10 Atlassian engineering leaders
Atlassian's engineering bench here has three senior vice presidents and four vice presidents, plus three Head of Engineering titles for Growth and Confluence, with AI in titles from AI & Products to AI Platform and AI Chat Agents. Seven held earlier roles at Microsoft, Amazon, Uber or Dropbox, which makes the group useful for a software company deciding how to staff AI platform work beside core products like Jira and Confluence.
Professionals to explore
Brendan Haire
LinkedInExperience: VP Engineering of AI Platform and AI Chat Agents · Atlassian
Based in Sydney, Brendan Haire has been VP Engineering of AI Platform and AI Chat Agents at Atlassian since 2024, describing a team that drives AI strategy through better search, information retrieval and AI conversational agents across products using ML and LLMs. Haire's Atlassian titles also include Head of Engineering for Search and AI Conversation (2023–2024), Collaboration Platform (2020–2023) and Search and Smarts (2017–2023).
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Derek Cheng
LinkedInExperience: SVP Engineering · Atlassian
Jira's engineering teams are where Derek Cheng works as SVP Engineering at Atlassian since 2026; as VP Head of Engineering there (2023–2024), Cheng led the teams for Compass, Bitbucket and Dev Agents. Cheng was a Builder at a Stealth Startup (2025–2026), VP, Content Verticals at Microsoft (2022–2023) and a Development Lead at Microsoft (2007–2010), suiting questions on engineering for Jira and developer products.
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Govi Bacthavachalu
LinkedInExperience: VP Head of Engineering · Atlassian
VP Head of Engineering at Atlassian since 2023, Govi Bacthavachalu was Director Of Engineering - Data and Cloud Platform at Uber (2021–2022). At Amazon the titles were Head of Engineering Last Mile Routing AI Platform (2019–2021), Head of Engineering Alexa ML Platform (2016–2019) and Head of Engineering Amazon Fresh Systems (2014–2016), which suits questions on standing up ML and data platforms.
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Guihong Cao
LinkedInExperience: Senior Vice President of Engineering · Atlassian
The engineering team of Atlassian AI, across strategy, execution and R&D focused on enterprise information creation, search, sharing and consumption, is what Guihong Cao describes leading; Cao became Senior Vice President of Engineering at Atlassian in 2026 and held a VP of Engineering title there in 2023. At Microsoft, Cao was GM at Microsoft Bing (2021–2023) and Partner Group Engineering Manager (2018–2021), a fit for AI search questions.
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Ilia Fainshtroy
LinkedInExperience: Head of Engineering, Confluence Cloud · Atlassian
Platform, performance and developer productivity, plus engineering strategy and org design, are the focus areas Ilia Fainshtroy lists as Head of Engineering, Confluence Cloud at Atlassian since 2024, after Senior Software Engineering Manager (2022–2024) and Software Engineering Manager (2018–2022) titles on Confluence Cloud. Fainshtroy was Software Engineering Manager at Tact.ai (2016–2018) and Perion (2014–2016).
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Kahren Tevosyan
LinkedInExperience: VP Head of Engineering · Atlassian
Identity and multi-tenant platform questions fit Kahren Tevosyan, VP Head of Engineering at Atlassian since 2025, leading the Identity and Tenant Platform organization. At Microsoft, Tevosyan was Vice President of Engineering, Azure Core Security Services (2022–2025), Partner Group Engineering Manager, Microsoft Azure Security Services (2013–2022) and Principal Software Engineering Manager, Microsoft Azure Compute (2010–2013).
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Ningyue Zhao
LinkedInExperience: Former Director of Software Engineering, Confluence · Atlassian
From Engineering Manager (2019–2021) and Director of Engineering, Product Growth (2021–2023) to Director of Software Engineering, Confluence (2023–2025) and, since 2025, Head of Software Engineering, Confluence, Ningyue Zhao's Atlassian titles fit questions on moving from product growth engineering to owning a core product. Zhao was a Software Development Manager at Amdocs (2013–2019).
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Pablo Ganga
LinkedInExperience: Director, Head of Engineering - Growth · Atlassian
Pablo Ganga has been Director, Head of Engineering - Growth at Atlassian since 2024, responsible for the capabilities that drive engagement through cross-channel messaging at scale for all Atlassian products. Ganga was Director Of Engineering at Dropbox (2020–2024), Software Development Manager at Amazon (2015–2020) and held software development manager titles at Equifax (2012–2015), suiting growth engineering questions.
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Reena Agarwal
LinkedInExperience: VP, Engineering · Atlassian
Reena Agarwal has been VP, Engineering at Atlassian since 2024 and lists AI and large-scale distributed systems as focus areas. Agarwal was Director, Software Development - Shopping Experience Foundations at Amazon (2016–2024) and Principal Engineering Manager - Windows Azure Identity at Microsoft (2013–2016), and has been an Angel Investor with FBomb Angels Investment Club since 2025, a fit for distributed systems questions.
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Taroon Mandhana
LinkedInExperience: SVP Head of Engineering - AI & Products · Atlassian
Taroon Mandhana has been SVP Head of Engineering - AI & Products at Atlassian since 2022, leading engineering for the Atlassian product portfolio and its AI work. Mandhana was Corporate Vice President at Microsoft (2020–2022), held Partner and Principal Development Manager titles there (2010–2014), and has been a Distinguished Fellow at Fellows Fund since 2025.
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Choose the right perspective
AI organization questions go first to Taroon Mandhana, Guihong Cao and Brendan Haire, whose titles or own descriptions center on AI products, search and conversational agents. Derek Cheng covers Jira plus Compass, Bitbucket and Dev Agents, Kahren Tevosyan identity and tenant platform, Govi Bacthavachalu and Reena Agarwal ML platforms and distributed systems, and Pablo Ganga, Ningyue Zhao and Ilia Fainshtroy growth and Confluence engineering.
Questions to take into the conversation
- 01How should an AI platform team split work with the Jira and Confluence product engineering teams so AI features ship in both?
- 02What changes in engineering org design when a collaboration software company adds AI chat agents across its products?
- 03How do you build identity and tenant platform teams that serve many cloud products without slowing each product team down?
About this directory
This is a professional research starting point based on business profile data retrieved on . Titles and companies reflect that source snapshot; roles marked former had ended by then. Check the linked profiles for current details. Inclusion does not imply Instant Expert membership or availability.