Andrii
SRE Engineering Manager at Sabre. Kraków, Poland.
Also answers to .
Section 1. Who am I?§
- I am Andrii
- I’ve heard many variations of my name, and I’m fine with them. So, if it’s comfortable to call me Andrew, Andrzej, or Andy, feel free.
- I am originally from Ukraine but have been living in Kraków, Poland, for the last 12 years
- Even though that period is quite long, please forgive my Polish. I promise I’ll be working on it.
- I’m an SRE Engineering Manager at Sabre, where I lead an SRE team and focus on growing the people in it
- I’ve spent more than half my life in software, and over a third of it building Pixellu (SmartAlbums), a multi-product platform for photographers
Section 2. Values I believe in§
- Collaboration
- Most conflicts are really misaligned goals. Once we agree on what we’re trying to achieve, the “how” usually sorts itself out.
- Trust
- Trust is built through transparency: sharing context, admitting mistakes early, and doing what we said we would. It’s what lets a team move fast without constant check-ins.
- Learning every day
- There are so many things we don’t know. There’s always something new that can change how you see the world.
Section 3. My leadership style§
- Coaching first
- My default is to ask rather than tell. Most of the time, you already know the answer better than I do, and my job is to help you get to it.
- Fast calls when it matters
- During an incident, there’s no time for consensus. I’ll make decisions quickly, and afterwards we review them together in a blameless postmortem.
- A “spaceship manager”
- My job is to keep a pace that gets the crew to the target and back home safely, and leaves us ready for the next mission. Burning out the crew to hit one deadline is a failed mission.
Section 4. What is success for me?§
- The crew grows
- If a year from now you’re doing work you couldn’t have done today, that’s my main success metric.
- Our work matters
- Reliable systems are invisible when they work. I want the team to see, and the rest of the company to recognize, the impact we have on the business.
- Leaving things better than I found them
- It applies to a system, a team, or the world in general.
Section 5. What do I expect from my team?§
- Timely commitment and accountability to planned goals
- Understanding technical and product gaps, making them visible
- Collaborating on improvements and mitigation plans
- Escalating problems once they are encountered
- Looking for help and collaboration inside the team and in “sister teams”
- Staying curious and hungry for innovation
- If you do something manually twice, think about automating it the third time
Section 6. What can my team expect from me?§
- Clear, transparent communication
- I’ll share the context I have: what’s happening around us, why priorities change, and what leadership cares about. In the other direction, I’ll make sure your voice reaches the rooms you’re not in. And when you talk, I’m listening, not just waiting for my turn.
- Supporting your growth
- We’ll figure out together where you want to go and what will get you there. Then I’ll look for work that actually moves you in that direction.
- Technical decisions partnership
- Once my context tank is full, I’ll be there in technical discussions, making sure our daily work stays tied to the broader goals.
- Team dynamics monitoring and feedback
- I pay attention to how we work as a team, from processes and rituals to day-to-day dynamics, and bring ideas and feedback to help us improve.
Section 7. Superpowers and kryptonite§
I’m good at
- Helping people grow
- I pay close attention to how each person is doing and what they need to get to the next level.
- Connecting the work to the bigger picture
- I shape team roadmaps around company goals and balance technical and business priorities so we build what matters.
- Improving how we work
- I like introducing new processes and evolving existing ones, but only where they actually help the team.
I’m not good at
- “Face with captions”
- My face often shows what I think before I say it. If you notice a reaction, just ask — I’ll happily explain what’s behind it.
- Calibrating solutions without enough context
- When a problem feels familiar but I don’t have the full picture yet, I can overengineer it or oversimplify. If you see me heading in the wrong direction, please steer me — I’d rather be redirected early.
- Organizing team events
- I come from a fully remote environment where team-building was rare, so I sometimes forget about it or don’t notice when the team needs it. I’m fully on board and want to get better at it, so nudge me, and ideas are always welcome.
Section 8. How do I make decisions?§
I take time before committing.
I’d rather step back and understand the long-term impact than make a fast call I’ll regret later. Once I’ve decided, I stick with it, unless new information gives me a good reason to change course.
I lean on data wherever I can: metrics, past results, and postmortems. Gut feeling has its place, but I trust it more when the numbers back it up. If you’re bringing me a decision, data will convince me faster than opinions.
