Technical PM (Part 2), Platforms & Careers (with Leon Belebrov and Alex Stewart-James)

What if your next big career move in tech wasn’t into management or staff engineering – but into technical product management? In this episode of SEEK Bytes, Will continues the conversation with Leon Belobrov and Alex Stewart-James in Part 2 of our deep dive into technical PMs, platform teams and how engineers can shape the roadmap (and their careers). This episode's special guests: Leon Belobrov (SEEK Principal Product Manager, Platform) and Alex Stewart-James (SEEK Snr Technical Product Manager) They share how interviewing dozens of SEEK engineers surfaced honest feedback, surprisingly clear asks, and a long list of “we just built it ourselves” tools that should really be platform products – plus why removing features and legacy tools can be just as valuable as shipping new ones. You’ll also hear what it takes to move from senior engineer or BA into a TPM role, and why this space is still early enough to shape if you jump in now. In this episode, we explore: • How engineers can influence the technical roadmap – from being a “demanding customer” to joining product discussions, speaking the language of metrics, and tying tech work to business outcomes. • When to invest in platform teams (and how to get buy-in) – spotting the point where every squad is solving the same non-differentiating problems, and making the case for centralising capabilities like security and infra. • How to grow into a technical product manager – mapping your existing skills, building a portfolio of real communication and customer-empathy stories, and becoming a true platform evangelist who can win funding and adoption If you’re a software engineer, SRE, BA, platform/DevOps engineer, product manager or IT leader curious about owning internal platforms, shaping developer experience or shifting into technical product roles, this Part 2 conversation is packed with practical advice, career angles and real-world stories you can apply right now. 👍 Hit Like if you’ve ever built an internal tool and wondered if it should become a real product 🔔 Subscribe to the SEEK Bytes podcast on YouTube so you never miss a new episode 💬 Drop a comment: Are you more interested in staying on the engineering path or moving toward technical product management – and what’s the biggest question you have about making that shift? #SEEKBytes #SEEKTech #TechnicalProductManager #PlatformEngineering #DeveloperExperience #DevOps #ProductManagement #ITCareers