Leading the System: The Missing Layer Between Architecture and Ownership
In tech, we’ve mastered system architecture – but not human architecture. We talk about ownership, yet our structures often make it impossible to take it.
In this talk, Rahel Wiesböck – Operations Lead in Data Engineering at idealo – shares what happens when you apply systems thinking not to code, but to collaboration. She takes you through her journey from leading tech teams inside complex enterprise setups to shaping cross-team collaboration at scale. You’ll see why most leadership models fail in tech: they optimize people, not systems. And how roles like Tech Leads, Engineering Managers, and Operations Leads can reclaim real impact once they start designing for interaction, not instruction.
A talk for those who build architectures – and realize that culture is one, too.
Rahel Wiesböck is Engineering Operations Lead at idealo, where she leads data engineering teams and shapes how collaboration and leadership scale across tech.With a background in business computing, she began her career at Deloitte in cybersecurity for automotive clients and later joined the VW Group, helping to redesign a 1,000-person organization as Chief Scrum Master.These experiences laid the groundwork for her current focus: building engineering environments that balance structure, trust, and autonomy.Over the past five years at idealo, Rahel has evolved her approach from agile transformation to leading high-performing tech teams in a complex, product-driven environment.As a side entrepreneur, she designs customer-centered offerings for women in tech leadership—work that keeps her close to user needs and sharpens her view on how systems can truly serve people.She believes impactful tech cultures are built on trust, context, and real connection.