Chief Technology Officer, Atlassian
Search every verified Rajeev Rajan interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Rajeev Rajan, Chief Technology Officer at Atlassian, has spoken in multiple interviews about his focus on "developer joy" as a guiding metric for engineering teams, which he described as prioritizing the removal of blockers and fostering a positive coding experience over traditional productivity goals. He stated that Atlassian sends a quarterly survey to engineers asking about their productivity in the codebase and has created an internal "AI school" modeled on a Stanford University course to upskill engineers. Rajan also discussed the company's sponsorship of the Williams Formula 1 team, saying it was chosen for its mass appeal and connection to world-class engineering and teamwork. Rajan has emphasized that Atlassian is "betting big on AI" with its Rovo offering, and he described the emergence of large language models as a "profound shift" comparable to the internet and mobile revolutions. He stated that the company uses AI across departments including engineering, finance, HR, and legal, and that customer data is not used for training without explicit permission. Rajan also noted that coding assistants can save one to two hours per week per engineer and expressed the view that AI will not eliminate jobs but will help people "move up the value chain."
“About 30 years in tech, we made the mistake of making our best coders managers, and we quickly found out that that doesn't work.”
“When I speak to candidates I'm like I try to convince them not to become a manager — why do you want to be a manager when you're writing code and having fun? If their motivation is right (for example they enjoy coaching), we will still support them and put them through an interview process to understand their true moti...”
“The AI moment we are having right now is a big deal — comparable to the internet and the iPhone mobile revolution, and it's going to be even more far‑reaching in its impact across industries and people worldwide.”
“I don't think AI is going to take away jobs — it's going to help human beings be more productive, create more jobs, and allow people to move up the value chain by freeing brain cycles for higher‑value, creative work.”
The best managers are the ones who never wanted the job. Today, we're talking to Rajeev Rajan, CTO at Atlassian. We discuss why developer joy outperforms productivity as an engineering goal, how the best managers are the ones who never wanted the job, and why every leadership playbook you've built stops working the moment your team grows. All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast!
Rajeev embarked on his career at Microsoft as a developer after a sabbatical from his Ph.D. to build upon his internship experience in Seattle the previous summer. In this episode, he delves into how his journey and interactions with various leaders have influenced his own leadership style as the CTO of Atlassian. The theme of ‘Developer Joy’ has resonated with Rajeev throughout his tenure at Microsoft, META, and now Atlassian. He elaborates on how Generative AI is being integrated across all Atlassian products, emphasizing this core theme. Given his background as a developer early in his car…
This episode of Techzine TV comes to you from Atlassian Team Europe, Atlassian's annual event in Barcelona. Sander and ...
Join Atlassian CTO Rajeev Rajan and Statsig CEO Vijaye Raji for a deep dive into the game-changing sponsorship of Williams ...
What does it really mean to build software with joy? At the Team 25 event in Anaheim, I had the opportunity to sit down with ...
Atlassian CTO Rajeev Ranjan has fond memories of working in engineering teams at Microsoft and Meta before Atlassian, and ...
Rajeev embarked on his career at Microsoft as a developer after a sabbatical from his Ph.D. to build upon his internship ...
A Studio Z interview with Atlassian’s CTO Rajeev Rajan on building rockstar remote engineering teams and more! Discover how Rajeev nurtures an exceptional engineering culture at Atlassian while tackling the challenges of remote work. Learn about the functions of company values, how to unleash your team's potential, and why developer joy directly leads to productivity. Tune in for insightful discussions on building human connections, understanding team dynamics, and practical advice for "getting things done" in a distributed workforce. Plus, hear Rajeev's take on the concepts of conduction, co…
In many ways, Atlassian pioneered the modern approach to SaaS marketing and monetization. After careers at Microsoft and Meta ...
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