Building Tech Teams with James MacDonald Nobody Knows What to Pay Anymore: A Building Tech Teams Best-Of
With Nathan Hill, Claudia Barriga-Larriviere, Cloë Stanbridge, Matt McFarlane
About Adam Witanowski
Adam Witanowski is an AI architect who works on the engineering discipline behind enterprise AI: how teams design agent harnesses, test and evaluate AI systems, and govern their use. At the health insurer nib in Sydney he built Prometheus, an integrated suite of agentic AI tools that went into production across the business, as part of several years building nib's AI engineering practice.
He argues that whiteboard coding tests no longer show whether an engineer can work well with AI, and that interviewers should instead ask candidates to show the harness they build around their tools.
He made that case on Building Tech Teams with James MacDonald in August 2026, and his figures on Australian and US pay for senior AI engineers also feature in the show's best-of episode on salaries.
- Talks about
- AI, Hiring & Team, Leadership, Startup Lessons
In conversation.
2 episodes
Start hereWhy "Show Me Your Harness" Beats Any Coding Test: Adam Witanowski, AI ArchitectHis full interview on why reviewing a candidate's AI harness beats a whiteboard test.
Building Tech Teams with James MacDonald 
Building Tech Teams with James MacDonald Why "Show Me Your Harness" Beats Any Coding Test: Adam Witanowski, AI Architect
Go straight to the good bits.
Key moments from Nobody Knows What to Pay Anymore: A Building Tech Teams Best-Of.
- 0:00Cold open: what should a 10x engineer be paid?
- 0:19Nathan Hill: quantifying what AI is actually worth
- 1:05Million-dollar salaries as a bet on future ROI
- 1:28Adam Witanowski: nine companies, seven offers, real numbers
- 2:35US$500k in the US vs $220k here: which one would you choose?
- 3:50Why the gap is structural: funding, hyperscalers, enterprise mindset
- 5:37Claudia Barriga-Larriviere: more productive, or just faster?
- 6:15"What you don't measure, you can't change"
- 7:26Matt McFarlane: the jump is too big, because you've been underpaying
- 8:32Tokens are eating the people budget
Across the network.
Spot something wrong? Suggest a correctionUpdated 29 October 2026
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