Building Tech Teams with James MacDonald

The weekly podcast exploring how Australia hires, builds, and leads tech teams in the age of AI. Each week, James MacDonald sits down with a founder, CTO, or people leader to discuss the work itself—the strategic wins, the lessons learned from tough calls, and how leadership is evolving as AI reshapes what a team looks like.Building Tech Teams is produced by Day One®, trusted partners in the technology space and the production partner behind Blackbird Ventures' Wild Hearts. Sister shows include First Cheque, Oversubscribed and In The Blink of AI.

Building Tech Teams with James MacDonald is a technology podcast hosted by NTP Talent, with 127 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

NTP Talent hosts Building Tech Teams with James MacDonald, a technology show with 127 episodes published.

Our AI reads these to draft pitches. Use them as grounding for a pitch that cites a real guest and a specific topic.

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  Episode #11

  Why Everybody Unpacks the Dishwasher: Ella Brennecke, People Operations Manager at Everlab

  Sep 15, 202659 minS2

  DESCRIPTION Most people teams wait until someone with an HR background is in the room before they build a culture function. Ella Brennecke didn't have one, and Everlab's culture is stronger for it. In this episode of Building Tech Teams, James MacDonald sits down with Ella Brennecke, People Operations Manager at Everlab, the preventative health company that has grown past 130 people across Sydney and Melbourne. They get into how Ella broke into people and culture from a hospitality and founder-support background, why she deliberately targeted startups with nobody yet in HR, and how she uses AI as a research partner without letting it write the memo a human is meant to read. It's a hands-on look at building culture at speed: onboarding designed to start before day one, an "everybody unpacks the dishwasher" ownership principle that runs through hiring and customer care alike, and why Everlab puts every new hire through its own health protocol before they touch the product. They also cover the real tension in AI-assisted hiring, why a genuine cover letter still beats a strong resume, and what years in hospitality taught her about designing experiences long before she had a people title. CHAPTERS 00:00 Cold open 00:43 Intro: why culture is the glue past 100 people 02:57 Designing experiences where people excel 04:03 Magic is designed, not accidental 05:20 Holding culture across Sydney and Melbourne 07:31 Supporting technical people leaders 09:28 Leaning on your VC as a resource 10:56 Breaking into people and culture with no HR background 14:45 Creating your own luck 16:11 Just ask for the title 16:41 Why she stays close to the founder 18:51 What breaks as you scale: onboarding first 21:43 The interview is a two way sell 25:01 Inside the hiring process 26:26 What a culture interview actually looks like 28:27 New York restaurants and fast feedback loops 31:36 Get the ops right, then add the magic 33:12 Automating the busy work 35:38 AI can level you up or level you down 37:52 Teaching the next generation to still think 39:44 AI slop: produce better, not more 41:29 Using AI to synthesise, not to judge 42:37 Why she still reads every cover letter 45:30 The win: annual review cycles 48:07 Design for the people you're actually serving 49:05 Everybody unpacks the dishwasher 51:41 Every employee sits with a customer each quarter 54:34 Final advice: leave threads for people to pull 56:37 Wrap ABOUT THE GUEST Ella Brennecke is People Operations Manager at Everlab in Sydney, where she has built the people and culture function largely from scratch since joining roughly nine months ago. She came to Everlab via the Founder Success team at Blackbird Ventures and the guest experience team at cabin retreat company Unyoked, and works closely with Everlab's founder on hiring, onboarding and culture across the company's Sydney and Melbourne offices. LINKS Ella Brennecke, Everlab · LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ariella-werner-seidler/ James MacDonald, NTP Talent · LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jamesmacdonaldau · Site: ntptalent.com.au Hosted by James MacDonald, Managing Director of NTP Talent. Building Tech Teams is produced by Day One®, trusted partners in the technology space and the production partner behind Blackbird Ventures' Wild Hearts. Sister shows include First Cheque, Oversubscribed and In The Blink of AI. Episodes are cross-promoted across the network.

