Buildkite Appoints Kevin Gounden as CEO to Boost AI Dev

Software delivered through the Buildkite platform is used by more than 1 billion people daily. Companies including Airbnb, Block, Canva, Cruise, Culture Amp, Elastic, Lyft, PagerDuty, Pinterest, PlanetScale, Rippling, Shopify, Slack, Tinder, Twilio, Uber, and Wayfair have made it the standard for their engineering organizations.

Gounden brings more than two decades of experience leading high-growth technology companies and global product organizations to Buildkite, having most recently served as Chief Product Officer at Lightcast and Randstad, where he accelerated innovation, product strategy, and global expansion across more than 70 countries. His lengthy track record as founder and CEO of multiple successful SaaS ventures, along with his deep technical and operational expertise in complex software platforms, positions him as the ideal leader for Buildkite as it delivers on its mission to empower the world’s best developer teams.

“I’m extremely excited to be joining Buildkite at such a pivotal moment for the company, the developer ecosystem, and the software industry as a whole,” said Gounden. “Buildkite’s software delivery platform has become the gold standard for the world’s top companies and engineering teams, and I look forward to working with this talented team to accelerate our product innovation, extend our global impact, and help more customers of every size and type deliver world-class software with confidence.”

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“Kevin brings a remarkable combination of technology vision, long-proven SaaS product execution and customer-centric leadership to Buildkite,” said Board Member Barry Crist, who served as acting CEO prior to Kevin’s appointment. “His focus on building solutions that drive real value for customers will be instrumental in guiding Buildkite’s continued growth and innovation.”

CTO James Wilson, who joined the company in February this year, has spent over 20 years scaling high-performing engineering teams and leading cloud and AI/ML transformations at major firms, including Apple, AWS, and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. He most recently served as Chief Digital Technology Officer at WooliesX, where he drove digital transformation and customer innovation. Previously, he led key iOS platform development at Apple and pioneered the use of machine learning for network monitoring at AWS.

CMO Jay Wampold joined the company in February 2024, bringing three decades of expertise in leading marketing for high-growth technology companies. He has spearheaded innovative go-to-market strategies at Isilon Systems, Chef Software, Amazon Web Services, Pulumi, and CommerceIQ, and played the leading role in popularizing DevOps while at Chef Software and creating the “FinOps” category while at Cloudability, ultimately facilitating its acquisition by Apptio. Jay is widely recognized for building new market categories, global brands, and thriving technology communities, elevating company profiles in competitive markets.

CFO Francine Hackett joined the company in December 2024 with a wealth of experience in financial leadership and business operations, having held significant roles at Tractor Ventures, Pearson, and Randstad RiseSmart. She is recognized for her strategic vision in risk management, mergers and acquisitions (M&A), business transformation, and digital finance initiatives, as well as her commitment to best-in-class governance and driving organizational excellence.

“We welcome Kevin, James, Jay and Francine at a time when the board has never been more confident about Buildkite’s future,” said Crist. “Our expanded leadership team brings unparalleled expertise and a shared passion for empowering developers everywhere. Together, we are uniquely positioned to accelerate innovation, drive global growth, and help customers of every size deliver world-class software with greater speed, scale, and confidence.”

Source: Businesswire