# Josh Knowles

> Josh Knowles is the CEO of Code Climate, the New York software company whose Velocity platform gives engineering leaders at large organizations data on how their teams actually build software. A Ruby developer by training with more than two decades in the field, he spent years at Pivotal Labs and VMware building and running consulting and application-services teams across the US and Europe before joining Code Climate, rising from VP of Strategy and Operations to General Manager to CEO. He took the top job as Code Climate spun out its code-quality product into a separate company, Qlty Software, and refocused entirely on software engineering intelligence for large, complex enterprises.

- **Role:** CEO at Code Climate
- **Organizations:** Code Climate, VMware, Tanzu Labs, Pivotal Software, Pivotal Labs, Gilt Groupe, weplay, Lime Wire, Integrum Technologies, Next.it
- **Nationality:** American
- **Known for:** Named CEO of Code Climate, leading the company's focus on software engineering intelligence (Velocity) for large enterprises, Helped build and lead Pivotal Labs consulting teams across EMEA and the East, including establishing operations in Europe, Held senior leadership roles at VMware including VP of Global Application Services and Senior Director within Tanzu Labs

## Career timeline

- **2008** — Served on the program committee for GORUCO (Gotham Ruby Conference) and volunteered as an organizer for New York's premier regional Ruby conference
- **2010** — Program committee member for GORUCO; led the organizing committee across multiple years
- **2013** — Joined Pivotal Software / Pivotal Labs, eventually serving as VP for Pivotal Labs across EMEA and the East and helping establish the European headquarters in London
- **2019** — Continued into VMware after its Pivotal acquisition, holding roles including Senior Director of Application Services within Tanzu Labs and VP of Global Application Services
- **2022** — Joined Code Climate as VP of Strategy and Operations
- **2024** — Became CEO of Code Climate as the Code Climate Quality product spun out into Qlty Software and the company refocused on its Velocity software engineering intelligence platform

## Achievements

- Named CEO of Code Climate, leading the company's focus on software engineering intelligence (Velocity) for large enterprises
- Helped build and lead Pivotal Labs consulting teams across EMEA and the East, including establishing operations in Europe
- Held senior leadership roles at VMware including VP of Global Application Services and Senior Director within Tanzu Labs
- Long-time volunteer organizer and program committee member for GORUCO, New York's regional Ruby conference
- Over two decades of professional software development and engineering leadership experience

## Latest updates

- **2024-01** — Took on the CEO role at Code Climate as the company spun out its Code Climate Quality product into a separate company, Qlty Software, and concentrated on its Velocity SEI platform
- **2023-01** — Spoke at the Spring West Coast CTO Summit on 'What your First Team needs from you'
- **2022-01** — Joined Code Climate as VP of Strategy and Operations and spoke at the San Francisco CTO Summit on applying XP principles to annual operating plans

## Links

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

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/josh-knowles
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-07-16