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  Episode #10

  The Engineer Who Hasn't Written Code in 9 Months: Jack Rudenko, 10x Labs

  Sep 1, 20261h 17mS2

  Jack Rudenko hasn't written a line of code himself in nine months. In that time, his team has shipped six or seven products used by millions of people, and he says that gap, between who writes the code and who's actually building, is the whole story of engineering right now. In this episode of Building Tech Teams, James MacDonald sits down with Jack Rudenko, Chief AI Officer at 10x Labs, where he has spent the past two years building an AI-native engineering practice from the ground up. They get into the project everyone called impossible before AI made it a three-month build, why working with AI agents is more exhausting than writing code ever was, and what actually separates an engineer from an artist or a scientist now that the code itself isn't the hard part. It's a hands-on, practitioner's take on what building with AI agents actually looks like day to day, not the conference-keynote version. They cover Jack's own workflow for briefing an AI agent, why he doesn't trust any project's security the moment an API key exists, the "non-engineering builders" quietly out-building agencies, and why he calls Claude Code some of the worst-engineered software he's ever used, and also the tool he loves most. CHAPTERS 0:00 - Cold open: the line that explains why most AI engineering doesn't work 0:31 - Who Jack Rudenko is, and what's ahead in this episode 1:27 - Welcome, meet Jack Rudenko, Chief AI and Technical Strategist at 10x Labs 1:48 - The real bottleneck in AI engineering is human, not technical 3:36 - Why "AI native from scratch" beats bolting AI onto old processes 8:53 - Inside Magus, treating AI skills like versioned software packages 11:20 - 500 skills later, building a curated knowledge base for AI agents 14:56 - The rise of the "non-engineering builder" 17:06 - Why enterprise software is the real mess, not startups 19:32 - The unexpected cost of working with AI, burnout, not laziness 21:24 - Jack's actual workflow, plan mode, research, and acceptance criteria 27:26 - Dark factories, evals, and "religion" versus "engineering" in AI 29:49 - The skill nobody measured, loaded less than half the time 32:52 - Why AST trees beat graph databases for AI code memory 36:07 - From 10X to 50X, two projects AI made possible 41:35 - What team size looks like when one person can do it all 42:53 - Why no project is secure once a key exists 46:44 - Artist, scientist, engineer, what actually makes you one 51:04 - What junior engineers need to learn now 54:45 - Cursor, YC founders, and the rise of the non-engineer builder 59:35 - The addictive, exhausting superpower of building 10X more 1:02:57 - Why "impossible" projects are worth the budget now 1:04:55 - The future of software, giant platforms and a million small ones 1:08:04 - Why consultancies are thriving, for now 1:09:12 - "Claude Code is the worst software ever. I love it." 1:11:22 - Open source, Jack's origin story, and why it built him 1:15:23 - James's takeaway: religion vs engineering, and the challenge to measure your own AI rollout ABOUT THE GUEST Jack Rudenko is Partner and Chief AI Officer at 10x Labs, where he has spent the past two years building the team’s AI-native engineering practice, Magus, from the ground up. He has deep expertise in cloud-native architecture, Go, Kubernetes and complex systems, and has delivered production platforms that would have been considered technically impossible before AI, including a three-system integration project used as a case study on this episode. Jack is also a longtime open-source contributor, including to the Linux kernel.at 10x Labs, where he has spent the past two years building the team’s AI-native engineering practice, Magus, from the ground up. He has deep expertise in cloud-native architecture, Go, Kubernetes and complex systems, and has delivered production platforms that would have been considered technically impossible before AI, including a three-system integration project used as a case study on this episode. Jack is also a longtime open-source contributor, including to the Linux kernel. LINKS Jack Rudenko, 10x Labs · LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erudenko/ James MacDonald, NTP Talent · LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jamesmacdonaldau · Site: ntptalent.com.au Hosted by James MacDonald, Managing Director of NTP Talent. --- Building Tech Teams is produced by Day One®, trusted partners in the technology space and the team who helped build Blackbird Ventures' Wild Hearts. Sister shows include First Cheque, Oversubscribed and In The Blink of AI. Episodes are cross-promoted across the network.

  ListenShow Notes
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  Episode #9

