{{ QCon San Francisco 2026 }}
{{ International software conference and certification for professional developers }}

What's actually working in AI
and software, from the people
who've shipped it.

At QCon San Francisco, senior engineers from innovator and early adopter companies tell the stories behind what they're running in production, across architecting agents, evals, distributed systems, platform engineering, and resilience.

You'll leave with patterns you can apply and evidence for which AI decisions are worth making.

60+ senior practitioners from innovator and early adopter companies · 12 curated tracks · Patterns and practices, not products and pitches

Topics include

Architecting AI Systems Agent orchestration Evals, guardrails & observability API Design Staff+ Engineering Skills

Nov 16–18 Conference | Nov 19–20 Training | Hyatt Regency, San Francisco

Early Bird Deadline August 11th

Conference: $2,715

See all 12 tracks
Need to convince your boss, manager, or team? Use our templates.

Trusted by senior engineering teams for 20+ years

Tracks

12 tracks with 60+ presentations from senior practitioners

AI & ML Security Nov 16

Guardrails & Safety Nets (Evals) for the New Landscape

Discover how teams are building evaluation systems, feedback loops, and safety mechanisms to make AI-powered systems reliable and trustworthy.

Tanya Reilly

Principal Engineer @Datadog, Author of "The Staff Engineer's Path", Likes Going Places on Trains

1 / 5 sessions Explore the track →

AI & ML Architecture Nov 18

Architecting for Agents: Beneath the Loop

In this track, we'll work through each layer with practitioners shipping agents in production today, drawing out the lessons that turn a compelling demo into a system you can stake a business on.

Julie Amundson

Senior AI Infrastructure Consultant, ex-Googler, ex-Netflixer

1 / 5 sessions Explore the track →

AI & ML Platform Engineering Nov 17

Engineering AI Systems

Engineering AI Systems at QCon San Francisco 2026 is for senior engineers and technical leaders building applied AI beyond the prototype stage.

Melanie Zhao

Engineering Lead @BlackRock, Pioneering AI Adoption in Asset Management

3 / 5 sessions Explore the track →

AI & ML DevEx & Frontends Nov 16

Modern API Design for Humans and Agents

Sharpen your approach to designing APIs that stand the test of time, focusing on usability, evolvability, and real-world constraints.

Krys Flores

Staff Software Engineer @Crunchyroll, Host of O'Reilly's The Staff Engineer's Career Roadmap

2 / 5 sessions Explore the track →

Architecture Nov 16

Architectures You've Always Wondered About

Systems you’ve heard about but never fully understood. Deep dives into real architectures, trade-offs, and the decisions that shaped them.

Daniela Miao

Co-Founder & CTO @Momento, Systems & Observability Nerd, ex-Lightstep, ex-DynamoDB

3 / 5 sessions Explore the track →

Architecture Observability & SRE Nov 17

Distributed Systems in Production

In this track you’ll hear from engineers and architects who are living with distributed systems every day—shipping features, firefighting incidents, and pushing the limits of scale.

Vidhya Arvind

Tech Lead & a Founding Architect for the Data Abstraction Platform @Netflix, Previously @Box and @Verizon

3 / 5 sessions Explore the track →

Teams & Orgs Nov 17

Staff+ Engineering Skills

This track asks: as a Staff+ IC, what are you doing to help your org navigate change — and how are you setting up colleagues and partner teams to navigate the next one?

Javier Fernandez-Ivern

Staff Software Engineer @Netflix with Over 24 Years in Software Engineering

3 / 5 sessions Explore the track →

Teams & Orgs Nov 18

Code Beyond Engineers & Engineering Teams

Learn how coding is expanding beyond traditional engineers, into product, operations, and AI-assisted roles, and what this means for teams and systems.

Suhail Patel

Principal Engineer @Monzo Focused on Designing and Operating Distributed Systems, Previously @Citymapper

1 / 5 sessions Explore the track →

Cloud Platform Engineering Nov 18

Real World Platform Engineering

This track explores the architectural, organizational, and operational trade-offs behind successful platform engineering initiatives, including balancing standardization with flexibility at scale.

Daniel Bryant

Platform Engineer, Co-Author of "Mastering API Architecture", Java Champion, and InfoQ News Manager

4 / 5 sessions Explore the track →

DevEx & Frontends Platform Engineering Nov 18

Engineering the Developer Experience

This track is designed for engineering leaders, senior engineers, and architects who are responsible for how their organizations build software.

