{{ QCon San Francisco 2026 }}
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International software conference and certification for professional developers
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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
Nov 16–18 Conference | Nov 19–20 Training | Hyatt Regency, San Francisco
Early Bird Deadline September 8th
Conference: $2,835
See all 12 tracks
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Use our templates.
Trusted by senior engineering teams for 20+ years
Tracks
12 tracks with 60+ presentations from senior practitioners
Tanya Reilly
Principal Engineer @Datadog, Author of "The Staff Engineer's Path", Likes Going Places on Trains
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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
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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
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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
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Daniela Miao
Co-Founder & CTO @Momento, Systems & Observability Nerd, ex-Lightstep, ex-DynamoDB
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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"
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Need to convince your boss, manager, or team? Use our templates.
Trainings
Reserve your seat before they sell out.
Trainings are optional half- and full-day sessions on Nov 19–20. Registration is required, and seats are limited on a first come, first served basis.
Sessions are confirmed — log in to your account to select your training now.
Training days are refundable until September 21, 2026.
HALF DAY
Building AI Agents: A Practical Framework for Choosing the Right SDK
Thursday Nov 19 · 09:00AM PST
The AI agent ecosystem has exploded with options—Google's Agent Development Kit, Claude SDK, OpenAI Agents, LangGraph, Pydantic AI, and more emerging monthly. But which one should you actually use?
Training host
Hien Luu
AI/ML Leader, Advisor, Speaker, and Author
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HALF DAY
AI-Assisted Coding Master Class: Build Your Mission Control
Thursday Nov 19 · 01:00PM PST
Most engineers aren't spending enough time setting up their environment to get the most out of their coding agents.
Training host
Sepehr Khosravi
Machine Learning Platform Engineer @Coinbase, Award Winning Instructor @UC Berkeley - Gen-AI Bootcamp, Founder @AI Squads
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FULL DAY
Effective AI-Native Development with Harness Engineering
Friday Nov 20 · 09:00AM PST
Most AI coding demos are greenfield theater. Your real work isn't. It's a 12-year-old codebase with patchy tests, a tangle of frameworks from three eras, and conventions nobody can fully explain.
Training host
Zichuan Xiong
Head of AIOps @Thoughtworks
Premanand Chandrasekaran
Head of Technology @Thoughtworks
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HALF DAY
AI for Java Developers
Thursday Nov 19 · 09:00AM PST
AI has become an unavoidable topic in software development, and many Java developers are wondering if they need to learn Python to participate. The answer is no.
Training host
Dan Vega
Java Champion & Spring Developer Advocate @Broadcom
Nate Schutta
Software Architect @Thoughtworks, Java Champion, author of "Thinking Architecturally" and "Responsible Microservices"
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beginner to intermediate
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FULL DAY
Agent MCP Workshop: Building Your Own Java-Based MCP Server
Friday Nov 20 · 09:00AM PST
The MCP Workshop is an instructor led, hands on learning series focused on building a Java based server that implements the Model Context Protocol (MCP) from the ground up.
Training host
David Parry
Principal Architect @Qodo
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intermediate
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HALF DAY
The Human Architecture Problem: Designing Teams That Scale With AI [Half-day version]
Thursday Nov 19 · 09:00AM PST
Your technical architecture is sound. Your human system is broken. In AI-driven organizations, the bottleneck usually isn't the tool - it's the team structures, decision rights, and trust dynamics that determine whether humans and AI can actually work together effectively.
Training host
Charlotte de Jong Schouwenburg
Co-founder of @Bravely, Business Psychologist, Executive Coach, Trainer, Speaker, 12+ Years Experience Enabling High Performing Teams and Leaders
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intermediate
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HALF DAY
The Fundamentals of Software Engineering in the Age of AI
Thursday Nov 19 · 01:00PM PST
Every few years, something comes along that's supposed to end software engineering as we know it. IDE features that write code for you. Low-code. No-code. Now AI. And every time, the role adapts, the fundamentals stay, and the people who understand the craft come out ahead.
