How do you build an engineering organization from zero to 700 professionals? What happens when your biggest leadership lesson comes from a broken leg and a Border Collie?

In this episode of Senors @ Scale, I sit down with Lucian Popovici, a force multiplier in tech leadership with 20+ years of experience scaling engineering organizations at Ericsson, Deutsche Bank, and Deloitte Digital. Lucian is the founder of Bridging Innovation, an enterprise strategy advisory and AI consultancy, and Bridging Gaps, a pro bono mentoring community of 80+ senior tech leaders that has delivered over 3,000 hours of free mentoring to 400+ professionals in Romania.

Lucian shares the raw, unfiltered story of his transition from Java developer to engineering director, including the panic attacks he didn't acknowledge, the "control freak" feedback that changed everything, and why he believes informal leadership matters more than titles. We go deep on how AI is reshaping team structures (from 10-person teams to 5), why junior developer roles are disappearing, why Romania's IT industry needs to shift from body leasing to product thinking, and his bold take that project managers should "die" as a role. Whether you're scaling your first team or building your hundredth, this conversation is packed with hard-won wisdom.

🔸 KEY TOPICS DISCUSSED

- Scaling engineering organizations from scratch at Deutsche Bank, Deloitte Digital, and beyond

- The brutal transition from developer to leader and why most people aren't prepared

- Manager vs. leader: why less ego and more empathy changes everything

- Why flat organizations beat pyramid schemes of managers

- How AI is cutting team sizes in half and eliminating junior roles

- The Romanian IT industry's transformation from outsourcing to product and consultancy

- Why 85% more time is now spent on code reviews than writing code

- Fractional CIO/CTO roles and why SMBs desperately need them

- Building a pro bono mentoring community of 80+ senior leaders

- AI readiness: why most companies fail at AI implementation before they even start

- The startup ecosystem in Romania and why this is the best time for non-technical founders

- Why project managers should disappear (but product managers never will)

- The engineering mindset vs. role segregation in modern teams

- Adaptability and curiosity as the core leadership skills for 2030

⏱️ CHAPTERS

00:00 Introduction to Lucian Popovici

02:22 From Developer to Leader: The Brutal Transition

06:27 Manager vs. Leader: Ego, Empathy, and Flat Orgs

09:28 Scaling Organizations (Without a Playbook)

11:23 How AI Is Reshaping Team Structures

16:02 Is Romania's IT Industry Scaling Down?

24:40 The "Control Freak" Feedback That Changed Everything

29:37 How Bridging Gaps Started (The Border Collie Story)

36:30 From Corporate to Entrepreneur: Bridging Innovation

45:59 The Future of Engineering Roles and Leadership

🔗 FOLLOW LUCIAN

💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucianpopovici/

🌐 Bridging Innovation: https://bridging-innovation.com

🤝 Bridging Gaps: https://bridging-gaps.ro/

📝 Blog: https://lucianpopovici.com

🎙️ FOLLOW & SUBSCRIBE

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/senorsatscale/

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/neciudev

🎙 Podcast URL: https://neciudan.dev/senors-at-scale

📬 Newsletter: https://neciudan.dev/subscribe

💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/neciudan

💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/señors-scale/

📚 ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

- HowToWeb Conference: https://www.howtoweb.co

- Ascendis Training: https://www.ascendis.ro

#EngineeringLeadership #ScalingTeams #TechLeadership #AI #SoftwareEngineering #StartupRomania #EngineeringManagement #ProBonoMentoring #FractionalCTO #AgileLeadership #DevOps #TeamScaling #SenorsAtScale

💬 Have you made the jump from developer to leader? What was your biggest challenge? Share in the comments!