Ankit Jain

Co-Founder & CEO @Aviator

1 / 5 sessions Explore the track →

Cloud Observability & SRE Nov 16

Resilience Engineering: Everything Fails All the Time

Learn how to design systems that expect failure, adapt to it, and continue operating under stress.

Vanessa Huerta Granda

Resilience Engineering Manager @Enova, Co-Author of the Howie Guide on Post Incident Analysis, Board Member for the Resilience in Software Foundation

1 / 5 sessions Explore the track →

Architecture Cloud Nov 17

Data Platforms Reimagined

Examine how modern data platforms are evolving to support real-time, AI-driven, and decentralized use cases, redefining how data flows through organizations.

Adi Polak

Director, Advocacy and Developer Experience Engineering @Confluent, Author of "Scaling Machine Learning with Spark" and "High Performance Spark 2nd Edition"

1 / 5 sessions Explore the track →

Need to convince your boss, manager, or team? Use our templates.

Meet the speakers

See some of the QCon San Francisco speakers

Joseph Lynch

Principal Software Engineer @Netflix Building Highly-Reliable and High-Leverage Infrastructure Across Stateless and Stateful Services

Joy Ebertz

Principal Engineer @Imprint, Blogger, and Speaker, Previously @Harness, @Split, & @Box

Jyothi Nookula

Product Leader Director with 13+ Years Driving AI Product & Platform Innovation, Previously @Meta, @Amazon, and @Etsy

Kaye Mason

Senior Staff Software Engineer @Meta, Previously @Google and @EA, 20+ Years in Real-Time Rendering, Spatial Computing, and Developer Platforms

Shweta Vohra

Architecture Leader @Booking.com, Author of "Decoding Platform Engineering Patterns" & "Dear Software and AI Architect", 24+ Years Experience Building Cloud, Platform, and AI Systems

Andrew Hatch

Engineering Leader and SRE Manager @Cisco ThousandEyes, With 25+ Years Building Software, Operations, SRE, and Platform Teams Across Australia, India, and the United States

Jacob Murphy

Open Source Maintainer @Valkey & Software Engineer @Google Cloud's Memorystore Team

Plum Ertz

Senior Director, Engineering @Ro, Specializing in Digital Accessibility, UI Development, and Scaling Systems and Teams

Hamel Husain

Machine Learning Engineer, 20+ Years in Applied AI, Machine Learning, and Data Science

Laura Savino

Software Engineer @Adobe Photoshop, Human Language Enthusiast and Former Language Teacher, 15 Years of Software Development

Mallika Rao

Senior Engineering Manager @Zocdoc, Previously @Netflix, @Twitter and @Walmart

See all QCon San Francisco speakers

Keynotes

Learn actionable insights to help you adopt the right technologies and practices.

Game Time: How to (Unsuccessfully) 10x in a Week & (Successfully) 10x in a Year

Plum Ertz

Senior Director, Engineering @Ro, Specializing in Digital Accessibility, UI Development, and Scaling Systems and Teams

Learning Out Loud (Under Near-Existential Pressure)

Laura Savino

Software Engineer @Adobe Photoshop, Human Language Enthusiast and Former Language Teacher, 15 Years of Software Development

The Execution Muscle: Why Great Teams Are Built, Not Hired

Charlotte de Jong Schouwenburg

Co-founder of @Bravely, Business Psychologist, Executive Coach, Trainer, Speaker, 12+ Years Experience Enabling High Performing Teams and Leaders

2026 Program Committee

Meet the international senior software
practitioners curating the conference

Erin Doyle

Founding Engineer @Quotient, 20+ Years Across Full Stack Development in Web and Mobile, and Platform Engineering

Haley Tucker

Retired Principal Software Engineer for Platform Engineering @Netflix

Hien Luu

AI/ML Leader, Advisor, Speaker, and Author

Khawaja Shams

Co-Founder & CEO @Momento, previously @NASA and @Amazon

Suhail Patel

Principal Engineer @Monzo Focused on Designing and Operating Distributed Systems, Previously @Citymapper

Thomas Betts

Senior Laureate Software Architect @Blackbaud

Why attend QCon San Francisco

Validate your approach. Move forward with conviction.

Technology decisions are getting harder.
You don't need another hidden product pitch.

You need senior practitioners who've been where you are.