Training host
Nate Schutta
Software Architect @Thoughtworks, Java Champion, author of "Thinking Architecturally" and "Responsible Microservices"
Dan Vega
Java Champion & Spring Developer Advocate @Broadcom
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HALF DAY
Psychological Safety as Infrastructure: Building Teams That Fail Fast With AI
Thursday Nov 19 · 01:00PM PST
AI adoption doesn't fail because of bad tools. It fails because people don't feel safe to experiment, flag errors, or admit they don't trust the output.
Training host
Charlotte de Jong Schouwenburg
Co-founder of @Bravely, Business Psychologist, Executive Coach, Trainer, Speaker, 12+ Years Experience Enabling High Performing Teams and Leaders
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intermediate
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FULL DAY
The Human Architecture Problem: Designing Teams That Scale With AI [Full-day version]
Friday Nov 20 · 09:00AM PST
Your technical architecture is sound. Your human system is broken. In AI-driven organizations, the bottleneck usually isn't the tool - it's the team structures, decision rights, and trust dynamics that determine whether humans and AI can actually work together effectively.
Training host
Charlotte de Jong Schouwenburg
Co-founder of @Bravely, Business Psychologist, Executive Coach, Trainer, Speaker, 12+ Years Experience Enabling High Performing Teams and Leaders
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intermediate
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FULL DAY
The Incident Lab: Responding to and Learning From Production Failures
Friday Nov 20 · 09:00AM PST
Your organization likely has a process for incidents. You have alerting, runbooks, an on-call rotation, and some version of a post-incident review. And you probably still have the nagging sense that you keep learning the same lessons, or not learning them at all.
Training host
Courtney Nash
Co-founder @The VOID, Previously @Verica, @Holloway, @Fastly, @O’Reilly Media, @Microsoft, & @Amazon
Sarah Butt
Principal Engineer @Salesforce
Eric Dobbs
Principle Incident Analyst @Oracle
Hamed Silatani
Co-Founder and CEO @Uptime Labs
Alex Elman
Staff Software Engineer @Slack, Site Reliability Engineer @Indeed
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intermediate
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HALF DAY
Supercharge Your Work With Claude Code and Codex
Thursday Nov 19 · 09:00AM PST
Many of us already use Claude Code, Codex, or similar coding agents for daily work: asking questions, writing docs, debugging issues, making small code changes, or reviewing code. This training helps you get much more productivity out of the agents you already use.
Training host
Khawaja Shams
Co-Founder & CEO @Momento, previously @NASA and @Amazon
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HALF DAY
Measuring What Matters: Building a Developer Productivity Program Engineers Can Trust
Thursday Nov 19 · 09:00AM PST
Every engineering team wants to boost their productivity, but measuring it well can be deceptively hard. This workshop will show you how to build a developer productivity program based on the right signals: pairing metrics with tension metrics, blending quantitative and qualitative data, and tying it all to real outcomes (including AI ROI).
Training host
Erin Doyle
Founding Engineer @Quotient, 20+ Years Across Full Stack Development in Web and Mobile, and Platform Engineering
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HALF DAY
How To Write Skills That Actually Work
Thursday Nov 19 · 01:00PM PST
You've written a dozen skills. Some work, some don't, and you have no way to tell which. The agent says "you're absolutely right" while invoking the wrong one, and you keep re-explaining the same things to it. Without a way to measure what a skill adds, there's no way to find out.
Training host
Baruch Sadogursky
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HALF DAY
Cracking the Black Box: Forensic Debugging
Thursday Nov 19 · 01:00PM PST
Inspired by the old saying, "Troubleshooting is like investigating a murder when you are also the murderer," this workshop will be the geekiest murder-mystery party you've ever attended.
Training host
Ryan Scott Brown
Principal Engineer @Crunchyroll, Previously @Red Hat, @Trek10, and @Vendia
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Certification
The InfoQ Certified Architect Program at QCon San Francisco
A cohort of senior engineers and architects, working through QCon together.You already know how to build systems. You've shipped production software, navigated tradeoffs, and made decisions under pressure.
