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.
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…
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…
Sponsorship
There’s a lot of talk in leadership circles about coaching and mentoring, and rightly so. Coaching helps people refine their skills. Mentoring provides the benefit of experience and guidance. But there is a third, often overlooked ingredient that plays a crucial role in career progression…
Skip-levels
Skip-levels are one of the most effective ways to truly understand the health of an organisation, yet they are often treated as an afterthought or run as a one-off exercise. At scale, when you are several layers removed from the delivery teams, these conversations become a vital mechanism…
Predictability vs estimations
In many engineering organisations, especially those undergoing agile or delivery transformations, teams still default to traditional metrics like story points, time estimates, or velocity. These methods, often rooted in well-intentioned planning…
Leading through reductions
One of the most difficult responsibilities in senior leadership is guiding your team and organisation through reductions. These moments cut deeper than any product delay or operational challenge because they impact people’s livelihoods, trust, and sense of belonging…
Speaking at GDC alongside Cloudflare
Last month at the Game Developers Conference (GDC), I had the privilege of joining the team from Cloudflare to speak about a topic close to my heart: Zero Trust and its role in supporting the competitive gaming ecosystem.
Farewell Unity, hello EFG
Today marks the end of an incredible 5-year chapter at Unity Technologies as their Senior Director of Engineering, where I had the privilege of leading software engineering for the Multiplayer Product Suite within Unity Gaming Services.