Hi, I’m Chris Smith, a software engineering leader, senior manager and coach based in Cambridge, United Kingdom. In my career so far, I’ve been a software engineer (for about 13 years), a ScrumMaster, a business analyst (for about 5 minutes), an agile project manager and a software development manager. My most recent full-time role was Director of Engineering at Redgate – a purveyor of ingeniously simple tools and services for database professionals – where I managed 22 teams (130+ people) overseeing 25 products across four solution areas.
With over 25 years’ experience of working in software businesses, I have built excellent experience of new product development. I harness agile & lean principles to guide teams from exploring new markets through to delivering validated products and beyond. I seek an impactful role to deliver software that genuinely solves customers’ problems, build a humane, high-performance culture, and foster great teams. If you want to hire me, you can reach me at chris@leadingagileteams.com.
I’m a proponent of agile software development practices and lean product development. Over the years I have become less focused on processes & frameworks and more interested in organizational culture and building an environment where people & agile software development teams can flourish. I believe that’s where teams have a clear purpose, the context & freedom they need to take decisions, and the space to hone their approach & skills.
I’ve been fortunate to be accepted and asked to speak at a number of UK and international conferences, you can find a list of those speaking engagements here.
You can find me on Bluesky @cj-smithy.bsky.social and on LinkedIn. Here are some of my recent posts:
Leading Agile Teams 