

#17 - How Zalando Engineers Software & AI at Scale - Bartosz Ocytko (Executive Principal Engineer)
What does it take to scale agentic coding across a large engineering organization?In this episode of bynd code, I’m joined by Bartosz Ocytko, Executive Principal Engineer Zalando to explore how one of Europe’s most sophisticated engineering organizations is evolving software development in the age of AI. Bartosz isn’t just working on AI features, he helps shape the engineering platforms, developer infrastructure, and technical practices that enable reliable software at scale. From operating hundreds of production systems to building internal LLM platforms and preparing the organization for autonomous coding agents, this conversation is a rare look behind the scenes of enterprise engineering. We dive deep into agentic AI, MCP infrastructure, model serving, shared GPU platforms, and how Zalando enables engineers to adopt AI without sacrificing security, governance, or developer experience. We also discuss one of the most fascinating topics in modern software engineering: how AI is changing the way we measure code quality. Bartosz shares Zalando’s research into pull request growth, cyclomatic complexity, risk-based PR analysis, and AI-powered platform migrations across thousands of repositories. What we discussed: How Zalando approaches agentic coding at enterprise scale- The architecture behind internal LLM platforms and MCP servers Model serving, GPU orchestration, and AI infrastructure- AI-powered migrations across thousands of code repositories Automated pull request risk analysis and compliance Why code reviews still matter in the age of coding agents- Measuring code complexity and engineering quality with AI The role of Principal Engineers in driving technical strategy Links & Picks: Connect with Bartosz LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bartoszocytko/ Blog: https://ocytko.net Zalando Engineering: https://engineering.zalando.com/authors/bartosz-ocytko.html Recommended ReadingTale of "metadpata": The Revenge of the Supertools https://engineering.zalando.com/posts/2024/01/tale-of-metadpata-the-revenge-of-the-supertools.html Agentic Engineering at Zalando: A Snapshot https://engineering.zalando.com/posts/2026/08/agentic-engineering-at-zalando-a-snapshot.html Principal Engineering at Zalando https://engineering.zalando.com/posts/2022/02/principal-engineering-at-zalando.html If you enjoy deep technical conversations with engineering leaders, subscribe to bynd code podcast for more episodes on AI, software engineering, cloud-native architecture, and platform engineering.