Section 9. Am I expecting everything to be perfect?§
Done is better than perfect.
I’d rather ship something and improve it step by step than wait for it to be flawless.
That said, my bar for shipping is still high. Whatever we release should be something we’re proud of, not just something that works. Once the PoC or MVP is live, we keep making it better.
Section 10. Quick wins or long-term strategic initiatives?§
Both, but the long game matters more.
Quick wins are great, and I’ll take them when they’re there. Still, the things that make a real difference usually come from steady work over a long time.
My approach: set an ambitious direction, then get there in small, deliverable steps. Ideally, each quick win also moves us toward the bigger goal.
Section 11. How technical am I?§
Quite technical.
- Founding engineer
- Staff Engineer
- Engineering Manager
I started as a founding engineer and grew through Staff Engineer before moving into management, so I’ve built and owned systems end to end. AWS and GCP (hope to catch up soon) architecture and infrastructure are comfortable ground for me.
I prefer technical decisions and implementation to be owned by whoever knows the area best. Usually that isn’t me. I’ll go deep on architecture, review designs and code, and lead technical discussions when needed. But my main job is to make sure our technical choices serve where the product and the company are going, not to be the smartest engineer in the room.
Section 12. Do I like meetings?§
Yes and no.
A good meeting has a clear purpose, an agenda, and an outcome (ideally a decision). If something can be resolved async in a doc or a thread, I’d rather do that and keep our calendars free for focused work.
If I send you a meeting invite, I’ll make sure it’s clear why you’re there. If I’m not needed in yours, feel free to tell me; I won’t take it personally.
- 1:1s
- 1:1s are your time, not mine. Bring anything — personal or professional, good news or bad, big questions or small ones. I’ll keep it protected and won’t turn it into a status update.
- Office hours
- Sometimes I run open office hours where we can just chat. They’re completely optional and unstructured. Drop in if you feel like it, skip if you don’t.
Section 13. What do I love and hate at work?§
I love
- Challenges
- The tougher the challenge, the more focused I get.
- Chasing big goals
- I’d rather aim high and fall a bit short than play it safe.
- Autonomy and freedom in innovations
- “Stay hungry, stay foolish.” Steve Jobs
I hate
- Dishonesty
- I can work with mistakes, bad news, and disagreement. I can’t work with being misled.
- When bureaucracy takes over
- Process should serve the team, not the other way around.
- Politics
- I’d rather have an open conflict than a hidden agenda.
Section 14. How do I see feedback?§
Feedback is one of the most valuable things a manager can give — and receive.
Giving feedback
- Praise in public, criticize in private
- No surprises
- I share feedback regularly in our 1:1s, so by the time of a performance review, you already know everything in it.
- Specific, not vague
- I use the SBI model (Situation, Behavior, Impact): what happened, what you did, and what effect it had. That keeps feedback about actions, not about you as a person.
Receiving feedback
- Be direct with me
- I’d much rather hear “this didn’t work” than a softened version I have to decode. You won’t be penalized for honest feedback; I’ll thank you for it.
Section 15. Working hours and focus time?§
I usually work from around 9:30–10:00 to 18:00 Polish time (CET/CEST).
I’m a strong believer in work-life balance, but years in a product company with on-call duty left me with a habit of being reachable almost 24/7 (except when I’m traveling and offline). So if something urgent comes up, reach me any time via the emergency channel.
That habit is mine, not a team expectation. Outside your on-call shifts, your time off is yours. If I send a message late, it can wait until your morning. When you’re on call and something goes sideways, don’t hesitate to escalate to me, day or night. You’re never handling a major incident alone.
Section 16. What do I do outside of work?§
- Mountains and travel with my family
- Pétanque
- I play and work with pétanque federations. If you’ve never tried it, I’m happy to show you.
- Sports in general, most recently padel
- I’m not picky about the sport, as long as the company is good.
- Home time: board games, cooking, and good movies with family and friends
- Music
- I have a lot of instruments at home. Lately I get to them about once every year or two, but they’re patiently waiting.
Dreams on the list
- Running the Athens Authentic Marathon, the original route from Marathon to Athens
- I’ve been postponing it for three years now, so feel free to ask me how training is going.
- Visiting Antarctica and the North Pole (or at least Svalbard)