Scaling Program Management @ Reddit with Rachel O’Brien

Scaling Program Management @ Reddit with Rachel O’Brien

Author: Reddit December 5, 2023 Duration: 40:14

Reddit is composed of many teams all working on various projects: everything from the iOS app to advertising, to collectible avatars. Keeping these teams focused and aligned to the core Reddit mission is no easy task. 

Meet Rachel O'Brien, the driving force behind Reddit's Technical Program Management Office. She spearheaded the establishment of a centralized TPM function within the company, overseeing numerous recent advancements. In this enlightening interview, Rachel shares insights into Reddit's planning strategies, the collaborative role of TPMs in project execution, and the powerful tools employed to maintain high-level visibility of projects.

Check out all the open positions at Reddit on our careers site: https://www.redditinc.com/careers

Join the conversation at: https://www.reddit.com/r/RedditEng


Ever wonder what it actually takes to run one of the internet's most vibrant and occasionally chaotic communities? Building Reddit pulls back the curtain, offering a rare glimpse into the engineering culture and human decisions that shape the platform. Host Ryan H. Lewis guides conversations that move beyond abstract ideas, diving into the tangible work of building features millions use every day. Episodes explore the creation of popular projects like Reddit Recap and Collectible Avatars, but also get into the less-glamorous, essential groundwork that happens behind the login screen. The real core of this podcast is the people. You'll hear directly from the software engineers debugging code, product managers weighing feature trade-offs, data scientists interpreting user behavior, and the community managers and marketers who connect it all to the real world. It's a candid look at the daily triumphs, challenges, and collaborative spirit inside the company. For anyone curious about the intersection of technology, community, and product development, this series provides an authentic narrative about what it means to build and maintain a digital town square. Tune in for stories that are as much about problem-solving and teamwork as they are about the technology itself.
Author: Language: en-us Episodes: 20

Building Reddit
Podcast Episodes
Experimenting With Experimentation with Matt Knox [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 50:58
Experimentation might not be the first thing you think about in software development, but it’s been absolutely essential to the creation of high-performance software in the modern era. At Reddit, we use our experimentati…
Responding To A Security Incident with Chad Anderson [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 20:52
Information Security is one of the most important things to most software companies. Their product is literally the ones and zeroes that create digital dreams. Ensuring that the code and data associated with that softwar…
Working@Reddit: Head of Media & Entertainment [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 31:28
There’s a lot that goes into how brands partner with Reddit for advertising. The combination of technology and relationships bring about ad campaigns for shows such as Rings of Power and avatar collaborations like the on…
Collecting Collectible Avatars [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:03:52
In July of 2022, Reddit launched something a little different. They supercharged the Avatar Builder, connected it to a decentralized blockchain network, and rallied creators from around Reddit to design Collectible Avata…
Working@Reddit: Chris Slowe CTO [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 35:59
Many Reddit employees have been with the company for a long time, but few as long as Reddit’s Chief Technology Officer, Chris Slowe. Chris joined Reddit in 2005 as our founding engineer. And though he departed the compan…
Reddit Recap Recap [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:06:05
Maybe you never considered measuring the distance you doomscroll in bananas, or how many times it could’ve taken you to the moon, but Reddit has! Reddit Recap 2022 was a personalized celebration of all the meme-able mome…
r/fixthevideoplayer [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 43:22
Video is huge on Reddit, but the video player needed some love. In 2022, teams at Reddit used a novel way to fix it, bringing in the community. A new community, r/fixthevideoplayer was born and after some intense bug-fix…
Working@Reddit: Engineering Manager [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 24:25
You’d never guess it from all the memes, but Reddit has a lot of very talented and serious people who build the platform you know and love. Managing the Software Engineers who write, deploy, and maintain the code that po…
Trailer [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 0:59
Welcome to Building Reddit, hosted by Ryan H. Lewis. Ryan is a software engineer at Reddit, and he's fascinated by the inner workings of the platform. Reddit's mission is to bring community, belonging, and empowerment to…