Tejas Kumar is a distinguished AI engineer and speaker, currently working as a Developer Advocate at IBM. An expert in technology, he has helped build and develop software for major organisations, including Spotify and Xata.io. With over 25 years of experience in technology and AI, Tejas is regularly sought after as a speaker for his ability to translate complex AI and software engineering concepts into straightforward ideas that various businesses can utilise.
Starting his tech career, Tejas was the Digital Lead at the design agency grow in Qatar before moving to Germany and working on websites at McMakler and Vercel. He joined the leading Data and AI consultancy, Contiamo, in 2017 as a Front-End Engineer and later became Engineering Manager. During his time as a Senior Software Engineer at Spotify, Tejas was responsible for building, deploying and scaling Backstage for internal employees. Continuing to develop new technology, he became Director of Developer Relations at Xata.io, where he helped build the organisation from the ground up to the public launch of the company. In 2023, he founded his own consultancy, Tejas Kumar e.U., advising businesses on developer relations. After closing his business, Tejas served as Developer Relations Engineer for Generative AI at DataStax, which was acquired by IBM in 2025, where he works as a Developer Advocate.
Alongside his traditional work, Tejas is the bestselling author of Fluent React, a practical guide to software engineering. He also shares insights into AI engineering with his long-form podcast, ConTejas Code. Influencing the future of technology, Tejas is an angel investor in six AI and software developer startups, with three of these companies being acquired by major tech companies.
An experienced speaker, Tejas has delivered over 80 talks, with recent stages including AI Engineer Europe, Infoshare and Code Europe. His keynotes cover topics such as artificial intelligence engineering, software development and AI agents. Sharing his inspiring personal journey, Tejas also speaks about his story of how he was born with the blood disorder severe hemophilia and how he built his career whilst facing this condition. Available for conferences, workshops, virtual sessions and keynotes, hire Tejas as a speaker today!
Books
Fluent React
Tejas Kumar's official speaking topics are listed below:
- How to thrive as a professional with AI
- Why AI agents fail in production and what to build around the model
- The new UX: product design after AI
- The Dots Connect: hemophilia, faith and resilience
Official Feedback From In-Person & Virtual Events
“This talk by Tejas is so inspiring. He’s got hemophilia, and he built an app that has a data visualisation of the half life of his medicine!” - Cassidy, Senior Director of Dev Experience at GitHub
“Tejas Kumar is such a charismatic speaker.” - Mark Dalgleish
“I’ve said it before but Tejas has the most amazing energy when he speaks (and also in real life!). Amazing talk as usual about the tradeoffs React makes and why they’re really pretty good compromises.” - Josh W. Comeau
- 2024 - Published book Fluent React: Build Fast, Performant and Intuitive Web Applications
- 2024 - Developer Advocate at IBM
- 2024 - Developer Relations Engineer at DataStax
- 2023 - Began hosting ConTejas podcast
- 2023 - Founder of Tejas Kumar e.U.
- 2022 - Director of Developer Relations at Xata.io
- 2021 - Senior Software Engineer at Spotify
- 2020 - Engineering Lead at G2i Inc.
- 2017 - Engineering Manager at Contiamo
- 2015 - Front-end Lead of McMakler
- 2014 - Digital Lead of grow
How to hire Tejas Kumar
Contact the Champions Speakers Agency to provisionally enquire about hiring Tejas Kumar for your next event, today. To get in touch, simply call an official booking agent on 0207 1010 553 or email us at [email protected] for more information.
** We do NOT accept requests for autographs, signed merchandise, fan mail, birthday messages or any other non-commercial contact with the speakers or acts. Each speaker on the website may not have necessarily worked with Champions in the past but are known to perform such engagements within the industry.