  Nobody Knows What to Pay Anymore: A Building Tech Teams Best-Of

  Aug 25, 202621 minS2

  Eight guests into Building Tech Teams, one theme has shown up in every single episode: money. A principal software engineer who now manages a team of agents asks what he should be paid, and nobody in the room has a clean answer. AI has changed what one person can produce, and salaries have come off the rails behind it. In this best-of episode, James MacDonald pulls together the sharpest thinking on compensation from five of his first eight guests. Nathan Hill, Head of Telco at AWS, on the question nobody can answer yet. Adam Witanowski with the real numbers from a live job hunt: nine companies, seven offers, US startups paying US$450–500k base against comparable local roles at $220k. Claudia Barriga-Larriviere on whether AI is making teams more productive or just faster. Matt McFarlane, founder of FNDN, on token costs eating into the people budget. And Cloe Stanbridge, Talent Lead at Airtree, on the moment a big cheque is actually worth it. It adds up to a state of play for the Australian market on AI-era pay: why the gap with the US is structural (no hyperscalers, startup funding a tenth the size, enterprises that still think engineers are too expensive), why almost nobody is measuring the productivity gains they are paying for, what happens when ten people run five thousand agents, and why the cheapest move in the whole budget discussion is the raise nobody asked for. CHAPTERS 0:00 - Cold open: what should a 10x engineer be paid? 0:19 - Nathan Hill: quantifying what AI is actually worth 1:05 - Million-dollar salaries as a bet on future ROI 1:28 - Adam Witanowski: nine companies, seven offers, real numbers 2:35 - US$500k in the US vs $220k here: which one would you choose? 3:50 - Why the gap is structural: funding, hyperscalers, enterprise mindset 5:37 - Claudia Barriga-Larriviere: more productive, or just faster? 6:15 - "What you don't measure, you can't change" 7:26 - Matt McFarlane: the jump is too big, because you've been underpaying 8:32 - Tokens are eating the people budget 9:55 - Ten people plus 5,000 agents: whose budget line? 11:00 - Where token costs land, and the on-cost of humans 13:01 - Leaderboards reward consumption, not value 13:31 - Cloe Stanbridge: when the big cheque is worth it, and when it isn't 15:06 - Salary bands have to enable the business 16:26 - Replacement value: getting ahead of the market 16:58 - The raise nobody asked for ABOUT THE GUESTS Nathan Hill is Head of Telco at AWS (episode 3). Adam Witanowski is an AI Architect, previously at NIB (episode 7). Claudia Barriga-Larriviere is a People & Culture leader at Startup Flamingo (episode 4). Cloe Stanbridge is Talent Lead at Airtree (episode 6). Matt McFarlane is the Founder and Director of FNDN, a compensation consultancy helping startups and scaling tech companies build pay practices that are clear, fair and competitive (episode 8). The full conversations with all five are in the feed. LINKS Nathan Hill, AWS LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanrhill Claudia Barriga-Larriviere, Startup Flamingo LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/claudiabl Site: https://startupflamingo.com Cloe Stanbridge, Airtree LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cloestanbridge/ Adam Witanowski linkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/witanowski/ Matt McFarlane, FNDN LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewmcfarlane/ Site: https://www.fndn.com.au/ James MacDonald, NTP Talent LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesmacdonaldau/ Site: https://ntptalent.com.au James's newsletter, Headcount and Code, lands every Wednesday on Substack. Hosted by James MacDonald, Managing Director of NTP Talent. Building Tech Teams is produced by Day One®, trusted partners in the technology space and the team who helped build Blackbird Ventures' Wild Hearts. Sister shows include First Cheque, Oversubscribed and In The Blink of AI. Episodes are cross-promoted across the network

  ListenShow Notes
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  Episode #8

  Why "The Number Is Never the Problem": Matt McFarlane, Founder of FNDN

  Aug 18, 20261h 13mS2

  Most companies treat compensation as a math problem: get the number right and the rest takes care of itself. Matt McFarlane says that’s backwards, and it’s the reason so many pay conversations go sideways even when the number itself is fair. In this episode of Building Tech Teams, James MacDonald sits down with Matt McFarlane, founder of FNDN, the compensation consultancy he built after years running People Operations inside fast scaling startups. They get into why counteroffers rarely work, the exact headcount where pay problems start to bite, why equity has stopped doing its job as a retention lever in Australia, and how the AI hiring market has quietly made token costs a bigger line item than payroll. CHAPTERS 0:00 - Cold open: the number is only half the story 0:44 - Who Matt McFarlane is, and why James wanted him on 1:30 - Welcome, and the trust problem behind every pay number 3:08 - Pay compression, and getting ahead of the market before you're asked 5:54 - Rebalancing cadence, and when a counteroffer is worth it 9:37 - Bringing in outside help, and titles as currency 11:35 - Building a real pay philosophy, and hiring your first people leader 13:52 - The 50 to 100 headcount inflection point 15:32 - Why the people function is bigger than most founders think 17:31 - Onboarding, ways of work, and staying focused in the age of AI 20:50 - What Zapier gets right about AI adoption 23:29 - The AI engineer bidding wars, and the "jump is too big" excuse 26:29 - Token costs vs headcount costs, and mission over salary 29:20 - Is equity still worth offering 32:50 - The naivety of chasing the next Canva 34:08 - Building a team with a blank cheque 37:52 - Rock stars, superstars, and hiring past 100 people 40:38 - How AI agents are reshaping org structure 42:47 - The Ralph Wiggum loop, and why AI leaderboards backfire 47:13 - Attraction and retention beyond salary 48:50 - The ComBank toilet tracker 49:39 - Advice for individuals chasing a pay rise 53:41 - Why "prove it first" is dying: Gen Z's pushback 56:31 - Staying technical, and why people teams need to get technical too 1:01:27 - Building a personal brand from scratch 1:02:22 - How the podcast happened by accident 1:05:37 - What personal brand does for individual engineers 1:08:17 - The Startup People Summit 1:10:50 - One trend to watch 1:11:50 - James's takeaway, and the gap you need to close ABOUT THE GUEST Matt McFarlane is the Founder and Director of FNDN, a compensation consultancy helping startups and scaling tech companies build pay practices that are clear, fair and competitive. He previously led People Operations functions at companies including Oyster, a global employment platform, where he was Senior Director of People Experience. Matt also publishes the FNDN Series newsletter and podcast, co-founded the Startup People Summit, and was named to the 2026 HR Influence Awards Top 12 for ANZ and LinkedIn’s Top Voices Australia. LINKS Matt McFarlane, FNDN · LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewmcfarlane/ · Site: https://www.fndn.com.au/ James MacDonald, NTP Talent · LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesmacdonaldau/ · Site: https://ntptalent.com.au Hosted by James MacDonald, Managing Director of NTP Talent. --- Building Tech Teams is produced by Day One®, trusted partners in the technology space and the production partner behind Blackbird Ventures' Wild Hearts. Sister shows include First Cheque, Oversubscribed and In The Blink of AI. Episodes are cross-promoted across the network.

