The Guest – Philip Gill, CTO at Smartbox Group
Philip Gill has over a decade of experience in cultivating high-performing multinational software teams. He is now the CTO at Smartbox Group, a European leader in experience gifting, offering curated travel, dining, and adventure packages across multiple countries. Today he joins us to speak about his experience in leading globally distributed blended teams.
Phil shares the evolution of his career from QA engineer to CTO, and the operational philosophies that have shaped Smartbox’s growth. He discusses the company’s blended team model, the importance of cultural fit, building trust across borders, and how rigorous processes have enabled major software rollouts under pressure. Phil also offers a grounded view on the current and future impact of AI in software development, highlighting both its promise and its hype.
Some highlights of this episode include:
- Building and Leading Globally Distributed, Blended Teams
- Culture-First Hiring and Team Psychology
- Cycle Time and Quality Engineering Metrics
- Practical View on AI in Software Development
Q: What makes these distributed team relationships actually work?
“They’re integrated into our team. Like they’re in all the standups, they’re treated as a team, we give them objectives like we give the other guys. So it’s really kind of ensuring that as a basis that we have that kind of equal level across each of our different teams. Yeah. And I’m making sure that there isn’t an us and them kind of mentality there, right? Making sure that, okay, they really believe in the mission. They really believe and understand what it is that we’re looking to achieve. And, know, it just helps you, you know, especially when it comes to crunch and we’ve had plenty of crunch times over the years.”
Q: How do you ensure high engineering quality across regions and teams?
“That’s a testament to my senior devs and… directors of software engineering who really live that standard, know, and like the really think quality first in terms of what it is. And it helps, I suppose it helps for me, like coming from a quality background as well, like it’s all about the quality of process. Like I know that you don’t retrofit quality onto things, you build it in from the start, right? And if you want to do it in the most efficient way, and honestly, you do it in a much faster way, and you’re able to deliver quality and at that speed.”
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