# James Stanier

> Dr. James Stanier is a computer science PhD turned engineering leader, author of three books on engineering management, and the mind behind The Engineering Manager newsletter with nearly 30,000 subscribers. He scaled Brandwatch's engineering team from startup to a $450M acquisition, led hundreds of engineers at Shopify, and now serves as CTO for the veterinary division at Nordhealth. His work distills what it actually takes to go from writing code to running organizations - without losing the technical edge.

- **Role:** CTO (Veterinary) at Nordhealth
- **Organizations:** Nordhealth, LeadDev Advisory Board, The Engineering Manager
- **Nationality:** British
- **Education:** BSc Computer Science, University of Sussex, PhD in Computer Science (Compiler Design), University of Sussex
- **Known for:** Author of three books on engineering management published by Pragmatic Programmers, Built and runs The Engineering Manager newsletter with ~29,000 subscribers, Scaled Brandwatch's engineering team through a $450M acquisition by Cision

## Career timeline

- **~2010-2011** — Joined Brandwatch as a backend engineer after completing PhD thesis
- **2011-2021** — Advanced through engineering roles at Brandwatch to SVP Engineering; company acquired by Cision for $450M
- **2020** — Published 'Become an Effective Software Engineering Manager' (Pragmatic Programmers)
- **2021** — Technical Advisor at BlackCurve
- **September 2021** — Joined Shopify as Director of Engineering
- **2022** — Published 'Effective Remote Work' (Pragmatic Programmers)
- **July 2023** — Joined LeadDev Advisory Board
- **September 2024** — Published 'Become a Great Engineering Leader' (Pragmatic Programmers)
- **March 2025** — Departed Shopify after leading hundreds of engineers across major strategic initiatives
- **April 2025** — Joined Nordhealth as CTO for the veterinary business division

## Achievements

- Author of three books on engineering management published by Pragmatic Programmers
- Built and runs The Engineering Manager newsletter with ~29,000 subscribers
- Scaled Brandwatch's engineering team through a $450M acquisition by Cision
- Led hundreds of engineers at Shopify as Director of Engineering
- Advisory Board Member at LeadDev
- PhD in Computer Science (Compiler Design) from University of Sussex
- Udemy instructor on engineering leadership topics

## Latest updates

- **2025-04** — Joined Nordhealth as CTO for the veterinary business division
- **2025-03** — Departed Shopify after 3.5 years as Director of Engineering
- **2024-09** — Published third book 'Become a Great Engineering Leader' via Pragmatic Programmers
- **2024-07** — LeadDev Advisory Board member, contributing to conference and editorial strategy

## Links

- Website: https://www.theengineeringmanager.com
- LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/jstanier
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/jstanier
- GitHub: https://github.com/jstanier

---

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