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David Berger
David Berger is a senior technology leader with a vast experience in building advertising & e-commerce systems, large data processing pipelines, payment services, and procurement software deployed in various companies from startups to large multi-nationals.
He is known for his no-nonsense approach in creating clear product visions and delivering them by utilizing technology wisely. David is a strong problem solver, effective in both independent and collaborative settings.
With excellent project management skills, he excels in structuring, organizing, prioritizing, and delegating tasks while managing dependencies across multiple concurrent projects. David is an energetic leader, consensus builder, and motivator with a proven track record in team building.
His specialties include leadership, execution, and drive, coupled with a deep understanding of architecture, systems, and operations. He has expertise in big data processing and analytics, keyword advertising, display advertising, email CRM, mobile technology, search technology, and more. David also has experience in integrating acquisitions, internationalization, and traffic systems like SEM, SEO, and retargeting.
Currently, David Berger serves as the Senior Director of Engineering at Yahoo. Apart from his professional accomplishments, he also pursues hobbies involving microcontrollers and LED's.
Highlights
Work with good people
The slew of layoffs over the past few weeks have caused me to be reflective of experiences I’ve had in my career. I’ve worked long enough to have worked with all sorts of folks: brilliant jerks, individuals with hearts of gold and many types in between.
When I’m mentoring managers about their role in an organization, I’ll often say that companies are profit making entities. They do one thing really well in a capitalist society and that’s make money. A company will let you give it everything in terms of your time, energy and emotion. If you’re not careful, it can suck your soul out. Then, I go on to say that it’s the management of the company that makes the experience humane and balanced….that good managers create the culture of the organization and look out for the well being of the employees.
The contrast among companies these days is glaring. I am writing this note on behalf of myself. I don’t speak for Adobe. But, in an incredibly difficult year for my family, the management at Adobe treated me with a kindness and a sensitivity that was of remarkable compassion. I think this emotional intelligence and caring about employees flowed from the founders and Adobe’s current CEO downward. In times that are getting harder, there is inestimable value in working for people who are at their heart good people. These are the kind of people that make up Adobe and for that I am extremely grateful.
This isn’t a shameless post looking to capitalize on recent layoffs. I’ve previously made an honest offer to help those who I can with the few developer openings we have. It’s more of a kind wish for those folks impacted by recent retrenchments — as you look for your next role, I hope you’re similarly fortunate to work with colleagues that care about each other as much as they care about driving results.
Folks, I haven’t seen mass layoffs in Silicon Valley since the early 2000’s. Feels a bit depressing. Back then, we all knew the mania would end, but weren’t quite sure how and when. March 2000 ushered in an employment winter like I’ve never seen before or after. Today, I think the industry is much more resilient than back then, but recently there were surely aspects of the same frothiness we saw back in the day. Now, please don’t construe this as opportunistic. The teams I oversee as well as those of my colleagues have a variety of developer openings given the strength of the businesses we’re engaged in. I personally have openings for backend and mid-tier folks to work on the innovative products in Adobe’s Experience Cloud: Adobe Journey Optimizer and Adobe Target. Relevant skills are the standard java/scala, big data, scalable distributed systems, low latency transaction handling with analytics, experimentation and machine learning. Solid mid-tier business application logic is always welcome as well. Some peer teams are also hiring UI developers (react, javascript etc). If you know someone who can use help getting their next role that would be interested in the above, please send them my way. Alternatively, I’m happy to connect anyone in need of a hand, generally. David
