“The way I see it, this represents a great mix of ambition and optimism,” he shares. “Many difficult transformations initially seem impossible. But if you have the right people, clear goals, and a practical path forward, everything is achievable—the sky is the limit.”
As Coforma’s new VP of Federal Engineering, Vlad will help steer the company toward our next big achievements. We recently had the opportunity to catch up with him and learn more about his background, new role, approach to leadership, thoughts on innovation, and more.
Can you tell us a bit about your professional background?
I’ve spent more than 25 years working at the intersection of engineering, business strategy, and large-scale transformation across both the public and private sectors. I started as an architect and developer, and later co-founded technology companies. Eventually, I moved into executive roles leading engineering organizations on a much larger scale for enterprise modernization programs.
Along the way, I've worked across both the federal government and the private sector, including large enterprises in healthcare, financial services, retail, and other industries.
Most recently—and this is what I'm very pumped up about—my work has been focused heavily on AI, cloud modernization, and the enterprise architecture needed to support it. And responsible adoption, because all this makes no difference if you cannot use emerging technology with guardrails.
What drew you to Coforma?
Coforma’s mission, values, and people were the biggest draw for me. This is a company that genuinely cares about the people who use the services we build and is willing to make decisions based on its principles.
I was also attracted to our multidisciplinary approach. The best solutions happen when engineering, design, product, research, delivery, and growth work together around a shared mission. Coforma understands that.
Tell us about your new role. What do you hope to accomplish in the next year and in the longer term?
My role is to create the conditions for our engineers and delivery teams to do their best work for our federal partners. That includes developing our people, strengthening technical leadership and engineering practices, improving collaboration across programs, and connecting technology decisions more directly to mission and user outcomes.
Over the next year, I want to bring greater clarity and consistency to Federal Engineering. That means clearer ownership, stronger career paths and technical leadership, better knowledge-sharing across projects, and more deliberate reuse of the tools, patterns, and lessons we develop.
Longer term, I want Coforma to be recognized for helping advance how federal technology is built: secure, responsible, sustainable, and centered on the people it serves.
Which three words best describe your leadership style?
My leadership style is clear, pragmatic, and human. Clear, because people do their best work when they understand the goal, their role, and how decisions are made. Pragmatic, because progress comes from focusing on the most important problem and finding a practical path forward. Human, because leadership starts with trust, empathy, and understanding what people need to succeed.
I want to build Coforma’s engineering culture centered on trust, craftsmanship, collaboration, and accountability. That means people understand what is expected of them, feel trusted to make thoughtful decisions, and know when to seek guidance. I want teams to take pride in the quality of what they deliver, share knowledge freely, and see one another’s success as part of their own.
What does "innovation" mean to you? What does it look like when done right?
Innovation is finding a meaningfully better way to solve a real problem. Done right, innovation begins with a clear understanding of the mission, the people we are serving, and the environment in which the solution must operate. It starts small enough to learn, uses evidence to guide what happens next, and has a clear path from experimentation to sustainable delivery.
In federal work, innovation also has to account for security, accessibility, policy, maintainability, and public trust. A pilot may demonstrate possibility, but the real measure of innovation is whether it can responsibly produce value at scale.
What do you enjoy doing outside of work to recharge?
I enjoy spending time with my family, following soccer, learning about emerging technology, and keeping up with personal finance and investing. And, of course, I spend plenty of time with Princess and Cassini, our two very opinionated pugs. They are very good at making sure work does not become the only priority.
If your pugs could set one engineering policy at Coforma, what would it be?
No silent failures! When Princess and Cassini need something, they make sure everyone knows—usually well before it becomes a critical incident.