QCon connects you with senior practitioners who've already navigated similar trade-offs.

Need to convince your boss, manager, or team? Use our templates.

Validate your strategy

Benchmark your approach against teams who've faced similar challenges

Real production patterns

Learn from systems at scale, not proof-of-concepts

Honest lessons

Hear what failed, not just what worked

No hidden product pitches

Sessions selected by practitioners, not sponsors

Career-defining skills

Technical and leadership practices that differentiate you

Senior practitioners helping senior practitioners.

No hidden product pitches. Just peers sharing what works.

The breadth of topics and the quality of speakers is incredible.

QCon puts more emphasis on the human connections between the sessions.

Speakers from all around the world, at the forefront of their field.

QCon puts more emphasis on the human connections between the sessions.

Unconferences are a space for everyone to share best practices.

Eye-opening! I can't wait to implement what I've learnt.

You don't see big pressure on selling you stuff. It’s all about learning and helping you grow.

Unconference sessions— they turn out to be a really beneficial feature of the conference.

Curation sets QCon apart. Tracks are curated by track hosts that know that field well.

Connections. Everyone here is passionate about what they do and how they grow.

It's one of the most innovative conferences I've been to.

QCon gives us the opportunity to zoom out and look at our reality from a different perspective.

Practical takeaways. New perspectives.

Centered around senior technologists. And no fluff.

Neha Shah

Architect, @WWT

Thought provoking with cutting edge trends and practical applications. Great speakers and attendees who like to meet new people and share ideas.

Thomas Strickland

Software Engineer, @Apple

First time attending. Amazing learning and networking here. Great to have fresh and varied perspective of the software world from experts around us.

Harsh Tamakuwala

Senior Software Developer, @Bloomberg

The audience and presentations at QCon stand out from other events for me. The focus on developers sharing their knowledge and skills with other developers makes attending the conference worthwhile.

Peter Ajemba

Senior Management (VP, CTO, CIO, Director), @Dexcom Inc

In just 3 days:
- 12 new LinkedIn connections made
- 25 pages of handwritten notes
- 20 incredible talks attended
- Another 20 bookmarked for later
- Numerous technical and industry conversations had
- One amazing conference experienced

Saloni Shah

Principal Software Engineer, @Paylocity

QCon San Francisco is delivering on its promise! The depth of technical insights here is extraordinary.

Tatiana (Tanya) Fesenko

Lead Software Engineer, @Klaviyo

I don't go to many events because I generally find them to be aimed more at early-mid career developers. QCon, on the other hand, was highly relevant to my role as a director. 100% of sessions had some value to me, almost all were worth the time investment, and a few really opened my eyes to ways I can be more effective at my job.

Benjamin Greenberg

Senior Management (VP, CTO, CIO, Director), @Simpler Postage Inc.

I like that the sponsored talks are separate from the other talks. The conference doesn't feel like a sales pitch. We still have the option to attend the sponsored track to see what other companies are offering and what's happening in the industry, but we know what it is before attending the talk.

James Hoffman

Senior Engineer / Lead Engineer / Principal Engineer, @Workday

I loved the heavy technical focus of conference where speakers share their real-life stories which makes the talks relatable and engaging.

Akshay Mutha

Engineering Manager, @Microsoft Corporation

The content quality and the speaker credibility, are head and shoulders above every other conference.

Craig Outcalt

@Mayo Clinic

Well curated collection topics immediately relevant to the current Gen-AI landscape.

Vijay Edwin

Ops Engineer, @Apple

The variety of latest topics and the chance to learn from experts who have worked in well-renowned businesses makes QCon exceptional.

Ridge Tejuco

Software Engineer, @Multi Media LLC

QCon is one of those conferences which is not necessarily one technology related but rather has great topics for every software professional.

Ranjeet Ramunni Kowlel

Senior Engineer / Lead Engineer / Principal Engineer, @Roche Molecular Systems Inc

The QCon experience

Deep technical sessions. Peer conversations that change how you think.

Conference experience

12 curated tracks

60+ peer-selected international speakers

Deep technical dives

Hear what failed, not just what worked

Unconference sessions

Solve problems with peers

Extended networking

Conversations, peer sharing and social events

Video access

12 months of on-demand recordings

Optional experiences

Hands-on training

Upskill on essential software development practices

Software architect certification

Join an exclusive cohort of senior architects

Video-Only Pass

Can't attend in-person? Learn at your own pace

Understand what’s coming next

QCon speakers are at the leading edge adopting emerging technologies in
production before they're proven. Learn from their experience to reduce your risk.

