Hi, I’m Kathleen Vignos. My “day job” is automating and modernizing on-prem and public cloud infrastructure at Twitter scale. My “side hustle” is developing Twitter’s engineering manager training, hiring, and promotion programs. And my “secret ingredient” is my expertise in facilitation and negotiation. I don’t shy away from tough problems.
At Twitter, I’m a Director in Platform Engineering and lead our infrastructure automation group. I have also lead Twitter’s internal engineering manager training program since 2018. Previously, I was lucky enough to be Director of Engineering at Wired where I was proud to build the team who scaled the website to 1 billion page views a year. Over 20+ years I’ve worked at two startups (founded one), taught business software programming at the university level, won two hackathons, and developed dozens of websites. Other experiences include everything from being on call as a COBOL programmer for Y2K to modifying a React app for a hack week project. I regularly coach engineering managers and female engineers on confidence and leadership. I obtained BS and MS engineering degrees from UCLA and Michigan and I serve San Francisco Bay Area youth as a board member for local non-profit, New Door Ventures.
SPEAKING
- Google Cloud OnAir: Getting Started with Google Cloud Certifications, December 2020
- LeadDev: Strategies for creating an environment of continuous learning, December 2020
- LeadDev: I’m newly remote under corona virus, AMA panel, April 2020
- #SheInspiresMe Panel, March 2019
- O’Reilly Velocity Conference, June 2018: “How to Keep Up Your Tech Skills (without annoying your teams)“
- North Bay Python, December 2017: “5 Leadership Skills Every Engineer Needs“
- Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, October 2017: Twitter EmpowHERment Panel, “Twitter Localization”
- Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, October 2017: Twitter Tech Women Talks, “Building a Twitter Bot with the Twitter API“
- O’Reilly Fluent Conference, June 2017: “Managing Engineering Teams through Constant Change” https://youtu.be/ci9CUWwgQOc (43:53)
- O’Reilly Velocity Conference, June 2017: “Managing Engineering Teams through Constant Change”
- Tech Essentials Design Course for the University of Southern California (Guest Interviewee)
- O’Reilly Fluent Conference Ignite Speaker, 2016
https://youtu.be/mYT4NF_Dsjg (5:07) - Day of Rest, WP REST API (London, UK) Speaker, 2016
https://youtu.be/X7HlPn2hzWg (37:37) - WordPress VIP Developer’s Conference Speaker, 2015
- Fastly Altitude Conference Speaker, 2015
https://youtu.be/xaG_z6N9O9M (32:53)
SIDE PROJECTS AND HACKATHONS
- Top 3 People’s Choice: Twitter 2021 Hack Week, “Simplify to Scale” (March 2021, promotion tool redesign)
- Twitter Bot using the Twitter API (September 2017, node.js)
- Participant: Twitter Hack Week 2016 (programming in React)
- FIRST PLACE: Conde Nast “Built While Flying” Hackathon 2016. 22 teams, 200 participants. Project: Automated SEO Validator for Publishing
ARTICLES
- Google Cloud Blog: “Why a leader at Twitter thinks Google Cloud training is a must for IT execs and employees“
- WIRED: “Programmers, lets earn the right to be called engineers“
- WIRED: “Why WIRED.com Migrated (And Why Your Site Should Too)“
- WIRED: “Our Director of Engineering on the New WIRED.com“
- http://www.wired.com/author/kvignos/
PODCASTS
- Interviewed on WIRED Webmonkey Podcast, “I Look Like An Engineer“
IN THE PRESS
- Interviewed for Fast Company, “How to Get a Job at Twitter,” March 2018
- Interviewed for WIRED article on sexism in Silicon Valley, June 2017:
- Women Who Code Profile
- Post Status Article: Should I use the WordPress REST API?
