About the event

AI is changing how software gets built.

Engineering teams can generate, review and ship code faster than ever, but increased output doesn’t necessarily mean better engineering.

As AI-assisted development becomes part of everyday workflows, senior engineers are having to answer a new set of questions. How do you embrace the speed AI offers without compromising quality? What guardrails need to be in place? And how do you actually measure whether AI is making engineering teams more effective?

Join Burns Sheehan for an intimate, discussion-led roundtable bringing together Staff, Principal, Lead and senior IC Engineers to share how they’re approaching these challenges within their own teams.

The session will be moderated by Apurva Deshpande, Principal Engineer @ Rightmove & Jonathan Ruckwood, Staff Engineer @ Mapbox

What we'll discuss

Building guardrails without slowing teams down
How can engineering teams create deterministic guardrails around AI-assisted development while still giving engineers the freedom to move quickly? Where should standards, review and human judgement sit as more code becomes AI-generated?

Measuring whether AI is actually improving engineering
What does success look like beyond simply shipping more code? We’ll explore how teams are measuring feature throughput, MRs raised, bugs, reliability and engineering quality to understand whether AI is genuinely making teams more effective.

Maintaining engineering quality at speed
As the volume of AI-assisted code increases, do our existing approaches to testing, code review and quality assurance still work? What needs to change?

The role of the Staff+ Engineer in an AI-enabled team
How does senior IC leadership evolve when engineers have access to tools that allow them to produce more, faster? And where can Staff+ Engineers have the biggest impact?

A conversation, not a presentation

This is designed to be an open and collaborative session rather than a panel or presentation.

Attendees will be invited to submit their own questions, experiences and challenges ahead of the event, helping shape the conversation around what senior engineers are actually encountering within their teams.

Expect practical discussion, different perspectives and the opportunity to learn from peers tackling many of the same questions.

Who is it for?

This roundtable is designed for senior individual contributors and technical leaders, including:

Staff Engineers | Principal Engineers | Senior Staff Engineers | Lead Engineers | Tech Leads

Places are intentionally limited to keep the discussion useful, interactive and relevant to everyone in the room.

Event details

📆 Tuesday 15th September 2026
⏰ 5:00pm – 7:00pm
📍 Burns Sheehan HQ, 3rd Floor, Pinnacle House, 23–26 St Dunstan's Hill, London, EC3R 8HN

Food and drinks will be provided throughout the evening.

Interested in joining us?

If you're keen to learn more or get involved, reach out to our event organiser and Principal Software Engineering consultant, Tom Pearson.


At Burns Sheehan, we believe in doing more than recruitment, we build communities across the tech sector.

Our roundtables are designed to bring together like-minded engineering leaders to share challenges, opportunities, and the skills that define the next generation of tech leadership.

We’ve seen the real impact these conversations can have. From shared learnings to new collaborations, our previous sessions have sparked lasting connections and actionable insights across the tech community. Check out the take aways from a previous session here: