Engineering & Applied AI Leader for Growth-Stage B2B
Brandon
Wilburn
I build AI-native products and the engineering organizations that ship them.
0→1 product bets 1→N execution VP Engineering / Head of AI
I help growth-stage B2B software companies turn AI, platform, and data complexity into shipped product capability, measured engineering velocity, and diligence-ready operational posture. Over five years as Chief Software Architect at Spirent Communications, I ran four concurrent strategic initiatives in service of a single acquisition-readiness mandate. Keysight acquired the portfolio in October 2025 at a fifteen percent premium over a competing Viavi bid.
What I Do
What growth-stage teams hire me to do
Ship AI into production
Identify the recurring use-case patterns across a portfolio, narrow the first product to the three that matter most, and ship into an existing sales channel rather than a new-segment one where the commercial motion is unproven.
Build engineering velocity through AI adoption
Evaluate and select agentic development tooling against a full legal and IP risk portfolio: attribution, license contamination, patent protection, efficacy, TCO, and tooling fit. Instrument the lift via DORA metrics and developer experience surveys.
Bet, build, and know when to stop
Zero-to-one product programs require executive judgment about when to invest and when to stop. I have built programs against unanimous internal resistance, shipped them to real customers, and made the call to wind them down when the commercial thesis did not hold.
Deliver under diligence pressure
Build portfolio-wide security, IP, and platform posture that survives acquisition-grade diligence. Use organizational pressure as a forcing function rather than negotiating each program separately.
Selected Impact
Metrics that matter in the scale-up phase
Outcomes at the intersection of AI, platform, security, and organizational scale.
Multi-team escalation collapsed into agentic root cause analysis, now shipping as a product pillar in Luma for Landslide
Engineering throughput lift from agentic development adoption, cleared through a seven-dimension legal and IP risk review
Outage identification reduced from over sixty minutes via a real-time operational intelligence platform
Portfolio-wide vulnerability posture at acquisition-grade diligence close, landed months before final review
At-risk revenue reclaimed and expanded through platform and customer alignment under acquisition time pressure
Use case patterns selected and shipped in Luma for Landslide, Spirent's first agentic AI product, now in pre-production with tier-one operators
Case Studies
Work that moved organizations forward.
Shipping Luma for Landslide
Led the integration of agentic AI into Spirent's ATA portfolio. Shipped Luma for Landslide as the first product out of a five-use-case productization roadmap. Pre-production today with tier-one operators, live production by end of year.
Read case studyAgentic Development at Enterprise Scale
Cleared agentic development adoption across Spirent's R&D through a seven-dimension risk review. Landed on Windsurf and Devin as the production tooling. Measured 20 to 40 percent throughput lift, instrumented via DORA metrics and developer experience surveys.
Read case studyAcquisition-Grade Security and IP Remediation
Took over a portfolio-wide security and IP function at Spirent in spring 2024 after the first attempt had been rebuffed by the programs within a month. Built a single narrative and playbook that used the contested Keysight and Viavi acquisition as the forcing function. Landed every program at zero critical vulnerabilities and clean license posture by Q2 2025, months before final diligence closed.
Read case studyBuilding Spirent's Global Innovation Organization
Built Spirent's global R&D innovation organization from inception to 70+ engineers across test and management, mobility, and platform engineering. $5M budget, executive-advisory scope across a 500+ engineer portfolio spanning five product verticals. The organization ran the four concurrent strategic initiatives that culminated in Keysight's fifteen percent premium acquisition.
Read case studyBuilding and Winding Down Vantage
Built a new-segment product program called Vantage at Spirent from zero against unanimous R&D resistance, proved the engineering thesis in a year-long tier-two operator deployment, and made the call jointly with the VP of R&D to wind it down when the commercial thesis did not hold.
Read case studySelected Writing
From TechieBrandon
TechieBrandon is Brandon's long-form publication on platform strategy, AI-enabled engineering, leadership, and organizational transformation.
AI Adoption
How to Get Your Medium-Sized Enterprise to Adopt Agentic-Enabled Coding with IDEs like Windsurf and Cursor
A practitioner's view on AI-native engineering adoption with compliance and execution discipline.
AI Engineering
Vibe Coding in the Enterprise: Opportunities, Limitations, and Legal Caution
Separating AI hype from sound engineering judgment in enterprise contexts.
Leadership & Strategy
The Crux: Strategic Leadership Lessons from Richard P. Rumelt's Framework
How to think about focus, tradeoffs, and execution at leadership level.
About
Built for the messy middle
of scale.
For the past five years I was Chief Software Architect at Spirent Communications, a $600M test and assurance company serving telecom, aerospace, and automotive verticals. I ran four concurrent strategic initiatives—agentic AI product, agentic development adoption, portfolio-wide security remediation, and a global innovation organization—each linked to a single acquisition-readiness mandate. Keysight acquired the portfolio in October 2025.
My career spans the full technology stack: test infrastructure, network intelligence, platform engineering, and AI-native product development. This range means I can translate customer outcomes into technical architecture, debug a distributed system, or coach an engineering manager—whatever the work requires.
More about BrandonLet's Connect
Hiring a VP Engineering or Head of AI for the next phase of scale?
I am most useful to Series B through D B2B software companies that need to ship AI-native product capability, instrument engineering velocity, and build operational posture that survives diligence pressure. Open to full-time operating roles; selective advisory only.