#956 How Snapchat is Evolving in the Age of AI with Saral Jain, SVP, Head of Engineering

This is how Snapchat sets itself apart in the social media space: they’re not a social media company.

Today, we're talking to Saral Jain, SVP and Head of Engineering at Snapchat, about how one of tech's most underestimated companies is quietly outpacing giants. We discuss why Snapchat has always refused to call itself a social media company and what that distinction means for every product decision they make, how AI is actually changing the day-to-day reality of software engineering through autonomous coding agents like their internal tool Casper, and why the skills that matter most in the AI era have less to do with writing code and everything to do with taste, judgment, and the willingness to raise your hand.

All of this right here, right now, on the Modern CTO Podcast! 

To learn more about Snapchat, check out their website here.

About Saral Jain

Saral Jain is SVP and Head of Engineering at Snapchat, where he leads the technical teams building one of the world's largest visual messaging platforms, reaching nearly a billion monthly active users. He is currently spearheading Snap's AI-first engineering transformation, including the development of Casper, an autonomous coding agent that allows engineers to design and ship features through natural language. Before joining Snap, Saral built his career scaling engineering organizations at the intersection of consumer technology and platform infrastructure. He is known for his hands-on leadership style and his belief that in the age of AI, the most valuable engineering skills are taste, judgment, and ownership.