marvin ojwang
Engineering Leader
15+ years building products people buy, open, watch, and stay for.
I lead Netflix's Live Viewing Experiences team (DVX Live), building what viewers see during live events across Android, iOS, and TV. My career started at Microsoft as a high school student in Seattle. I now write and speak about building at scale, engineering leadership, culture and technology, and what shipping teaches about the gap between creating something and making it meaningful.
I'm naturally outgoing. I enjoy connecting with people and building new relationships. I'm an avid music listener and playlist creator — I connect and learn a lot about others through music. I love Afrobeats, Hip-Hop, R&B, and anything that makes me nod my head and catch a vibe. I also enjoy a good documentary and anything that teaches me something new. If you share a playlist with me, you've shared a piece of yourself.
I was born in Kenya and spent my first decade in Nairobi before moving to the States. Someone opened the door to this industry for me — I landed my first role at Microsoft as a high school student after completing the Technology Access Foundation's Technical Teens Internship Program in Seattle. I earned my BS in Computer Science and now live in the Bay Area, 15+ years into a career building products that millions of people use every day. I pay that forward by mentoring others through career decisions, making myself available, and sharing my path. It's service, and it matters to me.
Outside of work, I'm connected to communities like /dev/color, a network of Black software engineers supporting each other's career growth.
What I Think About
Engineering Leadership
How I lead teams, build charters that actually get used, design communication frameworks that scale, and why self-awareness is the most underrated leadership skill. The gap between managing engineers and leading them is wider than most people think.
Access & Opportunity
My path from Nairobi to Seattle to the Bay Area, what it means when people open doors for you, and why I make myself available to others navigating this industry. People invested in me before I had anything to offer back — I want to be that for someone else.
Shipping Consumer Products
What 15+ years of building products millions of people use teaches you about adoption, organizational change, platform strategy, and the persistent gap between building something and making it matter.
Culture & Technology
The intersection of pop culture, music, entertainment, and tech. How what we listen to, watch, and share shapes how we build — and how technology reshapes culture in return.
Catch a vibe: marvin is african, marvin is big chillin, redux