From CodeSecure to AdaCore: Our Journeys in Product and Technical Marketing

Hear from Mark Hermeling and Sean Evoy about how they’ve found their transition from CodeSecure to joining AdaCore as part of last year’s merger.

What are your roles at AdaCore today?

Sean Evoy: I'm the Product Manager responsible for CodeSonar, our static analysis tool. For Static Analysis, AdaCore covers multiple languages including Ada, Rust and C/C++.

It’s my responsibility to make sure that the direction of that product aligns with the needs of our customers and the needs of our business. 

Every day is a balancing act for me. I'm analyzing the direction that the market is going, the needs of our customers today and in the future, and how our team will deliver on those requirements.

Mark Hermeling: My job is to translate feeds and speeds into business benefits. We've got great products, great documentation and great demos - but how do we position our products so that prospective customers see how they can benefit them? That’s what Technical Marketing is about.

Creating thought leadership content is a big part of the role, but what’s even more important is listening to the market. I’m constantly speaking with our customers, our ecosystem and the industry in general and bringing that market intelligence back to the business.

Tell us a bit about your background and your career journey so far.

Sean Evoy: My first degree was in History. I worked in museums as an educator before moving into Computer Science as a second career. 

My first job was at a small startup in Ottawa in a Support and Field Engineering role. I worked closely with the Engineering and Technical Marketing teams to help them understand our customers’ needs. After that, I joined the Technical Marketing team, creating new demos. 

After a few engineering roles, I switched to Product Management, working for CodeSecure (then known as Grammatech). As a Product Manager at AdaCore, I’ve now been working in Product for about a decade.

Mark Hermeling: I graduated in Computer Science and Formal Methods. As part of my degree I did a research project with the Ottawa startup Sean just mentioned. After my studies, I joined this startup and moved overseas from the Netherlands to Canada. I was working in the same office as Sean, with similar responsibilities.

I’ve travelled a lot in my career. I’ve lived in Canada, Sweden and even Singapore, working in Support, Technical Sales Engineering, Solution Architect and Product Management roles. When I was hired at CodeSecure in 2018, I became their first Product Manager. During this time, I also managed the Sales Engineering team. I enjoyed the technical marketing side of the role but didn’t have the resources to put my vision into practice. Now, at AdaCore I can really focus on what it means to do Technical Marketing well.

Both of you have worked in roles that bridge the commercial and technical sides of the business. How do you apply this skill in your roles at AdaCore?

Sean Evoy: The best thing that ever happened to me in my career was starting out in a Support team. It gives you perspective and shows that there is no problem that you can't solve. 

When I was in support, I desperately wanted to be an engineer. When I got to Engineering, I realized I had really enjoyed solving customer problems, so it was easy to transition back into a more commercial role. Because I had done both roles, I had a technical background, as well as a grounding in what customers care about and what the business cares about. 

What I like about AdaCore is that every engineer here also has their set hours working on customer support. They really get to understand the business our customers are in. As an engineer, if you’re not involved in support, you tend to be blinded to what the priorities are. Having that interaction with our customers is tremendously valuable.

Mark Hermeling: I fully agree with Sean. Getting out in the field and really feeling how our customers use our tools is important. You only learn to appreciate the tools you're building if you're building with them yourself. AdaCore is certainly building a lot of its own internal tools in Ada. 

Finding the right balance between technical accuracy, business success and value for the customer is really hard. My career path from being a Technical Sales Engineer, working in Support, and then taking on Solution Architect roles has really helped me with that.

How have you found the transition period from working at CodeSecure to joining AdaCore?

Mark Hermeling: The team here has been really supportive - everybody's very open. As a larger company, there are more processes and decision-making is more collaborative here than at CodeSecure, but that's pretty normal when you go from 50 people to 200 people.  

I feel supported here. I'm working in an interesting field, learning new things and meeting good people - the three things I always look for. People are always ready to help and point you in the right direction. I'm excited to be part of a larger entity and I'm looking forward to how we can make life easier for software developers.

Sean Evoy: I've found that the transition has been really easy. As an advocate for CodeSonar, I am so glad that the company sees this as a valuable product in the portfolio.

This has been an enormously positive transition from a small company where we struggled to find resources to now being part of a larger organization which can help and can provide these resources.

It felt very much like we were immediately welcomed into AdaCore. At our Denver Tech Day for customers last year, the team was very welcoming. It was just after the merger, so no one had met us before but we were afforded the opportunity to present and participate. Then, at a strategy meeting in France, we had plenty of opportunities to meet teammates and contribute. People remembered our names; people talked to us. Rather than feeling isolated, we were welcomed and made to feel like we were a part of the team.

How has your day-to-day role evolved since joining AdaCore?

Sean Evoy: My role has evolved to become more outbound and less Engineering-facing. Now I have a stronger awareness of the product’s performance and the state of the business. At AdaCore, I’ve been given the tools to get these insights and understand our roadmap and pipeline in more detail.

Mark Hermeling: My role has changed quite a bit. Initially, at CodeSecure, I would have 5-10 meetings per week with customers and would spend the rest of my time preparing for those meetings.

Now I have a much more strategic role, delving into where our technology sits in the landscape, how we can position it and where it is going - I really enjoy doing that.

What do you value most about working at AdaCore?

Sean Evoy: Teamwork. I really value the sense of being part of a larger team - the support that I receive from both my immediate colleagues, but also the broader company. It's nice to work for a company with such a clear vision of who they are and what they want to be.

Mark Hermeling: Teams really do come together to achieve a goal here. Everybody is kind of rowing in the same direction and one of the things that I really appreciate is the transparency. I love that open dialogue is so encouraged here and teamwork is seen as something really important.

What would you say to someone interested in joining AdaCore?

Sean Evoy: I would absolutely recommend AdaCore. We're solving important problems that you can get excited about - whether that’s flight control software for your next overseas trip or the ABS system in your car. Embedded high-integrity software controls all of those devices. 

People want their job to mean something. These are systems that need to be tested and well-built, because people's lives rely on it. If you want to be in an industry that builds tools that play a critical role in society, AdaCore is a terrific place to go and work.

Mark Hermeling: When you’re joining a company, consider three questions:

• Does the work interest you? Here, we have lots of different exciting things that we work on - whether it's AI, formal methods, compilers, or consulting with customers.
• Do you like the team you’re working with? I think the team at AdaCore is absolutely spectacular.
• Is there always something new to learn? You never want to stop learning on the job. AdaCore recognises that learning is integral to our roles and managers do their best to support progression in this way.