Matt Blair

Inspirer
DISC Type : di

Head of Engineering at WorkWhile

Berkeley, California, United States

Overview

Matt Blair is a seasoned engineering leader and fractional CTO with over a decade of experience scaling teams and building developer tools at high-growth companies like WorkWhile, Rippling, Rivian, and Slack. He holds a Bachelors in Computer Science from Virginia Tech and is a certified Java programmer. Colleagues describe him as instrumental and a skilled communicator.

Based in Berkeley, Matt is passionate about the JavaScript ecosystem and contributes to open-source projects. He maintains a professional blog where he shares his lessons on engineering management, mentorship, and promoting technical excellence within organizations.

He is the author of a well-known technical guide on the "runner technique" for solving linked-list algorithm problems.

Personality Overview

Decisive

Generous

Confident & Optimistic

They usually prefer to drive the conversation.  They respond well to objective pitches but also attach some value to relationships. They measure a product on its merit but can be influenced by strong testimonials.

Topics They Care About

Scaling Engineering Teams
His career focuses on growing engineering organizations, having doubled team size at WorkWhile and significantly expanded teams at Rippling and Slack while implementing career ladders.
Developer Tooling
He has a dedicated background in improving developer productivity, including leading the Developer Tooling team at Rivian, which supported over 500 software developers.
AI Implementation
He recently shared how his team at WorkWhile is intentionally using AI as a practical tool to increase speed, improve decision-making, and enhance user experiences.

Media Appearances

Matt has no verified media appearances

Work History

7-2025
Head of Engineering at WorkWhile
6-2023 - 3-2025
Senior Engineering Manager at Rippling
4-2022 - 6-2023
Senior Engineering Manager, Infrastructure at Rivian
7-2021 - 4-2022
Senior Engineering Manager, Developer Tooling at Rivian
2-2020 - 7-2021
Engineering Manager, Identity & Security at Slack

Education

1998 - 2002
Bachelors from Virginia Tech

More Information

Social Presence :

Prographics :

Exp : 6 Location : Berkeley, California, United States Job Level : Mid-senior Designation : Head of Engineering at WorkWhile
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Insights For Selling To Matt

During A Call Or A Meeting

DO's

  • Focus on the big picture and the strategic value of your product
  • Acknowledge their status and position during the conversation
  • Look like someone who is on top of their game

DONT's

  • Don’t keep repeating the same information, it could make them impatient
  • Avoid focusing only on the product or its ROI, keep building trust subtly
  • Don’t be too verbose or overly friendly; a little bit, however, is fine

When Cold Calling

When Writing An Email

While Negotiating & Closing

    The secret to closing fast with Matt is

  • Confidence in the product’s value is critical, followed by relationship and a sense of achievement.
  • Will you ever get a clear answer from Matt

  • They will not hesitate to say no if they do not develop conviction.

Insights For Deal Planning

    How fast (or slow) will Matt move?

  • They can take fast decisions if they develop conviction in the product and find you trustworthy.
  • Can Matt take some risk or not?

  • They have the capability of taking risky decisions if necessary.

You And Matt

Personality Compatibility


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