Eventbrite India’s Principal Engineer Office Hours: Building A Culture Of Inclusive Learning And Innovation

Within India's rapidly evolving technology scene, where it is becoming increasingly important for diversity and innovation to coexist, Eventbrite India’s Principal Engineer Office Hours have emerged as a shining example of inclusive learning and teamwork. 

With a wealth of experience in their respective fields, Pradyumn Nand, Principal Security Engineer, and Shiddesh Unkalkar, Principal Software Engineer from Eventbrite India, offer insights on how these sessions go beyond conventional boundaries and promote collaborative problem solving through a vibrant exchange of diverse ideas and knowledge about the most recent developments in cloud computing, cybersecurity strategies, software development architecture, and product innovation.

In the Principal Engineer Office sessions, what specific areas do you prioritise for comprehensive knowledge sharing and collaborative problem-solving, particularly concerning the critical aspects of security and cybersecurity?
Pradyumn Nand: As a Principal Security Engineer at Eventbrite, I think these sessions aren’t just about imparting knowledge; it's about fostering a collaborative environment where teams can openly discuss their security challenges.

I find tremendous fulfilment in sharing our expertise to help teams build secure applications in AWS, with an emphasis on implementing a zero-trust architecture for microservices, identities and their perimeter  networks. Furthermore, ensuring data security of our customer and business information by building tight access controls, leveraging encryption and anonymization, and adhering to statutory compliance frameworks is another area where we help teams take their security posture to the next level.

Secure coding practices for multiple languages and frameworks are deliberated and documented, and peer to peer learning sessions help foster an overall culture of security in the organisation and a sense that security is everyone's responsibility. As a security team, we discuss and encourage the use of LLMs and AI to solve challenges of business logic abuse, collusion and fraud that go beyond traditional security, enabling other teams to stay on top of these bleeding edge technologies.

We actively engage in assisting teams incorporate DevSecOps techniques into software development lifecycles and follow best practices in Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM). These advancements are pivotal in ensuring that security remains a foundational pillar in every aspect of our technology and innovation.

In order to support teams to navigate and overcome intricate software development architectural issues, which essential topics would you prioritise for detailed exploration and discussion during these sessions?
Shiddesh Unkalkar: Guiding teams through complex architectural challenges and problems is a cornerstone of my role as a Principal Software Engineer here at Eventbrite India. Every time a team runs into scalability or resiliency problems, I try to get them to focus on microservices based architecture with AWS managed orchestration solutions. This would open up options to adjust their services dynamically in response to demand, guaranteeing uninterrupted performance even at peak times. Sessions about event-driven design to improve real-time data processing capabilities, speed up transaction processing and user experience would be insightful. Modern DevOps techniques like continuous integration and deployment (CI/CD) pipelines are another thing I would like to highlight.

I'm also looking forward to investigating and sharing my knowledge on cutting-edge technologies like serverless computing for more effective API integrations, as they have the potential to significantly increase the scalability and capabilities of our platform.  I strive to make every session beneficial for our engineering community by fostering transparent communication, emphasising foundational principles and first-principle concepts, offering practical guidance through real-world examples to solve problems, documenting and sharing insights.

I guide teams to effectively tackle intricate software development architecture challenges by leveraging the AWS Well-Architected Framework and best practices in cloud architecture. This approach not only ensures scalability, security and resilience but also promotes efficient resource utilisation and cost optimization, ultimately driving business success and operational excellence.

How do you ensure inclusivity in Principal Engineer Office (PEO) sessions that involve engineers from diverse teams and varying levels of experience?
Pradyumn Nand: Apart from imparting my subject matter expertise and guiding teams through intricate project issues, I also engage in a lot of "I'm not familiar with this and would like to learn more about it," conversations. This helps to create a safe space and model a learning culture where it's okay to not know everything but that it's important to be curious and ask questions. Seeing so many budding talents roll up their sleeves and participate in deep tech discussions and inquiry-based learning with cross-functional teams is heartening. "These office hours are not just about knowledge exchange; they are about creating a supportive ecosystem where every voice matters."

Shiddesh Unkalkar: We also ask that participants suggest topics for each session; individuals who may still find it difficult to pose questions in real time are encouraged to share their questions with us ahead of time. For engineers to express their opinions on what they appreciate, how it helped them, and what could be improved for the future, we also have an anonymous feedback system.

I see this as a powerful platform to provide equitable learning opportunities for remote technical talent located all across the country, including those from underrepresented regions outside of IT hubs and Tier 1 cities. It serves as a testament to Eventbrite's dedication to nurturing talent irrespective of geographical barriers. As we continue to advocate for advancing women in technology, we are thrilled not only to see more women attend and gain from these sessions but also contribute significantly by bringing in bold questions and diverse perspectives.