transforming Tech Teams
Great teams don’t just ship code—they innovate, adapt, and thrive. But exceptional teams aren’t accidental. They're intentionally built.
This isn't another theory-filled leadership talk. It's an honest, actionable exploration of how to cultivate trust, collaboration, and innovation in tech teams. Drawing from my experience building and leading dynamic teams (and pivoting my own career into tech), I’ll share proven practices to transform good teams into extraordinary ones.
Key Takeaways:
The Trust Factor – How to nurture genuine collaboration.
Deep Listening as Leadership – Why listening actively and empathetically is your strongest leadership tool.
Innovation Culture – Creating space for experimentation without fear of failure.
If you lead, belong to, or dream of building a stellar tech team, this session is your blueprint.
Who It's For: Engineers, tech leads, and anyone dedicated to growing their career, like they would refine their code.
Format: Ideal as a complete talk or lightning session.
AI Won’t Take Your Job—But Your Productivity Habits Might
AI won’t replace you. But your tab overload might.
This talk isn’t about the robots. It’s about the real reason developers burn out: too many tasks, too little focus, and a to-do list longer than a deployment log.
We’ve been sold the wrong fear. AI isn’t the enemy. Your own unscalable habits are.
Let’s fix that.
Let’s debug your day like you debug code.
Let’s take the best parts of systems design and apply them to the system that is you.
You’ll learn how high-performing engineers use AI to reduce noise, reclaim flow, and build deep work into the bones of their day. And you’ll walk away with a new metric for productivity: not how much you do, but how much energy you still have when you’re done.
Who Should Attend
Developers who’ve installed every AI plugin but still feel behind
Leads who want to scale their team’s brains, not just their backlog
Humans who want to work smart, not stay busy
Key Takeaways
Why your brain—not AI—is the bottleneck that needs unblocking
How to turn your workflow into a well-oiled system (no burnout required)
Practical ways to partner with AI.
A fresh model of productivity built for humans, not machines
You don’t need to outpace AI. You need to outsmart your calendar.
You don’t need to work harder. You need to work like you mean it.
Start with this talk.
BED-Con 2025 Sessionize Event Upcoming
Please note that Sessionize is not responsible for the accuracy or validity of the data provided by speakers. If you suspect this profile to be fake or spam, please let us know.
Jump to top