NGRS · Voices podcast

The people who built engineering teams the hard way

Conversations with CTOs, VPs of Engineering and Heads of AI about the moments that don't make the LinkedIn post — the failed funnels, the surge-hire pressure, the candidate who said yes and then ghosted, the org redesign that finally worked. Hosted by Natalia, CEO of NGRS.

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Natalia
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Hosted by Natalia

CEO & founder · NGRS

20+ years building engineering hiring engines for Fortune 500s, banks and scale-ups. Author of training programmes for hiring managers. The questions she asks her guests are the ones she's lived through with clients.

Episodes · Season 1

Conversations dropping monthly

Each episode is one tech leader, one hard story, one practical takeaway you can use this quarter. Below: the season-one line-up — first episodes are coming, the rest are confirmed guests in scheduling.

  • 01
    Episode 01 · upcoming

    "We had 6 weeks to hire 80 people. Here's what broke first."

    A former VP of Engineering at a publicly-traded SaaS company on the surge that nearly broke the org — and the three process changes that saved it. Guest name pending publication consent.

    Surge hiringFunnel collapse~40 minDropping June 2026
    ▸ Coming soon
  • 02
    Episode 02 · upcoming · ex-Netflix tech leader

    "How we hired a senior platform team across three continents"

    An ex-Netflix engineering leader on building a global platform team with the same standards across regions — and the moments where "global" almost became "local with extra steps".

    Multi-regionStandards consistency~45 minRecording
    ▸ Coming soon
  • 03
    Episode 03 · upcoming · banking CIO

    "The Head of AI we hired — and the one we almost hired"

    A banking CIO on running a first-of-kind Head of AI search — what the brief looked like at week 0, what it looked like at week 6, and the candidate they almost made an offer to but didn't.

    Executive searchHead of AI~38 minConfirmed
    ▸ Coming soon
  • 04
    Episode 04 · upcoming · Lisbon tech founder

    "Hiring senior engineers in Portugal when nobody's heard of you"

    A Lisbon-based fintech founder on building the engineering team for a US-funded company in a market where the candidates haven't heard of your investors. Reputation as a sourcing channel.

    PortugalScale-up~35 minConfirmed
    ▸ Coming soon
  • 05
    Episode 05 · upcoming · outsourcer founder

    "We bet the company on a 9-week staffing window — and won"

    A tech-outsourcer founder on the moment they signed a $20M contract and realised the team didn't exist yet. The funnel decisions, the same-time-zone bet, and what they'd do differently.

    OutsourcerContract staffing~40 minPre-production
    ▸ Coming soon
  • 06
    Episode 06 · upcoming · ML platform lead

    "Hire AI engineers or wait for AI to do the job?"

    A platform engineering leader at a public AI-infra company on where the line is — which engineering work AI agents now handle well, where humans still win, and how that changes hiring strategy in 2026–28.

    AI vs human hiringHybrid teams~42 minPre-production
    ▸ Coming soon

Guest names will be added when publication consents are confirmed. Subscribe below — episodes drop in your inbox the day they go live.

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Built something hard? We'd like to talk to you.

If you've scaled an engineering team through a moment that didn't make the press release — drop us a line. Natalia interviews three to four guests a month.

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