Ash Kamel Engineering Leader

Work

GitHub

Senior Engineering Manager, Projects Platform & Experience · 2025–Present

Leading the teams building GitHub’s AI-native collaboration foundations. Drove the Projects REST API from planning through GA, enabling MCP server and Copilot chat integration — a strategic decision to prioritize REST over GraphQL for agentic AI workflows.

  • Pioneered quality rotation framework achieving first-ever passing fundamentals for Projects services
  • Improved Developer Experience Index from 53 to 58 through systematic reliability work
  • Introduced pitch-driven roadmap planning where engineers own initiative proposals end-to-end

Zip Co

Senior Engineering Manager, Payments & Platform · 2021–2024

Led four engineering teams (30+ engineers) across Purchasing, Repayments, and Platform initiatives. Managed a global payments platform processing $5B+ in transactions.

  • Built Platform Engineering team from zero — defined charter, adopted product-focused mindset for internal tooling
  • Accelerated event processing 10x through event sourcing and messaging library uplift
  • Reduced CI test failure rates by 50%; significant improvements in lead time for change
  • Established Staff Engineer standards and promoted five engineers with clear career progression paths
  • Drove product launches in Canada and Mexico within 6 months (originally as Quadpay, acquired by Zip Co)

SoulCycle

Senior Software Engineer, Technical Lead · 2016–2021

Led two engineering teams through SoulCycle’s transformation from brick-and-mortar fitness brand to connected fitness company.

  • Architected and delivered the patented SoulBeat product using Google Cloud technologies
  • Led the organization’s transition to service-oriented architecture (TypeScript, Node, Kubernetes, GCP)
  • Designed and implemented a PCI-compliant chip-and-pin payment system using custom Go binaries

Earlier Work

DegreeCast · Lead Product Engineer · 2015–2016 Built full-stack systems for campaign management, driving a 35% increase in user engagement.

Red Antler · Web Developer GSEgroup · Co-founder WIGC · Co-founder