Innovators

Model Context Protocol (MCP)
Multimodal AI
Agentic AI / Orchestration
Physical AI
Reasoning Models
AI DevOps
AI-powered hardware
AI in Robotics aka Embodied AI
LangOps or LLMOps
Knowledge Graphs
Brain-Computer Interfaces
Robotics
Edge inference and model training
Large-scale distributed
deep-learning

Early Adopters

Small Language Models (SLMs)
Explainable AI
Automated Machine Learning (AutoML)
Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG)
Generative AI/Large
Language Models (LLMs)
Cloud agnostic computing for AI
Data Contracts
Data Observability
Virtual Reality e.g. VR/AR/MR/XR
Cognitive Services
Graph Data Analytics
IoT Platforms

Early Majority

Synthetic data generation
MLOps
Vector Databases
AI coding assistants
Image Recognition
(Computer Vision)
Natural Language Processing
Deep Learning
Open Table Formats (OTFs)
Data Mesh
Digital Assistants
Apache Beam

Source: InfoQ AI, ML and Data Engineering Trends Report - 2025

Your team at QCon

Bring your colleagues for faster results

Learn together Helping senior dev teams adopt the right patterns and practices

Engineering Leaders & CTOs

Validate multi-year technology strategy. Understand which emerging practices are ready for enterprise adoption.

Build faster The InfoQ Community

Software Architects & Principal Engineers

Get architectural patterns from teams who've scaled systems you're planning to build. Learn their tradeoffs.

Reduce risk The InfoQ Community

Senior Developers & Staff+ Engineers

Develop technical judgment for complex decisions. See how leading teams solve problems similar to yours.

Bringing your team?

Email info@qconsf.com with your group size for team discount details.

Need to convince your boss?

Use our pre-written templates.

Get three days of practical insights from 60+ senior
software practitioners. Use these takeaways to:

Reduce project risk

Learn from real-world failures to avoid costly mistakes

Benchmark your approach

Understand how leading teams tackle problems you're facing

Accelerate delivery

Apply architectural and operational patterns that work at scale

Validate technology bets

Learn from engineers who adopted first to reduce your risk

Build team capability

Equip yourself and your team with durable, relevant skills

Reduce decision risk

Validate technology direction with practitioners who've already made the bets you're considering

Download convince your boss templates

A safe and inclusive environment

The QCon 'We Care' experience

Enforced Code of Conduct

All-Gender restroom

Prayer room

Lactation room

Quiet areas

Sessions feedback for constant improvement

Badge optimized for peer-sharing

Accessible event space

Variety of food options (vegetarian, vegan, gluten free, special diet meals)

Detailed food labels

Diversity scholarships

Community events

DEI guidelines for track hosts and speakers

All-day coffee

Flexible online experience

On-demand access for 12 months

Learn more

QCon San Francisco venue

Hyatt Regency - San Francisco

Our official venue and hotel sits right on the Embarcadero waterfront, offering stunning views and easy access to SF's best attractions. Skip the morning commute and stay right where the conference happens.

Visit the venue page to book your hotel room at the QCon exclusive rate.

Explore past QCon talks

Multiplying Engineering Productivity in Face of Constant Change

Shweta Saraf

Director of Platform Networking @Netflix, Board Member for eBPF Foundation

Watch the talk →

The Three As of Building A+ Platforms: Acceleration, Autonomy, and Accountability

Smruti Patel

VP of Engineering @Apollo Graph

Watch the talk →

10 Reasons Your Multi-Agent Workflows Fail and What You Can Do about It

Victor Dibia

Principal Research Software Engineer @Microsoft Research, Core Contributor to AutoGen, Author of "Multi-Agent Systems with AutoGen" book. Previously @Cloudera, @IBMResearch

Watch the talk →

Who attends QCon

Technical leaders, senior engineers, and software architects making technical decisions

34%

TECHNICAL TEAM LEADS AND HIGHER,
SOFTWARE ARCHITECTS

23%

SENIOR DEVELOPER / LEAD ENGINEER

24%

SOFTWARE DEVELOPER

Trusted by senior engineering teams for 20+ years

QCon and InfoQ have guided software teams through every shift: cloud, containers, microservices, and now AI.

