Jim Lesko

Jim Lesko is the current VP of Engineering at Zentist. Jim has also previously worked as the VP of Engineering at Study.com from January 2013 to August 2020. At Study.com, they led the development, quality engineering and scrum groups which supported over 40M unique monthly visitors. Jim oversaw Large Scale Scrum agile adoption by working with C-level stakeholders and worked with individual team members to simplify product development process. Additionally, they increased average developer retention to over three years and assisted in scaling the company from 30 to 110 people.

During their time at Study.com, Jim led an organization-wide transformation to Scrum, followed by Large Scale Scrum (LeSS), which enabled increased value delivery, cross-team communication, data-backed experiments and close collaboration across functional silos. Jim also streamlined development by grouping teams into product areas closely aligned toward common business goals through improved inter-team communication and accountability, cutting time to market in half for the company's College segment. Furthermore, they increased feature release frequency from bi-weekly to multiple times per day, leveraging XP and DevOps methods including pair programming and code reviews, eliminating rollbacks and increasing business velocity.

In addition to their work with Scrum and DevOps practices, Jim also created and developed a new Quality Engineering group into an innovative, industry-leading team that applies automation, feedback and ownership through the entire development lifecycle. Jim was also responsible for scaling the organization by directing managers, collaborating with department leadership and delegating work to motivated teams qualified to deliver results. Lastly, they retained top talent by delivering the technical career ladder, hosting annual developer offsites, shepherding innovation projects and regular hack-a-thons.

Jim Lesko has a certification from MITx on edX in Quantum Algorithms for Cybersecurity, Chemistry, and Optimization. Jim also has a certification from MITx on edX in Introduction to Quantum Computing. Additionally, they are certified by ICAgile as an ICAgile Certified Professional in Agile Coaching and by The LeSS Company as a LeSS Certified Practitioner. Finally, they hold certifications from Scrum Alliance in both Certified Scrum Product Owner and Certified ScrumMaster.

They work with Paulina Song - Co-Founder & Chief Business Officer, Sina S. Amiri - VP, Revenue, and Ashley Ferns - Growth Executive. Their manager is Ato Kasymov, CEO & Co-Founder.