Gisela Rossi
Hi 👋 I’m Gisela. Let me introduce myself and tell you more about me, my career journey, and what I care about.
My educational background is in Computer Science. I completed most of my studies at the National University of Cordoba, Argentina, with specialisations courses in AI and Autonomous Robotics at the University of Texas at Austin, USA. While a student, I was keen on research and did several research experiences in Argentina, the USA and France. My master thesis was in formal modal logic, and if you’re curious, here is the link to the paper with a somewhat lengthy title published in Advances in Modal Logics.
After university, I moved to London, and after testing the PhD student life for a short while, I became a Software Engineer. More specifically, a backend engineer using Python. And I fell in love with the vibrant and inclusive Python community. I became more involved by public speaking (events like Pycon UK, PyLondinium, meetups, etc.) and organising events.
Besides my full-time job, I’ve been an avid volunteer for the last decade. I care a lot about diversity and inclusion. I’ve led and helped in numerous efforts to help bridge the diversity and inclusion gaps in STEM fields. Some of those efforts have included: teaching girls to code at CoderDojo, co-organising PyLadies London, mentoring 1:1, board member in the WISE Campaign Young Professional’s Board, and leading ERGs at work.
After several years as a software engineer, I progressed to become a senior engineer, then an engineering lead, then an engineering manager, and finally became a manager of managers and director of engineering.
During my transition to managing managers and later stepping into a Director of Engineering role, I realized there’s far less guidance out there for this stage—especially compared to the wealth of content on moving from IC to EM. That gap is what motivated me to revive this blog.
I’m actively involved in the engineering leadership community. I’m a speaker at events (I also deliver talks for private companies as part of my consultancy services) and I’m a host for the LeadDev London meetups—if you ever attend, please don’t hesitate to say hello.
I’m at my best when I’m untangling complexity and helping people and systems thrive. I love turning chaos into clarity and making meaningful progress. One piece of feedback I’ll never forget? Someone once told me I was a “force of change,” and it’s become a bit of a north star ever since.
— Through the words of my colleagues over the years —
🗣️ Gisela is an exceptional team builder – The difference in her teams compared to other teams is visible just from a cursory glance in a slack channel. She creates a fun and safe environment for all people in her team to be at their best.
🗣️ Gisela is enthusiastic, positive and open – she readily shares both her personality as well as her ideas.
🗣️ I was always impressed by her. I was very impressed when she delivered great constructive feedback calling me out on something that I shouldn’t have done. The feedback was thoughtful, clear and kind and also showing that she cares about her team and their success.
🗣️ There have been quite a few times where deadlines and changing requirements have lead to stressful situations in the team. It’s very easy for teams to close up and become an unpleasant place to work within during these periods, but Gisela has always offered and encouraged kindness and inter-team support as the method to get though these times. It’s both refreshing and pleasant to be a part of.
🗣️ Her attitude, demeanor and thoughtfulness is infectious and gives the team a cohesiveness that not many I have worked on have. I think we are lucky to be working with her.
🗣️ It is sometimes left as an after thought, or comes second to other deliverables, but Gisela has always been a stronger supporter and advocate of getting documentation done and done right and always incorporates this into any planning of features. This has lead to a vast number of discoveries and team knowledge gaps being filled as well as key decisions being well documented for later consumption
🗣️ I really only have positive things to say about Gisela. She is super smart but very humble and is very easy to talk to, totally disarming. I feel I can be very open and honest with Gisela and that she will treat me with respect and empathy. These are fantastic qualities to have in a manager.
🗣️ Gisela is a super-strong, compassionate and extremely motivated manager. She has demonstrated executional strength through her impact on the CM team. She has supported the growth of her team through mentorship, creating a strong mission and ways of working alongside delivering high-impact projects. Gisela has also fully invested herself in making [company] a great place to work by contributing to initiatives such as the Hiring Improvements working group and the Diversity in Tech working group.
🗣️ She’s very active in our group of EMs, asking important questions. I really like how passionate and positive she always is, she has a really good influence on the rest of the group.
🗣️ Gisela has had a transformative impact on the team in a very fundamental way. Since Gisela joined, we have become more organised, cohesive, aligned, and now move with a purpose that we didn’t have before – and this shift was perceptible to me within hours of her coming on board. The team now feels tighter, very agile, dynamic, and enjoys much closer comms. In so many ways Gisela’s energy has livened up a team which previously was a bit gloomy, silent, and uncertain of itself. Gisela has also led a number of team initiatives which have really shaped us and defined our expectations, processes, and ways of working; straightening out our rather muddled context of repos in short order was just an absolute blessing!
🗣️ I trust Gisela as my manager. I feel like she will support me if I am having work or personal difficulties, but will not sugarcoat things or wrap me in cotton wool. She is kind and empathetic, but also straight talking and I am sure will provide a helpful dose of tough love if needed.
🗣️ Gisela has an infectious positive personality, she’s engaged, challenges in a respectful and constructive way and is active in driving the mission and OKRs.
🗣️ The moment Gisela joined the company she hit the ground running, identified the key stakeholders she should collaborate with, proactively followed up on initiatives and brought stability to the team in record time which is most likely reflected in her Peakon scores. Establishing the ways of working, encouraging RFCs, tackling alerts in a scalable way which the team struggled for a long time are just some of the examples of her impact. All of these positive aspects allowed her and the team to deliver on some of the ambitious plans. It’s important to note that these are no small feats given her non-existent knowledge of this area prior to joining the company.
Moreover, she did not settle only on her team goals but also looked around in improving the overall engineering culture, always being one of the first people to offer to help and always bringing new ideas for the department to improve. An example is her helping the Staff group establish their ways of working through a multi-day workshop.
Having talked with engineers from Gisela’s team prior to her joining and after, the sentiment and energy within the team was unrecognizable. Similar feedback has been given from peers or stakeholders she has interacted or worked with.
You can read more about what my colleagues have said about me over the years on my Linkedin references.
Let’s connect
giselarossi.co.uk 