A Fast Mind Trapped in Slow Systems
Before joining IgniteTech, Jose Monteiro was already leading advanced AI initiatives for one of the world’s largest professional service firms.
As Head of Hybrid and Generative AI in Brazil, he oversaw a team building sophisticated solutions - from predictive maintenance tools to Virtual Engineer, an LLM-powered platform designed to support field engineers on the ground.
But despite the technical complexity of his work, he kept running into the same wall… bureaucracy.
“I was watching the AI train move very fast outside the window,” he says, “and I knew I'd be stuck here fighting these regulations and what I can and can’t do forever.”
Often, piloting basic tools like GitHub Copilot took months of approvals.
Products he designed couldn’t be released - they had to be turned into services, weighed down by risk mitigation and internal politics. It wasn’t a lack of skill, ambition, or opportunity - it was the system itself slowing him down to a crawl.
He wasn’t just thinking about growth anymore. He was thinking about velocity - and how he could work somewhere that moved as fast as he wanted too.
A Role That Moved as Fast as He Did
The AI Innovation Manager role at IgniteTech didn’t come with flashing lights.
Jose found it the way most great things start - on a LinkedIn job board. What caught his attention wasn’t just the job title - it was the chance to build AI products without restrictions.
He applied through Crossover, and the hiring process reinforced what stood out most - objectivity.
Jose had already completed the CCAT from a prior application, so this time, the focus was on deeper technical assessments.
“It’s challenging, especially for non-native English speakers,” he says, “but it felt fair. It wasn’t just about who liked you in a 30-minute interview - it was real evaluation.”
By the time he reached the interview stage, Jose felt confident that he was a serious fit - not based on his education, or connections - but on demonstrated ability.
But the biggest surprise came after he joined.
Just one week into onboarding, he learned that the VP of Engineering at IgniteTech was leaving - and that he’d been brought in with the intent to step into that leadership role.
“I was brought in to drive AI innovation,” he says, “and from week one I had the opportunity to do that and onboard as the new VP of Engineering.”
What followed was a rapid sequence of trust and responsibility.
The company was levelling-up fast, and Jose with it.
On The Promotion Speedway
There was nothing traditional about his rapid ascent at IgniteTech.
Without the red tape and frustration of corporate bureaucracy – Jose was free to work at his maximum potential, quickly proving his ability to excel in a culture based on performance, not performance theatre.
After stepping into the VP of Engineering role just one week into his onboarding, he was soon asked to lead a second engineering unit. Then came professional services and support - two more functions added to his plate in a matter of months.
As the company expanded, including the landmark Khoros acquisition, his scope and team rapidly grew. Eventually, that pace of growth led to a shift in focus.
The leadership team brought in additional VPs to support the newly scaled org, and Jose’s own role narrowed again - as a deliberate decision to double down on engineering standards, performance, and execution.
“We had close to 50 people reporting to me,” he explains. “It became clear that my impact would be highest if I focused entirely on engineering.”
By January - just 18 months after joining - he was officially promoted to SVP of Software Engineering.
He didn’t climb someone else’s ladder. In an autonomous system built for elevation – when the summit rises so do you.
Designing a Life That Doesn’t Fight Ambition
Jose didn’t join IgniteTech for the flexibility - but it’s one of the things that changed his life the most.
His wife is a cardiologist. Her schedule is extremely demanding and often completely unpredictable. Before Crossover, planning anything outside of work - trips, events, family visits - took an incredible amount of lead time.
Matching two ambitious careers meant waiting for vacation approvals, juggling hospital schedules, and trying to sync two calendars with very little give.
That’s in the past now.
“We don’t travel constantly,” Jose explains. “But when her schedule opens up, I can go. I can adjust. We don’t have to plan a year in advance.”
That’s how he found himself working remotely from Paris during the Olympics - a dream trip that would not have been possible without the total flexibility of his worklife.
After joining IgniteTech, he realized he could just… go.
The barriers were gone. He shifted his work hours, managed time zones, and stayed fully engaged while attending once-in-a-lifetime events.
He even handled a major company incident while watching the 2024 semi-final at Roland-Garros - coordinating with the CEO and mobilizing his team during the match breaks.
“I’ll remember that forever,” he says. “It was high pressure in both places - but it worked.”
That flexibility also made it possible to spend spontaneous time with family in Canada, where his parents, sister, brother-in-law and two nephews live.
He worked mornings on European hours, picked his nephews up from school, and shared moments that wouldn’t have been possible in his previous roles.
When your career is designed around quality of life, you get to close the gap between the work you love and the people you love. It stops being one or the other.
Doing It All and Making It Matter
Jose wasn’t looking for a quiet role where he could coast by.
Like many top performers, he’s wired to push his limits - and what keeps him energized is solving hard problems in an environment that never stands still.
“I’ve done big projects and worked in challenging environments,” he says, “but I’ve learned more in this one and a half years than in my entire career that came before.”
What makes IgniteTech different isn’t just the pace - it’s the culture of continuous challenge. It’s the extraordinary people.
Instead of settling into routines, teams are expected to question, iterate, and constantly improve. They're ahead of the curve on AI adoption, but they don't coast on it. The only question that matters is: how far can they still go?
He also debunked his own assumption about product companies.
Jose once thought service firms had all the challenge - with tighter deadlines, clients coming and going, and no comfort zones. But IgniteTech proved that product doesn’t have to mean slow.
The roadmap changes at lightning-fast speeds. Roles evolve even faster than that. And the standard is always rising.
“It’s not about doing the same thing for years. It’s about always pushing the limits of what AI can do, and how we work.”
That’s what makes it matter – working hard on things that move the business forward and levelling up your own thinking in the process.
As the work gets bigger, so does your life.
The Async + AI Operating Model
At IgniteTech, Jose doesn’t waste time in boring team meetings or wait for approvals from three layers of upper management.
He works inside an operating system built for speed - one that combines async collaboration, clear ownership, and intelligent AI tooling.
Working from anywhere is amazing, sure. But working without limitation or red tape is like plugging an electric guitar into an amplifier for the first time.
But he didn’t just benefit from the model - he helped design it.
After seeing how Slack pings and calendar invites were killing deep work, he partnered with the CEO to rebuild how teams operate.
He ran AI research on workplace bottlenecks, pitched a new async-first system, and led the transition from live meetings to documented flows, AI agents, and self-serve knowledge bases.
He even helped create feedback loops to track async adoption - making sure the system got smarter as people used it. Now he moves faster, makes better decisions, and leads with more autonomy than ever before.
“I did deep AI research… designed a new operational model… and we now measure if we are being async or not.”
The silos are gone, the bureaucracy has been silenced.
It’s just Jose and a workplace model that unlocks talent in a way the office never could.
What Top Performers Need to Thrive
Jose doesn’t sugarcoat it.
“If you just want someone telling you what to do from nine to five, and every day looks like the last - this isn’t the place.”
At IgniteTech, stability doesn’t mean stagnation. It means standing on solid ground so you can leap higher.
And to leap, you need three things:
AI DNA. Ownership. And proactiveness.
That’s Jose’s recipe for thriving on his team.
You must have the curiosity to experiment, the drive to challenge what’s possible, and the mindset to let AI become second nature - part of who you are, not just what you use.
He’s proud of the patents they’ve earned, the tools they’ve built, and the boundaries they’ve pushed. But he’s even prouder of the kind of culture that made those wins possible.
“If you believe in AI… that you are using it for everything you are doing… always finding ways to challenge how much AI can help you do your job, then it’s the right place.”
The future doesn’t trickle down here. It’s built by people with AI in their DNA and the courage to lead before they’re told to.
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