Training host
Luca Mezzalira
Director of 50 Cents Media | Former AWS & DAZN | QCon Cohorts Facilitator | O'Reilly Author | International Speaker | Architecture Storyteller
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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.
Benchmark your approach against teams who've faced similar challenges
Learn from systems at scale, not proof-of-concepts
Hear what failed, not just what worked
Sessions selected by practitioners, not sponsors
Technical and leadership practices that differentiate you
Senior practitioners helping senior practitioners.
No hidden product pitches. Just peers sharing what works.
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
Video access
12 months of on-demand recordings
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
Engineering Leaders & CTOs
Validate multi-year technology strategy. Understand which emerging practices are ready for enterprise adoption.
Build
faster
Software Architects & Principal Engineers
Get architectural patterns from teams who've scaled systems you're planning to build. Learn their tradeoffs.
Reduce
risk
Senior Developers & Staff+ Engineers
Develop technical judgment for complex decisions. See how leading teams solve problems similar to yours.
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
A safe and inclusive environment
The QCon 'We Care' experience
Enforced Code of Conduct
QCon provides an harassment-free experience for everyone - inclusive of gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, age, nationality or religion. We do not tolerate harassment in any form.
All-Gender restroom
QCon events are a space where everyone feels safe to express themselves, learn, and succeed. All of our attendees are welcome to use the All-Gender restrooms.
Prayer room
QCon events are a space where everyone feels safe to express themselves, learn, and succeed. All of our attendees are welcome to use the Prayer room.
Lactation room
QCon events are a space where everyone feels safe to express themselves, learn, and succeed. To help facilitate welcoming everyone, those attendees that need to do so are welcome to use the lactation room.
Quiet areas
We understand you may need a quiet area from time to time. You will find designated quiet areas in which talking and noise are not allowed. Catch up on work, send the latest key takeaways to the rest of your team or just stare at the wall - as long as you do so quietly!
Sessions feedback for constant improvement
QCon focuses on continuous improvement: we never stop learning, growing and striving to improve ourselves, our processes, and our products. This is why we actively listen to your feedback to constantly improve QCon and bring you the best experience possible!
Badge optimized for peer-sharing
We try to think about every part of your experience at QCon. To help optimize your time with us and connect with peers, on your badge you will find:
- Your name printed on the front in a large easy to read font
- A map of the venue complete with icons to help you find what you need
- The wifi network and password
- A retractable lanyard so you can keep your personal space
Accessible event space
QCon events are a space where everyone feels safe to express themselves, learn, and succeed. We work with the venue and attendees in order to ensure full accessibility for all attendees.
Variety of food options (vegetarian, vegan, gluten free, special diet meals)
Eating healthy and having the energy to keep you going is important. That's why at every QCon we offer a wide variety of healthy food choices, including gluten-free, vegetarian and vegan and special diet options.
Detailed food labels
We label all food so that you can find something tasty that fits within your preferences or restrictions! If you have any specific dietary restrictions, we encourage you to contact us and let us know what they are so that we accommodate them.
Diversity scholarships
We are committed to creating accessible products for software developers from different backgrounds, and to be more representative of the present diverse software community. Diversity Scholarships are available for senior developers from underrepresented communities in tech.
Community events
QCon focuses on human progress through technology. We encourage you to be actively involved in our planned community events. They're a chance to connect with others, share experiences and let your voice be heard.
DEI guidelines for track hosts and speakers
QCon focuses on making each conference as diverse as possible. We recognize the importance different backgrounds and visions bring to each event. We have DEI guidelines for Track Hosts and Speakers to ensure each event is as inclusive and diverse as possible.
All-day coffee
Some of you are traveling from halfway around the world. Some of you aren't morning people - some of you aren't afternoon people. Either way, we've got you covered! Enjoy all-day coffee to help keep you alert and going during all of the innovative sessions.
Flexible online experience
On-demand access for 12 months
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.
For information on accommodations, please visit our Venue Page.
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
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