Sasha Göbbels
Senior Manager
Main focus: Diversity & Leadership
Websites/Blogs/Social Media Accounts:
https://www.sasha-goebbels.de
https://slides.sasha-goebbels.de/
Social Media:
Languages: English, German
City: Aachen
Country: Germany
Topics: public speaking skills, science & technology, systems thinking, technical leadership, diversity in technology, organizational culture, diversity and leadership, diversity in recruiting, hiring engineers
Services: Talk, Moderation, Workshop management, Consulting, Coaching, Interview
Willing to travel for an event.
Willing to talk for nonprofit.
With a PhD in Theoretical Chemistry Sasha never worked as a chemist but went straight into software development. After writing software for telco providers, airports and the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) she fell for web development.
First as an individual contributor, then as a team lead and senior engineering manager because she discovered that working with people in tech is even more awesome than working with tech alone. On her way she functioned as head of department in automotive and also co-founded two companies Currently is working as a senior engineering manager at Overleaf/Digital Science. But still she couldn’t let go of writing software. Sasha is trans femme.
Examples of previous talks / appearances:
Hosted at LeadDev Berlin 2025
Everyone’s journey into leadership is tough, but some have a unique set of challenges that they need to navigate through. At times it can lead to leaders feeling isolated in their experiences.
We welcome you to the community representation groups, where you’ll be able to connect with folks who might have similar experiences to yours, where you’ll be able to build a peer network for support throughout your leadership journey.
Presentation at Scrumtisch Aachen:
Some processes are perhaps more optimised for developer experience and complex tasks than others. They are agile in that they deliver incremental updates. Apart from that, they differ from traditional approaches. At this event, you will learn about a development process used at Overleaf.
Unicorns In Tech Summit 2025, Berlin, Germany (no slide deck, because this was an AMA session, abstract is in German, because I was asked to do so, session was bilingual English/German)
Wie lesen Hiring Mansger CVs und Bewerbungen? Wie sollte ein CV aussehen? Was denken Hiring Manager während eines Interviews? Wie bereiten sie sich vor? In dieser interaktiven Session kannst du eine queere Hiring Managerin alles fragen, was du möchtest. Egal ob es um Red Flags, Gehaltsverhandlungen oder darum geht, wie es als queere Person in der IT Industrie ist. Sasha ist jetzt seit über zehn Jahren in Einstellungsprozesse für technische und nicht-technische Mitarbeiter involviert bzw. verantwortlich. Und das in Unternehmen nahezu jeder Größe. Also bringt eure Fragen und eigenen Erfahrungen mit!
At Unicorns In Tech Summit 2024, Berlin, Germany
An Overview About What To Look Out For In Job Postings, Application, Interview Process, Onboarding And Your First Months
International PHP Conference 2023, Berlin, Germany
Diversity is an important topic in today's team management. It's strongly coupled with inclusion and a sense of belonging. I'm not talking about the dot.com era "we are a family" nonsense. Belonging is the feeling of being seen and heard and to have an effect on the team and culture.
Remote team management is especially vulnerable to all forms of unconscious bias and semi-hidden aspects like microaggressions or disadvantages specific to certain groups of employees like women.
In this talk we'll explore how to identify microaggressions but also "hidden allies" especially in the remote setting and how to counteract or prevent them by signalling and intervention. Because it's all about action and not words.
International PHP Conference 2021, Munich, Germany
What do we mean when we talk about diversity? Are there any particular challenges when building or managing a diverse team? What can you do as a team lead or engineering manager to support diverse teams and what are the benefits for a company in supporting diverse teams. Hear first hand from a non-binary engineering manager.
International PHP Conference 2023, Berlin, Germany
We often talk of flat hierarchies or even "we don't have any hierarchies at all". But this is only part of the story. Every group of people has a hierarchy or structure. Every group of people has a structure, even a circle of allegedly equal friends. This has nothing to do with a possibly evil will to power. It's just group dynamics. Every organization with a hierarchy in fact also has a hidden structure that may cross all departments and hierarchy levels. You have to work with both of these in engineering and change management.
In this talk we'll explore how these networks come into existence, how to see and how to navigate and work with them in our day to day business.
Unicorns In Tech Summit 2023, Berlin, Germany
Diversity is an important topic in today's team management. It's strongly coupled with inclusion and a sense of belonging. Belonging is the feeling of being seen and heard and to have an effect on the team and culture. Remote team management is especially vulnerable to all forms of unconscious bias and semi-hidden aspects like microaggressions.
In this talk we'll explore how to identify and counteract unconscious bias and microaggressions. We also talk about allies and how they can help. It's all about trust and openness.