Tech Events at Skyscanner, Edinburgh

Three talks on engineering leadership at Skyscanner's Edinburgh HQ in Quartermile. Tim Leslie, who leads AI training for Skyscanner's engineers, opens with "Software factories". Engineer and leadership coach Tobi Tonner follows on building healthy leadership habits. Tadhg Davey, principal engineer at NHS Scotland, closes with "Distributed system citizenship", drawn from the platform behind services such as mycare.scot. Arrival, food and networking from 18:00, talks from 18:45, close at 20:45. O'Reilly is giving away four books. Free, but spaces are limited and you have to RSVP on Meetup. Why go: a practical evening for tech leads and engineering managers, with one talk on how a big Edinburgh employer trains engineers on AI and one from someone running national-scale health infrastructure. Best for senior engineers stepping into leadership.

with Marc Burgauer (Speaker, BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT)

Marc Burgauer's talk for BCS, hosted in Skyscanner's Quartermile office, argues that the practices a development team writes down are not the practices it actually uses — and that this is the gap where AI tooling either helps or quietly makes things worse. Billed as "Nobody Knows Where We're Going", the session offers methods for surfacing how delivery really happens inside a team and then deciding where AI belongs in it. Seventy-five minutes, 18:30 to 19:45, free, in person at a working engineering office rather than a hotel suite. The organiser asks attendees to use the Lauriston Place entrance to Quartermile One and to arrive a few minutes early for check-in. Why go: nearly every engineering-management talk this year is either an AI demo or a scepticism piece; this one is about the organisational mechanics underneath, which is the part that decides whether the tools land. Best for engineering managers, tech leads and delivery leads with a team whose process has drifted from its documentation.

BCS Edinburgh at Skyscanner on what an enterprise AI transformation actually looks like from the inside, told by people who have run one.

BCS Edinburgh at Skyscanner on building trust in AI systems — what verification, explanation and accountability look like once models are in production.

with Ahmad Mazhar (Technical Account Manager, AWS)

The 38th AWS Edinburgh User Group, back after the summer break and hosted at Skyscanner's Quartermile offices. Ahmad Mazhar, Technical Account Manager at AWS, leads the session. The group has run consistently for years and pulls a solid cloud and platform engineering crowd from Edinburgh's larger technology employers — one of the more reliable technical rooms in the city, and free.

An evening of talks and networking for engineering leaders, hosted at Skyscanner. LeadDev meetups bring together tech leads, engineering managers and senior engineers for three short talks on leadership, team practices and technical delivery, followed by networking. Inclusive and welcoming whether you are an established leader or growing into the role. Spaces are limited — RSVP required.