Mentorship Advice: Unlocking Career Growth Potential

In the modern era of fast digital transformationEngineering leaders are expected to be more than just project managers and technical experts. They must be visionaries, innovation drivers and mentors who shape the next generation of talent.

Leadership and mentoring combined with intention do more than just achieve business goals. They create an ecosystem where innovation thrives and careers accelerate.

I want to tell you how my professional path, covering leadership positions in retail giant Walmart and cloud communications company Twiliohighlighted the deep synergy between the two dimensions.

Leadership as a driver of innovation

Innovation rarely happens by accident. It is cultivated in an environment where leaders articulate a compelling vision, empower their teams to experiment, and then remove obstacles that stifle creativity.

As a senior engineer manager at Walmart Global Tech in Sunnyvale, California, I led efforts to solve one of retail's most persistent problems: declining sales. This loss of inventory, usually due to shoplifting, theftand return fraud results in a difference between the number of items a retailer should have and the quantity it actually has.

Globally, retailers are losing more than US$100 billion annually due to declining sales. Walmart alone suffers multi-billion dollar losses every year.

The scale of the problem requires more than just incremental improvements. By combining the task with advanced technologies such as computer vision And artificial intelligenceI developed a plan that turned a business imperative into a technology breakthrough. We're focused on deployment computer vision models on the front end of the store, supported by an edge and cloud pipeline that allowed for rapid experimentation. The system combined real-time detection of high-risk events with predictive analytics that identified emerging loss patterns, and integrated directly with store operations so action could be taken quickly.

The impact was twofold. The engineers were excited about the opportunity to solve a global problem, and the company ended up with a system that significantly reduced losses while protecting customer confidence. The role of leadership in this context was not to dictate decisions, but to create clarity of purpose and give teams the freedom to innovate boldly.

As a senior technical manager at Twilio, I led the billing platform team through a period of exponential growth, and innovation manifested itself in a different way.

Working on a billing system is usually a low-key activity, but it is critical because billions of dollars are processed every year. By empowering engineers to make architectural decisions and encouraging experimentation in scalability and resiliency, we achieved breakthroughs that allowed the company to scale reliably. There, leadership meant giving teams autonomy and developing a culture in which innovation could emerge from the ground up.

Mentoring as a catalyst for professional growth

If leadership provides the basis for innovation, mentoring provides a foundation for individual growth. In my experience, mentoring is not a one-time activity, but an ongoing relationship built on guidance, challenge, and advocacy.

One effective approach I've used is to use extended projects, that is, tasks beyond the employee's current skills, experience, or job responsibilities.

At Twilio, I built the Tiger team by bringing together people from across the organization who were interested in learning new skills and solving complex billing problems. They were encouraged to generate new ideas, conduct experiments, and develop improvements to the billing platform. This initiative not only expanded the capabilities of the platform, but also gave employees a rare opportunity to develop and grow beyond their day-to-day responsibilities.

At Walmart, I also used empowered assignments to accelerate employee growth. For example, when an engineer expressed strong interest in using artificial intelligence to improve our call operations, I asked him to lead the design and development of a solution that leveraged the Model Context Protocol (MCP) standard to reduce call workload. MCP standardizes artificial intelligence models that connect to and use external tools and data sources to automate tasks and simplify integration.

The effort was successful, engaging the broader team and reducing incident management staff time by more than 1,500 hours per year.

Not only did this have a measurable impact on the job, but it also provided the engineer with a platform to develop his leadership skills and innovate at scale.

It is advisable to create an environment rich in feedback. At Walmart, I held weekly one-on-one meetings with each of my employees that went beyond project updates to highlight their career aspirations, strengths, and areas of growth. The conversations identified career blind spots, identified leadership potential and helped prepare people for broader roles.

Propaganda is no less important. Mentoring is not limited to providing advice; it involves opening the door to opportunity. I have nominated mentees for conference speaker roles, team leadership positions, and recognition programs. Platforms have advanced their careers and expanded the work of our teams.

Encouraging research beyond borders

Another powerful mechanism for accelerating innovation and growth is intentionally setting aside time for independent exploration. At both Walmart and Twilio, we set aside a special week every six months during which engineers were encouraged to work on anything they found meaningful, even if it was outside the scope of their team or organizational responsibilities.

“Engineering leadership and mentoring are not an add-on to technical execution; they are fundamental factors for sustainable success.”

Some decided to collaborate with colleagues from different departments, while others took on new projects. This experience gave employees the freedom to follow their curiosity, hone their skills, and explore areas related to their personal growth. In addition to developing skills, this often led to surprising innovation as the cross-pollination of ideas from different parts of the organization led to creative solutions that likely would not have arisen in traditional project work.

The interdependence of innovation and growth

Leadership and mentoring are not parallel tracks. These are interdependent areas that reinforce each other. Innovative projects create fertile ground for the growth of engineers, and their professional growth promotes innovation, expanding their horizons and capabilities.

Walmart's AI-powered loss prevention initiative illustrates this dynamic. The engineers involved in the project gained technical experience in machine learning and computer vision, as well as career opportunities. Some presented their work on internal company forums. Others became mentors to new engineers. And many moved to leadership positions. Innovation was not an isolated outcome, but part of a virtuous cycle of growth.

Lessons for future leaders

Reflecting on my experience, here are some lessons for those seeking effective leadership:

• Balance technology with people. Great systems are created by motivated and empowered people.
• Encourage risk taking within safe limits. Innovation is often the result of bold experimentation rather than careful and incremental adjustments.
• Invest in mentoring early and consistently. Impact is measured not only by what you build, but also by who you help.
• Recognize and celebrate achievements. Recognition promotes motivation, which accelerates innovation and professional development.
• Create opportunities for exploration. Taking time for personal projects can stimulate creativity and develop skills that enrich the organization.

Engineering guidance and mentoring are not optional add-ons to technical execution; they are fundamental drivers of sustainable success. Leadership provides the vision and structure for innovation, and mentoring develops people who bring that vision to life. Together, they create a multiplier effect that promotes both technological innovation and career growth.

In my experience, when leaders intentionally combine these two practices, organizations not only create transformative technologies, but also develop the next generation of innovators and leaders.

It is this dual influence that makes engineering leadership such a powerful force in shaping future of technology and the careers of those who manage it.