CTO at Big Brothers Big Sisters of America: Why Your Fastest Coder Isn't Your Best Engineer

What happens when a CTO brings Silicon Valley-level engineering leadership to one of America's most iconic nonprofits? Travis Gibson, CTO at Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, leads a team of 35 across internal staff and staff augmentation, and he's rethinking what it means to build high-performing tech teams. In this episode, he challenges some of the biggest assumptions in engineering leadership today.

**What you'll learn:**

- Why the fastest coder on your team probably isn't your best engineer, and what actually makes someone great
- How AI is reshaping the CTO role beyond just being another tool in the stack
- Why remote work isn't a compromise but a genuine cheat code for deep, focused engineering work
- What it takes to lead a blended team of internal engineers and staff augmentation effectively
- How engineering leadership at a mission-driven nonprofit differs from (and often outperforms) traditional tech companies
- The leadership principles that help technical teams stay aligned when they're not in the same room

**About the guest:**

Travis Gibson is the Chief Technology Officer at Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, the nation's largest and most experienced youth mentoring organization. He leads a technology organization of 15 internal staff and 20 staff augmentation professionals, driving digital transformation for an organization that serves communities across the country. Travis brings a thoughtful, people-first approach to engineering leadership that challenges conventional wisdom about speed, talent, and how great teams actually work.

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