Welcome to Red Hat!
You've joined the Emerging Technologies team in Red Hat's Office of the CTO (OCTO). We are the explorers, engineers, and strategists tasked with discovering and building what's next. This guide is your interactive map to our world—how we think, how we work, and how you can make an impact.
How We Work: From Vision to Task
To ensure we focus on work that has a "transformational impact," OCTO uses a structured model for innovation. This framework provides clarity and alignment, channeling our energy toward a limited number of high-impact areas. Click each level to see how it works.
1.Initiatives ▼
The Big Idea: Large-scale, multi-year efforts aimed at creating major new market opportunities for Red Hat. We limit ourselves to 5 or fewer to maintain focus.
Example: "Enabling our customers to build enterprise-class AI solutions."
2.Epics ▼
The Project: Core projects within an Initiative with specific, measurable deliverables. This is where most of our team's work is defined.
Example: "Develop a synthetic data generation pipeline for InstructLab" (part of the AI Initiative).
3.Issues ▼
The Task: The most granular level of work, tracked in Jira (as Tasks, Stories, or Bugs). Your Epic Lead defines and assigns these to you.
Example: "Fix bug in data validation script for SDG pipeline."
Who's Who: The People You'll Work With
Our structure is a matrix. Your manager supports your career, but your daily work is guided by project leads. Click on a role to learn more about what they do.
The Rhythm of Innovation: Our Meeting Cadence
We stay synchronized through a regular series of meetings. This cadence ensures transparency, rapid problem-solving, and consistent progress tracking. Your main focus will be on the weekly Epic meetings.
Our Initiatives & Project Portfolio
These are the five strategic pillars that guide all of OCTO's work, representing our biggest bets on the future. Below the chart, you can explore the key projects our team drives within these initiatives.
The chart visualizes a conceptual score representing the relative strategic focus of each area.
Our Culture in Action
Red Hat's values aren't just posters on a wall; they are the operating system for how we work. In OCTO, these values are built directly into our processes. Click on a value to see how it translates into a specific practice you'll encounter every day.
Your First 90 Days: A Roadmap to Impact
Welcome aboard! Your first three months are about learning, connecting, and starting to contribute. This isn't a checklist, but a guide for proactive engagement.
First 30 Days: Learn
- Schedule 1-on-1s with your team.
- Introduce yourself on Slack (`#team-octo`).
- Activate your Red Hat Developer Sandbox.
- Observe and absorb in Epic meetings.
- Find a "good first issue" with your lead.
First 60 Days: Contribute
- Make your first Pull Request.
- Keep a daily work log of learnings.
- Get comfortable with the Jira workflow.
- Read the design docs for your primary project.
- Ask questions and offer ideas.
First 90 Days: Impact
- Take full ownership of a Jira issue.
- Provide clear, proactive updates.
- Prepare a small, informal demo for the team.
- Participate actively in design discussions.
- Your fresh perspective is valuable!