Sessions are selected by an international program committee for depth, relevance, and real-world value. No hidden product pitches.

Real teams. Real stories. Real results.

20 years

Helping senior dev teams adopt the right patterns and practices

550k per month

Global senior software developers relying on the InfoQ community to stay ahead

4,500+ per year

Senior developers learning emerging trends and practices at our QCon international software development conferences

Unable to make it to QCon San Francisco ?

Take a look at:

QCon AI New York

When: December 15-16, 2026
Where: The Westin Jersey City Newport, New York

Learn more

QCon London 2027

When: April 13-16, 2027
Where: The QEII Centre, London

Learn more

Sign up for event updates

Hear about the latest QCon and InfoQ developments. Be the first to learn about in-person and virtual events.

Country

What's actually working in AI and software, from the people who've shipped it.

Tracks

12 tracks with 60+ presentations from senior practitioners

Meet the speakers

See some of the QCon San Francisco speakers

Joseph Lynch

Joy Ebertz

Jyothi Nookula

Kaye Mason

Shweta Vohra

Andrew Hatch

Jacob Murphy

Plum Ertz

Hamel Husain

Laura Savino

Mallika Rao

Keynotes

Learn actionable insights to help you adopt the right technologies and practices.

Game Time: How to (Unsuccessfully) 10x in a Week & (Successfully) 10x in a Year

Plum Ertz

Learning Out Loud (Under Near-Existential Pressure)

Laura Savino

The Execution Muscle: Why Great Teams Are Built, Not Hired

Charlotte de Jong Schouwenburg

Trainings

Reserve your seat before they sell out.

Building AI Agents: A Practical Framework for Choosing the Right SDK

AI-Assisted Coding Master Class: Build Your Mission Control

Effective AI-Native Development with Harness Engineering

AI for Java Developers

Agent MCP Workshop: Building Your Own Java-Based MCP Server

The Human Architecture Problem: Designing Teams That Scale With AI [Half-day version]

The Fundamentals of Software Engineering in the Age of AI

Psychological Safety as Infrastructure: Building Teams That Fail Fast With AI

The Human Architecture Problem: Designing Teams That Scale With AI [Full-day version]

The Incident Lab: Responding to and Learning From Production Failures

Supercharge Your Work With Claude Code and Codex

Measuring What Matters: Building a Developer Productivity Program Engineers Can Trust

How To Write Skills That Actually Work

Cracking the Black Box: Forensic Debugging

The InfoQ Certified Architect Program at QCon San Francisco

2026 Program Committee

Meet the international senior software practitioners curating the conference

Erin Doyle

Haley Tucker

Hien Luu

Khawaja Shams

Suhail Patel

Thomas Betts

Why attend QCon San Francisco

Validate your approach. Move forward with conviction.

Validate your strategy

Real production patterns

Honest lessons

No hidden product pitches

Career-defining skills

Senior practitioners helping senior practitioners.

No hidden product pitches. Just peers sharing what works.

The breadth of topics and the quality of speakers is incredible.

QCon puts more emphasis on the human connections between the sessions.

Speakers from all around the world, at the forefront of their field.

QCon puts more emphasis on the human connections between the sessions.

Unconferences are a space for everyone to share best practices.

Eye-opening! I can't wait to implement what I've learnt.

You don't see big pressure on selling you stuff. It’s all about learning and helping you grow.

Unconference sessions— they turn out to be a really beneficial feature of the conference.

Curation sets QCon apart. Tracks are curated by track hosts that know that field well.

Connections. Everyone here is passionate about what they do and how they grow.

It's one of the most innovative conferences I've been to.

QCon gives us the opportunity to zoom out and look at our reality from a different perspective.

Practical takeaways. New perspectives.

The QCon experience

Deep technical sessions. Peer conversations that change how you think.

Conference experience

12 curated tracks

Deep technical dives

Unconference sessions

Extended networking

Video access

Optional experiences

What's actually working in AI
and software, from the people
who've shipped it.

Meet the international senior software
practitioners curating the conference

QCon speakers are at the leading edge adopting emerging technologies in
production before they're proven. Learn from their experience to reduce your risk.

Get three days of practical insights from 60+ senior
software practitioners. Use these takeaways to:

TECHNICAL TEAM LEADS AND HIGHER,
SOFTWARE ARCHITECTS