Barcelona, Catalonia

Albert
Casanovas

Engineering Manager  ·  Gartner Digital Markets

I build high-performing engineering teams and scalable platforms.
10+ years turning complexity into clarity — systems, people, and culture.

Engineering leadership
as a craft

Albert Casanovas — Engineering Manager
10+Years
10+Engineers
~35%Faster
3Languages

I'm a product-oriented Engineering Manager with over a decade of experience building and scaling high-impact digital platforms. At Gartner Digital Markets, I lead the Reviews organization — the engine behind millions of user reviews across Capterra, GetApp, and Software Advice.

My work sits at the intersection of technical architecture, product strategy, and people leadership. I care deeply about developer experience, engineering culture, and the balance between strong architecture and pragmatic delivery.

Colleagues describe me as a connector — someone who unites teams after change, keeps communication open, and helps people grow through coaching and direct feedback. I've built teams from scratch, unified siloed functions, and consistently earned Exceeds Expectations performance reviews.

Away from work, I'm a father of three young boys (6, 4, and 5 months). They've taught me more about empathy, patience, and prioritization than any leadership book ever could — and those lessons come back to how I build and support teams every day.

"Engineering culture is a force multiplier. High performance emerges from autonomy, clear expectations, and accountability — not micromanagement."


Career timeline

Gartner Digital Markets 2020 – Present
Engineering Manager

Oct 2023 – Present  ·  Promoted through three levels in five years, now leading the full Reviews organization.

  • Lead 10+ engineers (Leads & Seniors) delivering critical systems for millions of monthly users across Capterra, GetApp, and Software Advice
  • Drive engineering strategy, cross-team execution, and long-term architecture direction
  • Champion Developer Experience initiatives achieving ~35% faster release cadence
  • Unified previously siloed teams, improving collaboration and throughput across GDM
  • Consistently earned Exceeds Expectations performance ratings for leadership, delivery, and culture
Engineering Lead

Oct 2021 – Sep 2023

  • Drove Reviews 2.0 rearchitecture — event-driven microservices (Next.js, Node.js, MongoDB, Kafka, Kubernetes)
  • Built and scaled the Barcelona Reviews team from zero to a high-performing group
  • Aligned Review Collection, Moderation, and Publishing teams under a shared delivery model
Senior Software Engineer (Advanced)

Sep 2020 – Oct 2021

  • Led technical ownership of the Central Review Form during a leadership transition
  • Modernized from AWS Lambda/DynamoDB to React/Next.js + MongoDB stack
  • Introduced event-driven design patterns and microservices architecture
Xogito Group Feb 2020 – Sep 2020
Engineering Lead

Led a remote, cross-functional team of 7+ engineers, designers, and QA specialists delivering SaaS and mobile solutions for global clients.

  • Directed multiple concurrent client projects across frontend, backend, QA, design, and native mobile
  • Guided architecture modernization using React, Node.js, GraphQL, TypeScript
  • Implemented and optimized GitLab CI/CD pipelines, improving delivery reliability
Evolve Adaptive Learning Nov 2017 – Dec 2019
Founding Engineer & Technical Lead

Shanghai-based corporate learning startup. Led engineering strategy and delivery from architecture to production for international enterprise clients.

  • Built the platform's core architecture using React, Redux, Node.js, GraphQL, Ruby on Rails
  • Delivered iOS and Android React Native apps for Adidas, Cartier, Chanel, and Jaeger-LeCoultre
  • Established engineering standards, CI/CD workflows, and code review culture from day one
Earlier Roles – 2017
Freelance Full-Stack Developer & earlier positions

INTER SERVICES EURO AMERICA, Renommé Barcelona, Zitric Media — full details on LinkedIn.


Skills & competencies

Leadership & Strategy
People Development Performance Management Coaching & Feedback Hiring & Onboarding OKRs Stakeholder Alignment Cross-functional Collaboration Change Leadership Org Scaling
Engineering Management
Delivery Excellence Developer Experience (DevEx) CI/CD Automation Observability High Availability Multi-region Systems Agile at Scale Team Maturity Technical Roadmaps
Architecture & Systems
Distributed Systems Microservices Event-Driven Architecture Kafka Kubernetes AWS Redis / Valkey Elasticsearch SQS / SNS Snowflake Datadog
Tech Stack
TypeScript React / Next.js Node.js Python GraphQL MongoDB PostgreSQL Docker GitHub Actions GitLab CI/CD
AI & Emerging Tech
LLM Integration Prompt Engineering RAG Model Context Protocol (MCP) AI-assisted DevEx OWASP LLM Top 10
Languages
Catalan — Native Spanish — Native English — Full Professional

Let's connect

Open to conversations about Senior Engineering Manager and Director of Engineering opportunities — particularly in platform-heavy, distributed systems environments. EU remote or global remote-first preferred.