Improving the culture and experience of DevOps teams isn’t about adding more tools or piling on new processes; it’s about creating the conditions where people can thrive. When engineers feel empowered, supported, and trusted, they deliver not just code, but lasting impact for the business. Yet too often, teams get bogged down by friction: unclear ownership, unnecessary bureaucracy, or a lack of shared purpose.

In this talk, we’ll explore practical approaches and best practices for building healthier, more effective DevOps cultures. Drawing from real-world experiences and lessons learned from leading platform, governance, and engineering teams, I’ll share strategies for fostering autonomy without chaos, encouraging collaboration without micromanagement, and aligning technical teams with business outcomes.

You’ll walk away with actionable ideas you can start applying immediately: whether it’s creating internal communities that inspire innovation, building platforms that teams actually want to use, or rethinking leadership habits that might be unintentionally holding people back. The ultimate goal is helping your teams become more empowered, efficient, and impactful while creating an environment where great engineering work can truly flourish

Brittany Woods is the Head of Systems Engineering at Man Group, where she leads global teams across cloud automation, platform engineering, SRE, and developer experience. She is an engineering director with deep experience building and scaling reliable platforms, mentoring high performing teams, and contributing to technology strategy at enterprise scale. Brittany has held senior leadership and engineering roles at organizations including H and R Block, the LEGO Group, and CARFAX, and is a frequent speaker and published author on DevOps culture, team health, and engineering excellence.