Strategic career decisions ft. Cate Huston, Engineering Director at DuckDuckGo

In this episode of The Confident Commit, Rob Zuber sits down with Cate Huston, Engineering Director at DuckDuckGo and author of "The Engineering Leader," for a deep dive into career ownership and sustainable engineering leadership. Cate challenges the common misconception that career growth equals promotion, introducing the concept of being the "directly responsible individual" for your own career and the crucial difference between "buying" versus "renting" your skills in the marketplace. The conversation explores how to shift engineering teams from a "ticket factory" mindset to outcome-focused delivery, the tension between servant leadership and strategic leadership, and why the best engineering cultures encourage productive disagreement. Whether you're an individual contributor looking to take ownership of your trajectory or a leader working to create environments where people thrive, this episode delivers actionable wisdom for engineering professionals at every level. Have someone you’d like to hear on the show? Reach out and let us know on X at @CircleCI!

You can listen to Strategic career decisions ft. Cate Huston, Engineering Director at DuckDuckGo online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Strategic career decisions ft. Cate Huston, Engineering Director at DuckDuckGo is an episode from The Confident Commit by CircleCI.

This episode is 43:44 long.

This episode was published on Sep 12, 2025.

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