Introducing Marko Iskander, Our New VP of Engineering

Originally posted here.
By: Devin Finzer @

Overview

I’m so excited to welcome our new VP of Engineering, Marko Iskander, to the OpenSea crew. As OpenSea matures alongside the entire web3 economy, we face novel problems in need of unique solutions. We simultaneously face issues of intense demand fluctuation, alongside the unexpected technical challenges that come with building the foundation for a brand […]

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The Post

I’m so excited to welcome our new VP of Engineering, Marko Iskander, to the OpenSea crew.

As OpenSea matures alongside the entire web3 economy, we face novel problems in need of unique solutions. We simultaneously face issues of intense demand fluctuation, alongside the unexpected technical challenges that come with building the foundation for a brand new internet. Throughout the search for this role, we met no one more energetic, strategic, empathetic, and versatile than Marko. 

Marko Iskander

Formerly the VP Engineering at GitHub, he’s joining OpenSea with a unique point of view on the challenges ahead. Marko has deep experience scaling engineering orgs: in his 4 years at GitHub, he grew his (remote-first) team from 60 people to over 300, helping launch GitHub Actions into a fully fledged automation product, helped build GitHub Packages, and so much more. Before Github, he held leadership roles at companies of all sizes. He was CTO of a B2B marketing company, worked as an engineering architect at Adobe, led a team working on big data projects at a large telecom company, and even helped build a mobile security startup. But beyond his incredible background, Marko has an immense appetite to build, grow, and problem-solve in the world of web3.

From our first meeting, I recognized an innate reflection of OpenSea’s values in Marko: high integrity and transparency, ownership mentality, and a drive for high quality execution. As OpenSea’s new VP of Engineering, Marko will be investing in cultivating excellence, building foundations, and establishing rituals that strengthen our engineering org and culture. 

We believe NFTs are the first killer application of the blockchain. They represent the building blocks for new peer to peer economies, where users have greater freedom and ownership over their data, and developers can build powerful, interoperable applications to provide real economic value to users.

We believe that eventually the physical economy will shift in this direction, and it’s possible that one day, nearly everything we own will be on the blockchain. Over the next few years, OpenSea has the opportunity to help build a brand new, open, digital economy. Our vision is ambitious, and it will take an incredible engineering leader at the helm.

So with that, I’ll leave you with a few words from Marko: “My objective is simple. Give builders, creators, and their fans direct access – no middle-person, no institution setting the rules. Let creativity reign and the best work rise unhindered by a system meant to extract all profits from builders and overcharge their communities. I and everyone at OpenSea are committed to this vision and we’ll work hard to keep pushing every boundary to bring it to reality.”

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