Unleashing Creativity and Collaboration: Netskope’s Global Engineering Hackathon 2023

Last month, Netskope hosted its third annual Global Engineering Hackathon from December 6-8, 2023, continuing a tradition that began in 2021. This event attracted more than 230 engineers from different regions including the US, India, Taiwan, Spain, and France. It served as an exciting platform for our global engineering community to collaborate, innovate, and learn new skills while exploring fresh ideas and developing prototypes.

The 2023 Hackathon, themed “Quality and Velocity,” aimed to inspire our engineers to enhance the quality and reliability of the Netskope secure access service edge (SASE) platform, and boost engineering productivity. This theme aligned perfectly with Netskope’s mission to provide the best SASE solutions to our customers. 

As the Hackathon approached, excitement surged across Netskope’s offices. The Santa Clara HQ and other locations were decorated with Hackathon banners, and discussions among engineers often centered around hackathon participation and project ideas. The Hackathon JIRA board, full of innovative ideas, facilitated the formation of teams and a newly designed, stylish Hackathon t-shirt was introduced as well.

During the three-day event, engineers had the option to collaborate either in one of Netskope’s global offices or remotely. Offices were equipped with ample food and snacks, and many engineering leaders were present to offer their support and encouragement. Participants dedicated themselves to a wide range of projects, from new large language model (LLM)-powered tools for engineering productivity enhancement to system behavior dashboards, technical debt solutions, and platform capability prototypes. In total, 64 projects were completed and submitted for evaluation.

Post-Hackathon, all engineers participated in reviewing and voting for their favorite projects, a process designed to inspire and ignite new ideas, with some projects garnering more than 100 votes. Additionally, the Hackathon’s organizing committee, alongside subject matter experts like engineering directors and architects, evaluated the projects for quality and impact. This collaborative assessment led to the selection of 12 finalists.

The Hackathon culminated on December 14 with the Hackathon Demo Day, where the 12 finalist teams showcased their projects before a panel of eight engineering executives and the entire Netskope engineering community. The event concluded with the selection of five winning teams and three runners-up. These winners not only received bragging rights and awards, but they also earned a place of honor on our Hackathon Wall of Fame, located in the Netskope Santa Clara HQ office.

The 2023 Hackathon was not only a testament to innovation and teamwork but also  contributed to Netskope’s engineering culture. As Marshall Chen, a software engineer from Taiwan, put it, “The Hackathon was an excellent opportunity to tackle impactful problems as a team in a short time frame, with enjoyable teamwork.” 

The success of the Hackathon was due in large part to the unwavering support from the engineering leadership team and tireless efforts of the volunteers on the Hackathon Organizing Committee. Rijiwana Quazi, Senior Director of HRBP and Co-Chair of the Hackathon Organizing Committee, had this to say: “It’s truly rewarding to see the exceptional work from our hackathon teams, making Netskope an even greater place to work.”

Looking ahead, we eagerly anticipate the future innovations and collaborations that these hackathons will continue to inspire in our global engineering community.

If you’re passionate about joining a dynamic, global engineering team at the forefront of technological innovation, we warmly invite you to explore various career opportunities with us. Visit the Netskope Careers page for more information and to become a part of our exciting journey.