Laura Bermudez, Chief Technology Officer, DrumWave
Laura Bermudez is a Silicon Valley technology leader with 28 years of experience. She is now the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of DrumWave. She has built PayPal’s global financial systems, scaled fintech platforms at Carta and eBay and led global engineering teams, driving innovation, resilience and transformation across rapidly evolving technology frontiers.
Recognizing Bermudez’s leadership in technology and product innovation, this interview highlights how her focus on engineering excellence, talent empowerment and adaptability builds scalable platforms, develops high-performing teams and leverages emerging technologies to create lasting impact in a rapidly evolving digital landscape.
AT A GLANCE:
• Engineering Excellence as Foundation – Embedding quality through CI/CD, test automation and well-structured architectures ensures that teams focus on building products rather than maintaining legacy code.
• Culture that Empowers Talent – Providing clear goals, autonomy, feedback and mentorship fosters high-performing teams where people thrive, innovate and build lasting connections.
• Learning as a Leadership Discipline – Staying at the forefront of emerging technologies, from security to AI, enables thoughtful adoption and positions teams to make informed, lasting impact.
Building Excellence: Hire Passion, Embed Quality, Deliver
I’ve learned that sustainable software development begins with embedding quality directly into our processes. Test automation isn’t optional, nor are CI/CD pipelines that catch issues before they reach production. Too many teams bog down in legacy maintenance when they skip these fundamentals. Math is simple, invest in linting, SonarQube and integrated tooling upfront or pay exponentially later when engineers spend their days chasing technical debt instead of building new capabilities.
Clear abstractions and precise data modeling form the backbone of everything that follows. I’ve watched teams struggle for months because they rushed past entity relationship mapping or accepted duplicated logic as “good enough for now.” Strong data models aren’t academic exercises. They’re the difference between systems that scale gracefully or collapse under complexity.
The microservice versus monolith decision deserves more nuance than most discussions give it. I’ve seen microservices solve legitimate scaling problems and create maintenance nightmares that cripple productivity. The correct answer depends entirely on your company’s growth trajectory. Early-stage companies often benefit from monolithic simplicity, while mature organizations with clear service boundaries can leverage microservices effectively. The key is matching your architecture to your constraints, not following industry trends.
Everything ultimately comes back to the people you bring onto your team. I hire for accountability and deep engagement with the craft, not just technical skills. Passionate developers who care about code quality and system design create the culture that makes everything else possible. They’re the ones who push for better abstractions, advocate for comprehensive testing and maintain the discipline that keeps technical debt manageable.
Empowering Talent: Building Culture that Drives Innovation and Retention
I’ve discovered that engineers fundamentally want to ship quality code, not rush garbage to production just to hit arbitrary deadlines. When you approach it thoughtfully, there’s always a path to deliver quality and business results. My job is to understand those business goals clearly and remove the obstacles preventing teams from executing well.
People don’t perform their best work under constant pressure from external factors. I’ve learned to focus on setting meaningful objectives while giving engineers autonomy and accountability. Everything else becomes easier when people enjoy their work and genuinely like their colleagues. I’ve watched lasting friendships develop within teams, turning work into something people look forward to rather than endure.
The mechanics of creating this environment aren’t mysterious. Anticipating business priorities before they become urgent requests helps immensely. Supporting technical needs proactively rather than reactively makes the difference. Fostering mentorship relationships and setting teams up for success through proper resources and realistic timelines creates the foundation for sustainable performance.
Growth happens through candid feedback and genuine development opportunities. Engineers flourish when given guidance that helps them evolve as technologists and future leaders. The investment in individual development pays dividends across the entire organization.
What makes this approach especially rewarding is the continuity it creates. I’ve had the privilege of working with the same talented engineers and leaders across different chapters of my career. That loyalty and sustained collaboration only happen when you’ve built something more than a workplace. You’ve created an environment where people genuinely thrive, innovate and take pride in what they accomplish together.
Learning as a Leadership Discipline: Navigating Trends with Clarity and Precision
Continual learning isn’t optional in technology. Without staying current on emerging capabilities, you fall behind quickly. The tool sets available and the approaches taken early in my career are sadly still in practice in many large firms. I have always been open to finding newer and better ways to solve problems.
Learning from extraordinary people accelerates this process immensely. I’ve been fortunate to work with one of the most talented AI engineers I’ve ever met, someone with more patents than I could count. His recommendations on newsletters and GitHub branches remain invaluable for staying on the edge of technology evaluation. These relationships matter as much or more than any formal training.
Staying current means knowing how to leverage evolving tools, from security solutions like Wiz to advancements in AI. However, applying these tools without understanding what capabilities you need can create serious risk or wasted money. AI provides a strong foundation only when you have enough knowledge to evaluate outputs and separate what’s correct from what’s not. That judgment requires a clear understanding of the problem and a solid grasp of the broader landscape.
The discipline lies in knowing when and how to adopt new capabilities. Trends come and go, whether blockchain yesterday or AI today. Choosing the right tools demands careful assessment of when they’re mature enough to trust. This means reading widely across technical and leadership topics, drawing on wisdom from peers and mentors and maintaining healthy skepticism about every new trend.
From there, it comes down to research and hard work. That commitment to continual learning becomes the foundation for making sound technical decisions. Without it, you’re just following what happens to be popular rather than what solves your problems.
Inspiring Leadership: Breaking Barriers and Driving Results
“We’ve always done it that way” might be the most dangerous technological phrase. I’ve watched people become bound by their careers, roles and policy manuals until they stop thinking independently, questioning constraints and accepting the status quo as immutable.
Gathering input and listening to feedback matters, but decisions must ultimately be based on what truly creates value. When something doesn’t sound right or when a better path exists, it takes courage to challenge it. This requires tact and collaboration, not reckless charging ahead, but the opportunity to improve constantly exists.
Questioning assumptions and recognizing technological paradigm shifts represent one of our most significant competitive advantages. Change works best when you collaborate with people to identify where transformation delivers the most value. Not every idea produces meaningful returns, but the ones that do can redefine how entire organizations and industries operate.
How things have been done in the past doesn’t determine how they must be done in the future. By leveraging open source, adopting proven new technologies and investing in the right tools, teams can accelerate innovation and unlock new opportunities.
I’ve learned that the true advantage lies in questioning everything while thoughtfully embracing change. This means working with people to inspire transformation rather than imposing it. It means recognizing that paradigm shifts create the most significant opportunities for those willing to move first.
We, at DrumWave, are building the infrastructure and rails of the Data Economy, securing, structuring and combining data in new ways that enable individuals and businesses to own, save, exchange and unlock monetary value, creating true data wealth.
The discipline is knowing when to challenge and how to do it effectively, always striving for a better way forward while involving others in that vision.