81: The Culture Playbook for High-Performing Engineering Teams — with CTO Pasha Jam

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Feb 3, 2026

Pasha Jam, CTO of Bumper who scaled engineering from a few people to 110 across countries, prioritizes people-first leadership. He discusses psychological safety, how culture beats tech for hiring and retention, practices that build camaraderie like blameless incident response and AMAs, and scaling culture across remote offices while avoiding micromanagement.

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ADVICE

Empower To Create Leaders

Empower engineers to create leaders by giving autonomy and authority rather than top-down mandates.
Prioritize ownership and continuous improvement to scale culture and leadership capacity.

ANECDOTE

Translating Lunch Culture Online

Bumper converted in-person lunch debates into online rituals like pizza afternoons to include remote teams.
The team co-designed the solution by discussing the problem and iterating when things didn’t work.

INSIGHT

Celebrate Wins To Build Camaraderie

Celebrating wins publicly builds camaraderie and shifts teams toward crediting others instead of seeking the spotlight.
Joint celebrations and retreats reinforce long tenures and cross-office bonds.

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What if the strongest part of your engineering organization isn’t your tech stack, but the culture you protect every day?

Build your own CTO Playbook at www.theCTOplaybook.com — the leadership platform built for the full CTO journey. Coaching, podcast, and community to help you lead with clarity, confidence, and strategic impact.

In this episode, I’m joined by CTO Pasha Jam, who has grown an engineering team from three people to 110, expanded internationally, and navigated company acquisitions while keeping culture a central focus. We define what a healthy engineering culture looks like, and why it consistently outperforms strategy and process.

Culture became a priority after working in environments that were difficult to enjoy, even when the products and compensation were strong. Psychological safety is explored through the lens of engineering teams, including the ability to ask questions, raise risks, challenge decisions, and fail without fear.

Culture’s impact on hiring, onboarding, and communication across teams in multiple countries is explored, along with why people who leave often say they miss the culture and sometimes choose to return.

If you’re responsible for engineering teams and want to think more intentionally about culture, leadership, and long-term team health, this episode offers practical perspective grounded in lived experience.

You’ll Learn:

[00:00] Introduction

[05:18] Why job dissatisfaction often traces back to culture instead of pay or products

[06:42] What psychological safety looks like when engineers challenge decisions without fear

[11:07] How empowerment leads teams to take ownership without being pushed

[24:21] Why fixing incidents together matters more than assigning blame

[28:36] How putting people before process changes commitment and delivery

[30:14] Why micromanagement quietly erodes trust and culture

[33:09] What it looks like when leaders carry culture forward without seeking credit

[35:27] Why culture must evolve as teams scale and contexts change

Resources Mentioned:

Agile Manifesto | Website

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You can connect with Pasha Jam on his Linkedin

Find more from Adam on LinkedIn and YouTube, and explore coaching, cohorts, and how you can stay up to date at theCTOplaybook.com, helping you build your own playbook for your path at your pace.