A Front-Row Seat to the Evolution of Engineering
By Leo, application engineer
Leo is an application engineer (AE) at MathWorks who has spent more than two decades collaborating closely with customers as both engineering and MATLAB have changed. In this Q&A, he reflects on the AE role and what has made the work meaningful for so many years.
What first brought you to MathWorks, and how has the company evolved?
A recruiter contacted me, and once they mentioned MATLAB, I was immediately excited by the opportunity. I’d been a MATLAB champion at my previous company, creating tools and demonstrating how MATLAB could help people work more effectively.
When I joined MathWorks in 2000, we were operating out of a single building, while the surrounding spaces were either occupied by other businesses or used for retail. Over the past 25-plus years, I’ve watched MathWorks expand significantly, gradually taking over the entire local complex and even constructing a brand-new campus nearby.
In my early years as an AE, I traveled extensively to support distributors in China, Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Australia, Czechia, Poland, and Greece and later helped open offices in Japan and Sweden. At the time, we had only a handful of offices outside Natick, Massachusetts. Now, the sun never sets on MathWorks, with offices throughout the United States and around the world.
We’ve grown from about 500 employees to more than 10 times that since I joined. Keeping up with new products and capabilities has been challenging, but also fun. Working alongside customers as technology has progressed over the past quarter century has been a privilege. That’s been my job, and I love it.
What made you realize early on that the application engineer role was something you genuinely wanted to stay in long term?
I’ve always believed that MATLAB accelerates the pace of engineering and science because I experienced it firsthand in industry. Being an application engineer lets me use products that I love every day while helping customers advance technology for the betterment of mankind. That’s a dream job.
Also, I’ve really appreciated how MathWorks CEO and cofounder Jack Little and the executive management team promote a collaborative and supportive environment, whether that’s through stakeholder bonuses when the company does well or fostering a work hard, play hard culture. That culture makes work enjoyable and friendships easy to build. From my very first week, I knew this was a place where I wanted to stay.
You’ve described application engineers as “where the rubber meets the road.” What does that mean to you?
My first manager at MathWorks was the VP of development. He always used this phrase, meaning AEs are the ones working directly with customers to help them understand the value of our products and then supporting them as they realize that value. We play a critical role in the selling process.
How has being an application engineer allowed you to see engineering evolve?
The AE role requires us to deeply understand our customers—what they’re building and why. In doing that, we gain insight into their products, challenges, tools, and workflows. That gives us a front-row seat to the evolution of engineering.
Being an application engineer lets me use products that I love every day while helping customers advance technology for the betterment of mankind. That’s a dream job.
I remember talking to customers about Bluetooth before any commercial devices had been sold. Now it’s everywhere. More recently, the focus has shifted from how we can use AI to how we test it to ensure safety and predictability. Eventually, AI will likely become an afterthought, just like Bluetooth.
What advice would you give someone aspiring to build a long, meaningful career as an application engineer?
I always tell new AEs to think like entrepreneurs. Own a part of the business and take responsibility for growing it.
I often share a story about Dick Benson, who met Jack in the late ’80s at a trade show where their booths were next to each other. Jack convinced Dick to try MATLAB, handing him a trial on a floppy disk. This was Jack acting as an AE in the early days, growing his business one customer at a time.
Today, the scope may be larger, but the idea is the same. Each AE owns a piece of the business that’s likely bigger than MathWorks was back then. If Jack could grow the company that much, we can grow our part too. (And for the record, Dick later became an AE himself before retiring.)