  ListenShow Notes
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  Episode #7

  Why "Show Me Your Harness" Beats Any Coding Test: Adam Witanowski, AI Architect

  Aug 10, 20261h 15mS2

  Most technical interviews still ask a candidate to write a function on a whiteboard. Adam Witanowski says that question is already obsolete, and what should replace it says everything about how AI is changing who gets hired. In this episode of Building Tech Teams, James MacDonald sits down with Adam Witanowski, AI Architect at nib, where he has spent the past several years building the insurer's AI engineering practice from the ground up. They get into why most enterprise AI projects underperform (nobody is measuring the right things), what "back pressure" means for AI-generated code, why Australian salaries can't compete with the US for senior AI talent, and why the technical interview needs a full rebuild. It's a hands-on, practitioner's take on what's actually happening inside enterprise AI teams, not the conference-keynote version. They cover the real dollar gap between hiring an AI engineer in Australia versus the US, why "the whiteboard should come back" as an interview tool, how Adam built his own AI agent to interview for jobs on his behalf, and the testing harness his team uses to check whether AI-generated work is actually any good. CHAPTERS 0:00 - Cold open: the line that explains why most AI investments don't work 0:44 - Who Adam Witanowski is, and why James wanted him on 2:06 - Welcome, and building an AI SDLC from scratch inside a regulated insurer 5:12 - What "back pressure" actually means, and why solo AI coding doesn't scale 10:52 - Startups vs enterprises: re-engineer whole processes, not thin slices 13:24 - Why most companies can't even measure the problem they're trying to solve 17:10 - Software eats the world, and why that makes engineers apex predators 19:44 - Build in-house or buy: the blind spots consulting companies won't tell you 23:57 - Forward deployed engineers, and the rise of the hybrid product-engineer 26:38 - Tangent: his 13-year-old builds an AI auto-aimbot 30:43 - Build, upskill or outsource: the renters, owners and caretakers test 34:18 - What AI talent actually wants beyond a bigger title 38:30 - The real dollar gap: $220K in Australia versus $500K in the US 46:37 - What to actually pay your first AI hire 49:01 - "What you don't measure, you can't change" 51:01 - Redesigning the interview: show me your harness 56:45 - Why the whiteboard should come back 58:38 - Building a harness to test his harness 1:03:46 - He built his own AI agent to interview for him 1:07:28 - Why motivation and taste still beat any technical test 1:12:19 - Apex predator, Jedi, stallion, unicorn: Adam's closing line 1:13:00 - James's takeaway: it's a measurement problem, not a technology problem ABOUT THE GUEST Adam Witanowski is an AI Architect at nib in Sydney, where he has built Prometheus, an integrated suite of agentic AI tools now running in production across the business. He works at the intersection of senior engineering and AI leadership, and has spoken publicly on enterprise AI engineering discipline, including harness design, testing and evals, and AI governance. LINKS Adam Witanowski, NIB · LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/witanowski/ James MacDonald, NTP Talent · LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesmacdonaldau/ · Site: https://ntptalent.com.au Hosted by James MacDonald, Managing Director of NTP Talent. --- Building Tech Teams is produced by Day One®, trusted partners in the technology space and the production partner behind Blackbird Ventures' Wild Hearts. Sister shows include First Cheque, Oversubscribed and In The Blink of AI. Episodes are cross-promoted across the network.

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