By Chris Allaire | Founder & CEO, Averity
People Hire People.
Every few years, the tech industry hits an inflection point — a moment where multiple forces collide at once: new tools show up, old structures break down, and the way we build, secure, and hire starts to shift under our feet.
Right now, we’re living through one of those moments.
Platform engineering is maturing.
AI is opening new frontiers — and new vulnerabilities.
Cybercrime is booming on a global scale.
And recruiters are no longer just sifting resumes… they’re fighting off deepfake candidates and AI-generated personas.
To unpack this moment, I sat down with someone (watch the full interview here) who’s been in the middle of it for nearly a decade: Daniel “Danny” Wellner, Averity’s Director of Security, DevOps & Platform Engineering Recruiting. Danny isn’t just filling roles — he’s watching entire disciplines transform in real time.
This is the state of modern engineering, straight from the front lines.
The Great Shift: Why DevOps Alone Isn’t Enough Anymore
When Danny entered the space nine years ago, DevOps was the shiny new promise. If you said “CI/CD” and “Kubernetes” enough times, people assumed you were building the future.
But like every wave, DevOps matured.
“Platform engineering is DevOps 2.0. It’s DevOps… with structure.”
Here’s the difference:
DevOps was about speed.
Move fast. Automate everything. Break fewer things than before.
SRE was about stability.
Uptime. SLIs. Observability.
Platform engineering is about productizing the developer experience.
Self-service. Guardrails. Repeatable pipelines. Secure AI environments.
It’s “you build it, you run it” — but with an internal platform that actually supports it.
Danny put it simply:
“A great platform engineer thinks like a product owner.”
Not just building infra… but designing the system that lets everyone else build faster and safer.
It’s no surprise the demand is exploding.
This is exactly what the DevOps boom felt like in 2018 — only bigger.
Meanwhile… Cybersecurity Is Quietly Becoming a Global Crisis
Here’s a stat Danny dropped that should be front-page news:
Cybercrime will cost $10.5 trillion annually.
If it were a country, it would be the world’s 3rd largest economy.
Let that sink in.
AI hasn’t just changed how software gets built — it has changed how it gets attacked:
- Prompt injections
- Model poisoning
- Automated phishing at scale
- LLM-generated malware
- Social engineering with AI deepfakes
The threat surface is no longer just enterprise systems.
It’s your phone. Your inbox. Your Wi-Fi. Your kids’ devices.
“Everyone with a laptop is part of the global attack surface now.”
Yet cybersecurity barely gets mainstream attention.
Why? Because the danger isn’t loud until it hits home.
Fraudulent invoices… changed wiring instructions… cloned voices… all happening daily.
We’re in a new era — and most people don’t realize the rules have changed.
A New Challenge for Hiring: The Era of Fake Candidates
If you’ve wondered whether AI is disrupting recruiting — here’s your confirmation:
“I see fake candidates multiple times a week. Sometimes daily.”
Fake resumes.
Fake identities.
Fake LinkedIn profiles.
Deepfake interviews.
Real engineers impersonated by people overseas trying to funnel U.S. salaries elsewhere.
And the scary part?
A few of them are good.
Really good.
They speak like real engineers.
They use authentic terminology.
They pass first-round screens.
They know how to mimic experience.
Until someone highly specialized — someone like Danny — asks the layered questions that expose the cracks.
You can’t outsource “experience.”
You can’t fake niche knowledge.
This is exactly why specialized recruiters matter more now than ever.
What Engineering Leaders Must Do Right Now
The old hiring playbook doesn’t work anymore.
Everything has changed.
Here’s what Danny says every CTO and VP of Engineering needs to do:
1. Stop trusting resumes.
AI writes flawless ones now.
Every candidate looks like a superhero.
2. Pick up the phone and talk to humans.
A real engineer can explain what they built.
A fake one cannot.
3. Ask scenario-based questions.
“How much Python?” won’t tell you anything.
“What observability patterns did you use to debug X?” will.
4. Partner with specialists.
If your recruiter doesn’t live in your world, you’re flying blind.
5. Accept that verification is now part of recruiting.
You need more signal.
More context.
More trust.
This isn’t about gatekeeping — it’s about protecting teams, culture, and data.
The Future: AI, Security, Platform Engineering & Human Trust
Despite the risks, the future is bright.
And Danny is bullish on where things are going.
AI security is becoming one of the most important fields in tech.
Defenders are learning to fight AI with AI.
Platform engineering is defining the next decade of developer productivity.
Internal tools are the new competitive edge.
Recruiting is returning to its roots: relationships over automation.
The more the world gets automated, the more valuable human trust becomes.
“Trust is the differentiator in a world full of noise.”
And Danny’s right.
For all the buzzwords, automation, AI agents, hallucinations, bots, and deepfakes…
the competitive advantage is still human connection.
People hire people.
People work with people.
And people trust people.
That’s the through-line that isn’t changing.
Want to Talk DevOps, SRE, Platform, or Security Talent?
Danny is one of the best in the business.
He lives on LinkedIn (10–12 hours a day).
He knows the real market, the real people, and the real risks.
Connect with him on LinkedIn or at Averity: https://www.averityteam.com
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