Hey, I'm Ryan Kerry - a technology executive and most recently the VP of Engineering at ESL FACEIT Group. I've led global teams at Unity, Lush, amongst others, advise companies on scale and strategy, and invest in the future of technology, AI, and sustainable innovation.
Financial fluency
When I first stepped into senior leadership, I realised that my responsibilities had expanded well beyond technology. I was accountable not only for the performance of teams and platforms but also for the way those decisions showed up in the company’s financials. At first, the P&L…
Rediscovering craft
When you step out of the rhythm of writing code every day, it is easy to forget how much muscle memory there is in programming. The shortcuts, the debugging rituals, the half-remembered syntax quirks that once felt instinctive begin to fade. Years spent in leadership roles…
Leadership styles
Leadership is never one-dimensional. Early in my career I wrongly assumed that consistency in a specific leadership style was a strength. Over time, I learned that the reality is very different. Effective leadership at the Director+ level requires adaptability…
Staying technically involved
A constant challenge in senior technology leadership is deciding how much to stay involved in technical work. At the VP or Director+ level, most of your energy goes into strategy, organisational health, and cross-functional influence. But fully stepping away from technology…
Working together
Cross-functional collaboration in an engineering organisation is rarely a “nice to have” it’s the operating model. Engineering doesn’t deliver value in isolation, and neither do Product, Design, Marketing and Commercial. The best outcomes happen when these functions…
Complex characters
Dealing with difficult individuals is one of the most challenging and draining aspects of leadership. It is not the occasional disagreement or personality clash that concerns me, but the persistent behaviours that, if left unaddressed, begin to shape the culture in ways…
Retaining talent
Retaining top talent is a constant challenge. It is tempting to think that compensation is the lever that matters the most, and while it plays a role, it is rarely the reason someone chooses to stay over the long term. The people you most want to retain are driven by…
Difficult discussions
One of the hardest parts of leading any organisation isn’t the strategy, the OKRs, or the architecture decisions. It’s the conversations. The tough ones. The ones where you’re delivering bad news, addressing underperformance, or making a call that impacts…