Ben Watkins

SaaS Recruiter / Helping SaaS firms hire senior talent from a network of 30k+ SaaS Execs

Are you struggling to hire great SaaS talent in Europe? Let’s change that.
► UK - Germany - Nordics - Benelux - France.
► A-Players from £90k to £250k base salaries.   
► CEO, CRO, COO, VP Sales, Director, Senior Sales, Marketing, Customer Success.
► Retained Executive Search.

FOR JOB SEEKERS:

► Receive CV feedback and a high-quality CV and LinkedIn Profile.  
► Check out my offers >>> bit.ly/executivesupport

SaaS Executive Recruiter

SaaS Sales Executive Recruitment business.

We help SaaS firms attract and hire the Best Senior Commercial Talent into their businesses!  

UKI, DACH, NORDICS, BENELUX, FRANCE, USA

Intrinsic is a leading Global Boutique Enterprise Software Headhunting company which helps scale emerging High Growth Software / SaaS firms.

We cover Software areas such as Customer Experience, Voice of the Customer, Business Analytics, Big Data, Retail / CPG Software, Market Research, Surveys, Procurement, Open source, Fraud/AML, Integration, Trade & Risk Management, Content Management, Business Process Management and eCommerce market places

Head of Software Development

I’m a Software Engineering Leader who specialises in leading teams through change — whether modernising delivery practices, stabilising struggling projects, or guiding organisations through periods of rapid growth.

Throughout my career I’ve taken on teams and projects needing clearer, more robust ways of working. I’m drawn to environments where things are messy but fixable — places that benefit from stronger processes, predictable delivery patterns, and a calmer rhythm.

I help teams move from “we’re not sure what’s happening” to “we know where we’re going and how we’ll get there.” I do it by listening first, understanding how the team really works, and then putting in the structures that make life easier: clearer priorities, better habits, fewer surprises.

For me, good leadership is about removing friction, giving people the space to do their best work, and creating a team environment that feels stable and supportive. Once that’s in place, delivery improves naturally.

I’ve led transformational projects, modernised legacy delivery approaches, and rebuilt engineering practices to improve quality, predictability and team morale. I’m at my best when solving complex delivery problems, shaping high performing teams, and helping organisations evolve how they build software.

I care deeply about good leadership — the kind that listens, supports, challenges, and creates psychological safety. I write regularly about management, onboarding, offboarding, interviewing and delivery pitfalls, sharing practical lessons from real world experience.

What I bring to a team:
-	Change delivery & transformation leadership
-	Modernising software delivery practices
-	Building high performing, high trust engineering teams
-	Clear communication and people centred leadership
-	Strong delivery focus with a calm, steady approach

If you’re looking for someone who can lead teams through change, improve delivery outcomes, and help engineers thrive, I’d love to connect.

Steve Mazey

What a Neutral AI Says About Replacing Developers with AI Engineers
 
AI dominates today’s conversations. Companies are rushing headlong into this new world, often in ways that make little sense to me.

I’ve heard tales of traditional coding teams being eliminated and replaced with a new team – the AI Engineers.

Throwing away domain knowledge seems foolhardy to me, but I could be biased. Having spent most of my career in software development, I can feel territorial.

So I sought out a neutral party – AI itself. Here’s what I did.

Framing
To avoid bias, I worked with AI to formulate a neutral question, instructing it to ignore all previous conversations or content linked to me. The goal was a clean, context‑free comparison without favour.
 
The Question
“Without reference to any previous conversations, posts, articles, or statements associated with me, please answer the following question while adopting the role of a business strategist in the technology sector. Limit the response to fewer than 300 words.

Which organisational approach is more effective: (1) replacing existing software developers and QA staff with AI‑specialist engineers, or (2) training existing software developers and QA staff in AI‑related techniques? Provide a concise and neutral comparison of the two options.”

AI’s Answer to the Neutral Prompt
From a strategic perspective, both approaches offer potential benefits, but they differ significantly in organisational impact, risk profile, and long‑term capability building.

Replacing existing developers and QA staff with AI‑specialist engineers can accelerate the adoption of AI‑driven workflows and introduce specialised expertise quickly. This approach may support rapid experimentation and signal a strong commitment to AI‑first transformation. However, it also carries risks: the loss of institutional knowledge, reduced continuity in existing systems, and the possibility that AI‑specialist hires lack the domain familiarity required for maintaining complex legacy environments.

Training existing developers and QA staff in AI‑related techniques preserves organisational memory while expanding capability. This approach tends to support more stable integration of AI into established processes, as experienced staff can apply AI tools with an understanding of system history, business context, and quality expectations. The trade‑off is that upskilling requires time, structured investment, and a willingness among staff to adapt to new methods.

In practice, organisations often benefit from a hybrid model: retaining and upskilling existing teams while selectively adding AI‑specialist engineers to fill expertise gaps. This balances continuity with innovation and reduces the operational risks associated with large‑scale workforce replacement.

In Conclusion
I like compromise. Extreme positions are high risk. This supports continuity yet still allows room to grow with the changing times.

#AI #SoftwareDevelopment #StrategicThinking

Software Development Manager | Engineering Leadership, Change Delivery & Modernising Software Delivery | Building High‑Performing Teams

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