# Irina Stanescu

> Irina Stanescu is an engineering leadership coach, content creator, and former Tech Lead Manager at Google and Uber who turned a severe burnout episode into a mission. She founded The Caring Techie newsletter, now with 61,000+ subscribers, which challenges the tech industry's overwork culture and champions empathy, wellbeing, and influence as learnable leadership skills. Originally from Bucharest, Romania and based in San Francisco, she coaches engineers at companies like Anthropic, Google, and Meta, runs the highly-rated 'Impact through Influence' course on Maven, and speaks at major conferences including Craft Conference and LeadDev Berlin.

- **Role:** Founder & Creator at The Caring Techie
- **Organizations:** The Caring Techie, Google (former), Uber (former)
- **From:** Bucharest, Romania
- **Nationality:** Romanian
- **Education:** Bachelor's in Computer Engineering, University Politehnica of Bucharest, Leadership Studies, Harvard Business School Executive Education
- **Known for:** Grew The Caring Techie newsletter from 250 to 61,000+ subscribers in under 3 years, LinkedIn Top Voice with 30,000+ followers, Created 'Impact through Influence' course on Maven with 160+ alumni and 4.8/5 rating

## Career timeline

- **2004** — Began programming in 9th grade in Romania
- **2010** — Graduated top 3% from University Politehnica of Bucharest in Computer Engineering
- **2010** — Started career in software engineering
- **2015** — Joined Google as Software Engineer, later becoming Tech Lead and Tech Lead Manager
- **2018** — Completed Harvard Business School Executive Education leadership program
- **2019** — Moved to Uber as Engineering Manager / Tech Lead for Uber Eats Eater Delivery Experience
- **2021** — Experienced severe burnout after 10+ years in Big Tech; took a sabbatical year
- **2022** — Launched The Caring Techie newsletter during sabbatical
- **2023** — Newsletter grew from 250 to 22,000 subscribers in one year; launched coaching practice full-time
- **2024** — Newsletter reached 40,000 subscribers; spoke at Craft Conference and LeadDev Berlin; appeared on The Pragmatic Engineer Podcast
- **2025** — Newsletter surpassed 61,000 subscribers; continues full-time coaching and course instruction

## Achievements

- Grew The Caring Techie newsletter from 250 to 61,000+ subscribers in under 3 years
- LinkedIn Top Voice with 30,000+ followers
- Created 'Impact through Influence' course on Maven with 160+ alumni and 4.8/5 rating
- Speaker at Craft Conference 2024, LeadDev Berlin 2024, Plato Elevate 2023
- Featured on The Pragmatic Engineer Podcast, Refactoring Podcast, and multiple others
- Graduated top 3% from University Politehnica of Bucharest Computer Engineering program
- Led Google Fiber Mobile TV App team building dynamic ad insertion across 3 organizations
- Mentored engineers from Anthropic, Google, Meta, Amazon, Microsoft, and Uber
- Published widely-read burnout and leadership content on Substack and Medium

## Latest updates

- **2025-02** — Newsletter surpassed 61,000 subscribers; publishing regular content on career growth and engineering leadership
- **2024-11** — Featured on The Pragmatic Engineer Podcast discussing Google promotions, tooling, and career advancement
- **2024-07** — Newsletter hit 40,000 subscriber milestone
- **2024-05** — Spoke at Craft Conference 2024 on 'Beyond Coding: IC Leadership Is Here To Stay'
- **2024-01** — Spoke at LeadDev Berlin 2024 on 'Leading through scarcity: Building capacity in the team'

## Links

- Website: https://irinastanescu.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/irinastanescu
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/thecaringtechie
- GitHub: https://github.com/ironmissy
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ironmissy/

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/irina-stanescu
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-04-21