Today's tech blogger: Rick Carey, ۶Ƶ Group Chief Technology Officer and ۶Ƶ Technology Fellow

At ۶Ƶ, we believe in the power of AI and its potential for disruption and transformation of a wide range of industries. We understood that paradigm shift early and established a framework to leapfrog tech trends and identify trusted advisors to establish a culture of engineering excellence within the firm. That’s why we brought to life the Distinguished Engineers program in 2018. Its purpose is to recognize the importance of engineering careers, build a culture of continuous learning and improvement, and identify trusted advisors and ambassadors to help shape the future of technology at our firm. 

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Each year, a new Distinguished Engineer cohort gets selected in a rigorous selection process by the ۶Ƶ Technology Fellows – I am proud to be part of this group. And in addition to our job responsibilities as influential technology leaders at ۶Ƶ, we cascade firm-wide oversight, standards, and controls to operational delivery throughout the engineering community. 

Together with my Technology Fellows colleagues, we contribute to the technical direction at ۶Ƶ and are dedicated to engineering talent development.

Just recently, Mike Dargan, Group Chief Operations and Technology Officer, announced the appointment of . There are now 113 Distinguished Engineers and 25 Tech Fellows at ۶Ƶ, enabling our engineering population to have a more direct impact on the success, reputation, and technical excellence of the firm.

One of the key initiatives influenced by our Technology Fellows is the ۶Ƶ Hackathon, an annual key event that empowers our engineers to get an immersive experience in DevCloud – our cloud-based platform designed to facilitate and accelerate software development and testing – and collaborate with colleagues across the globe to create innovative solutions. We just wrapped up the 2025 event early July, which saw a record-breaking 6,300+ participants. 

It is a pleasure to work at a firm that prioritizes the enablement of our engineers to take advantage of the two fun-filled days for upskilling and learning in our own coding processes and tools while also exploring new ideas.

Hackathon 2025 was especially notable as we tried a new approach: participation was mined from beyond the technology community to be more inclusive of our business partners by introducing a category in which Technology Fellows and representatives from across different ۶Ƶ businesses defined more than 20 different concrete use cases looking for a solution.

It also included the introduction of AI-augmented development software, which is in the process of being rolled out across the Group Operations and Technology Office as part of the firm’s .

Seeing more than 600 project teams utilize DevCloud, , to create new and innovative technologies makes me especially proud. As a Technology Fellow and the Group Chief Technology Officer, the event also served as the perfect opportunity for me to sponsor a project in which engineers would explore how Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) can enhance the developer experience by expanding the capabilities of DevPod and the Enterprise Data Mesh, called Janus. These platforms are ۶Ƶ-built ecosystems that focus on increasing efficiency, scalability, and simplifying the AI/ML lifecycle, whether targeting development, testing, deployment, or the entire process. Teams were asked to introduce at least one new feature to DevPod or Janus and clearly demonstrate how they enhance the AI/ML lifecycle through these platforms.

The Data Mesh offers a bold new approach to data management – one that breaks away from traditional centralized systems with their limitations. It proposes decentralizing data architecture and treating data as a product. This approach combines data, metadata, code, and infrastructure into a single package owned and managed by domain-specific teams who are closest to the data and, therefore, best equipped to ensure its quality, relevance, and usability. We enable self-service data use, improve data quality, and foster a dynamic and responsive data environment. 

In my opinion, you have to get data right. That’s why I find the advent of the Data Mesh so exhilarating - it’s truly transforming the landscape of data management.

And let me be the first to say – our engineers delivered. It was an incredibly difficult task to choose a winner from the three semi-finalist project teams who presented for my project, and I know my peers felt the same about their own sponsored projects. 

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One team proposed a solution designed to enhance the developer experience on Janus by providing an AI-powered support bot and lineage generation tool as a VSCode plugin. Integrating the producer journey via an MCP server would allow the user to interact through text or voice to manage data products, datasets, and lineage. At the same time, offering status updates on data products, quality, and compliance, presenting a consolidated view for users managing multiple assets.

Another team presented a solution that rethinks how we code at ۶Ƶ by introducing a “multi-player mode,” thereby allowing multiple human users to code together with GitHub Copilot as one of the contributors.

The winning team built a solution combining the power of Data Mesh, AI, and full-stack ML Ops in a single, seamless developer experience. Through a conversational agent, it caters to various user personas like data engineers, data scientists, and product owners connecting them to powerful components like TalkToJanus – a natural language data discovery. 

Now the real work begins. I’m excited to collaborate with the winning team to expand upon their prototype and influence meaningful change in our developer experience while contributing to the overall AI strategy, specifically focused on my favorite topic – data.

Keep an eye on this space throughout the upcoming weeks and months as this series continues with blogs from our Distinguished Engineers on the most burning technical topics, insights, and major developments happening in real-time. You’re sure to learn something new as I do each time I have the privilege of interacting with the group. 

Are you interested in joining our team?
Visit our job board and you may find something perfect for you. We’re committed to disability inclusion and making sure our application process is accessible for everyone. Therefore, if you need reasonable accommodation/adjustments throughout our recruitment process, you can always contact us.