Inga Pflaumer

Meet Inga Pflaumer, Head of Engineering at Relevance AI in Sydney—builder of resilient teams, advocate for meaningful AI products, and proud corgi wrangler when she’s not scaling processes or sneaking in some late-night coding.

Introduce yourself

I’m Inga Pflaumer, Head of Engineering at Relevance AI in Sydney. I’ve spent my career building and scaling engineering teams, and I’m passionate about pairing strong infrastructure with products that actually matter. At home, my corgi keeps me on a strict routine - he’s the real boss of the household.

What do you do for work?

I lead engineering across our platform that helps companies build and run AI agents. My focus is on scaling processes - things like on-call rotations, bug triage, and healthy team routines - so we can move quickly without losing stability. It’s equal parts technical and people leadership, making sure our teams can deliver meaningful AI products at pace.

What do you do outside work?

I try to stay active with climbing and tennis, but my corgi makes sure most of my “training” is actually long walks. And when I manage to sneak a quiet moment, I usually end up back at my laptop writing code - I don’t get to do as much of it these days, and I miss it.

What advice do you have for people just getting started in tech?

The industry is going through one of its biggest shifts with AI. For anyone just starting out, it’s important to stay close to the tools that are shaping the future. Write code, but also experiment with AI in your workflow - try out different large language models, learn their strengths and weaknesses, and get a sense of where they can help and where they fall short. Understanding these tools early will give you a real advantage as they become part of everyday engineering.

At Relevance, we’re actively hiring, and I expect engineers I interview - regardless of level or role - to be able to talk about their explorations in this area. It doesn’t matter whether their opinions match mine or not; what matters is that they’ve been curious, tried things, and have a point of view on what’s working and what isn’t.

At the same time, don’t underestimate the role of community. When I started my career, I was lucky to be supported by beginner meetups, groups for underrepresented engineers, and language- or framework-specific communities. Those spaces created opportunities I wouldn’t have found otherwise.

Most importantly, being around people at the same stage as you - or those who’ve been through it before - makes you realise you’re not alone. Everyone struggles at the start, and hearing that from others is incredibly grounding. Community gives you perspective, encouragement, and often the break you need when things feel overwhelming.

And what things should established software engineers be doing to keep up with recent and upcoming changes due to AI?

All through our careers as engineers, we’ve been adopting new tools, new patterns, and new ways of working. Our ability to learn is, to a large extent, what defines us. I think AI is no different - it’s another tool. How you use it and what you get out of it is completely up to you. But being curious about what AI can do, how it does it, and how it might help you is becoming just as important as learning a new framework or language.

For me, the most valuable insights come from firsthand experience. Pick up a new LLM, try it out, see where it shines and where it breaks down. Vibe code, build small experiments, and compare the pros and cons across tools.

And honestly, the funniest - and sometimes most inspiring  conversations happen when you share your experiments with colleagues. Everyone has their fair share of “Cursor hallucinations” or “Copilot quirks,” and swapping those stories isn’t just entertaining - it often sparks new ideas about how these tools can fit into everyday engineering work.

Any podcast you are currently listening to, or a book you are reading?

My answer probably won’t be particularly helpful for engineers - I’m reading purely for pleasure at the moment. I’m in the middle of the Murderbot series, and yes, I’m one of those people who has to complain that the books are better than the TV series. Even though the TV series is also pretty good.

What is your favourite tool or resource, and why?

I’m using agentic AI a lot these days, so of course my answer has to be Relevance AI. I even gave a talk at WebDirections recently about “making myself redundant with agentic AI” - tongue in cheek, of course.

For me, the power of agentic AI is in building agents that take the grunt work out of engineering management: gathering and processing data, surfacing insights, and making metrics tracking and reporting almost effortless. Instead of manually chasing down numbers, I can have agents monitor engineering velocity and highlight what matters. That’s my game -  using AI to give time back to engineers and leaders so we can focus on the hard, creative problems.

Toughest work moment?

Farewells. I see the role of Head of Engineering as that of a gardener - nurturing engineering talent and creating the right environment for people to grow. And at some point, your most talented engineers will overgrow you and move on to their next adventure. It’s always bittersweet, because you’re proud of them but you also feel the loss.

Most rewarding work moment?

Ironically, it’s also farewells. The toughest part - letting go - is also the most rewarding part when you see people you’ve supported stepping confidently into bigger opportunities. Watching engineers you’ve mentored grow into senior leaders, founders, or specialists in their fields is the clearest sign that you’ve done your job well. It hurts a little, but it’s the best kind of hurt.

Your one-sentence work-related advice

Be curious - the best engineers keep exploring, experimenting, and learning, no matter how experienced they are.

‍