From No Degree to VP of Engineering

Braden Bowers never finished college. He kept his head down, stayed technical, and figured out why the work mattered. Eventually, his results spoke louder than any credentials. Today, he's VP of Engineering at American Auto Shield and has built an engineering team from the ground up. On this week’s Landed Not Handed, we talked about non-traditional paths, building teams that actually last, and what Braden wants engineers fearing for their careers to hear. 

Read the full article below.

If you had to describe your ideal team player, what would you say?

There are a few core things I'm looking for:

Collaboration. When I started in the 90s, the model was: put smart people in a corner, feed them Mountain Dew and pizza, and they'll ship software that people will use because they have no other choice. We figured out pretty quickly that doesn't work. This is a team sport.

Passion. If you're in it purely for the paycheck, you're not going to innovate. You're not going to challenge ideas or push things forward. I need people who genuinely care about what they're building.

Innovation. We need to keep trying new things, doing things better than we did last week, and actually moving the needle.

Integrity. Being willing to make mistakes, own them, and learn from them.

Focus. The ability to work through one thing at a time and do it right, instead of thrashing across competing priorities.

How do you actually foster innovation on your team day to day?

I encourage people to tell me how they'd do something better. If someone has an idea, even one I'm skeptical of, we'll usually give them a time-boxed window to prove it out.

That part matters a lot to me. Even if the more experienced engineers can see why something won't work, letting someone go through the process of figuring that out themselves is incredibly valuable to their growth. And sometimes something unexpected comes out of it. Those experiments are worth running.

What's the most common mistake you see that actually damages team culture?

Arrogance.

Engineering is a well-compensated profession, and people can become very confident, sometimes overconfident, in what they've accomplished and what they're capable of. When that tips into arrogance, they stop listening. It kills collaboration, sets people up for reckless failure, and creates an environment where mistakes get hidden instead of addressed.

How do you actively work against that on your team?

By building a culture where we can talk openly about mistakes and name the people involved, including myself, without fear of shame or retaliation.

I regularly tell stories about times I got something wrong, whether it was earlier in my career or six months ago. When something new comes up that reminds me of a past failure, I call it out: 'Hey, we've been here before. Let's make sure we're keeping that in mind as we move through this one.'

When people don't feel threatened, they start doing their actual best work, and they start listening to each other.

Is there one person who has made a transformative impact on your team? What set them apart?

That would be Keith Smith. He's the best people leader I've worked with in my entire career.

He's genuinely empathetic, proactive, and deeply engaged with his team and the people around him. He brings people together in a way that's rare.

A lot of leaders I've encountered were high-performing engineers who got pushed into management because that was the next logical step on their path. Keith is different. He had a management background before he ever got into engineering. He actually wanted to lead people. Everyone in my org respects him and learns from him, and that's not an accident.

After years of being part of the hiring process, what have you learned from it?

Trust your instincts. I've hired people I had red flags about because everything else looked strong, and it's cost me more than once. Now, if something is bothering me about a candidate, I don't move forward.

At the same time, you have to accept the limitations of the process. You cannot fully know a person in a one-hour interview. That's just the reality. You have to make the best decision you can with incomplete information and then be willing to adapt honestly once that person is in the role.

If someone only takes one thing away from this conversation, what do you want it to be?

There is a lot of fear-mongering happening right now around AI replacing engineers. I've talked to college students and people just starting out who are already questioning whether it's worth pursuing.

Here's what I believe: this is a phase. We are at the bottom of a valley. It's a painful time for a lot of people in this profession. But we are going to come out of it. If you have patience and you endure through it, there is a genuinely rewarding career ahead of you.

Focus on understanding why you do what you do, and why the things you build actually matter. Use this time to build wisdom, not just survive it.

I have almost 30 years of experience, and I didn't collect it passively. I analyzed everything along the way. When AI became a real conversation, I evaluated it seriously: how it actually works, how it's being applied, what it can and can't do. I came to a clear conclusion pretty fast that this is not a human replacement at scale. There will be efficiencies. There will also be costs that aren't visible yet.

Have optimism. Watch the valley turn. Be positioned for what comes next because the demand will come back, and the people who built real wisdom during this stretch are going to be the ones who are ready for it.

Thank you so much for sharing, Braden.

If you’re interested in learning more or have any questions for Braden, reach out to him on LinkedIn here.

And if you’re looking for a new role and want to work with Braden, check out these open roles with American Auto Shield: