5 Questions with: Mike Luby, VP of Engineering

VP of Engineering, Mike Luby, presides over short-term, long-term, and individual disability insurance products. Mike joined EvolutionIQ in the middle of 2023 and comes to us with over 20 years of industry experience. With a degree from Arizona State University, Mike’s previous roles include Architect at Salesforce, where he worked on the first iteration of the Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Director of Engineering at Nike, and Vice President of Engineering at Daily Harvest.

At EvolutionIQ, Mike leverages his track record of building, growing, mentoring and leading world-class teams. This, combined with his strong technical background, enables him to lead the team to deliver the most impact and value to clients.

What are you currently working on?

My role is about driving strategy that creates focus for my teams and provides them with resources, direction and guidance. This enables them to define and build against our roadmaps and deliver the highest client impact possible.

With the rapid organizational growth we’ve seen over the last year, I’ve also focused on scaling the structure, processes and culture required to support our nearly 100 member Engineering organization. One key area to achieve this has been hiring. I look to bring on a diverse set of individuals who are raising the bar both in terms of technology and culture. These diverse perspectives and experiences are critical in building a strong and capable team.

The next key area is how we structure career growth and development in the Engineering organization here at EvolutionIQ. This is in some ways an extension of the work we’ve done during the hiring process. We’ve focused on bringing in highly talented individuals who continue to excel through thoughtful onboarding, real-time feedback and the abundance of growth opportunities.

What sets EvolutionIQ apart from other places you’ve worked or other platforms you’ve helped develop?

Over the last 20 years, I’ve done everything from working at three person startups to enterprise level organizations, such as Salesforce and Nike. Through these opportunities, I’ve grown to appreciate their focus on mission driven cultures and that is what attracted me to EvolutionIQ.

At EvolutionIQ, our mission is to improve the lives of injured and disabled workers and enable them to return to the workforce, saving billions of dollars in avoidable costs and lost productivity to the US and global economies.

How does your team function?

My team consists of over 50 individuals across different skill sets and experience. These teams work together on exciting technological challenges to build innovative and exciting features that leverage AI into our claims guidance platform.

The expectations I set for my teams are based on strong collaboration, engineering and operational excellence. It is critical that they work with each other and their cross functional partners to deliver on the high expectations we set for ourselves. We recognize that success is never guaranteed and we should continuously strive to be better tomorrow than we were today across process, technology and impact.

How do customers respond and engage with your work?

I’ve been fortunate to see the impact that my team’s work has enabled for our customers. Seeing how they react to functionality we provide, the insights it enables and the impact it has on their customers is a rewarding experience. We strive to make a meaningful impact with everything our teams build and deliver on our commitments to each customer.

What excites and interests you most about the company?

In short, I am excited about the opportunity, people and technology. As an employee I am excited about the great potential for EvolutionIQ. We’re doing a lot of great work that is making a significant impact for our customers.

The people I get to work with every day are talented and amazing. We have been fortunate to hire a lot of talented and passionate folks, a-players that keep raising the bar of excellence higher every day. They consistently bring a diversity of thought, experience and opinion that is valuable in our pursuit of excellence.

Finally, the technology, It is exciting to be working with cutting-edge technologies. I can certainly say that I learn something new every day.

All of these things factor directly into our mission to improve the lives of injured and disabled workers and enable them to return to the workforce.

‍