From DNA to Data: Building Scalable Systems in Biotech and Fintech

With Dmitry Grudzinskiy, Co-Founder & CTO of Holistico, former SVP of Engineering at Natera

🧬 Dmitry went from decoding genes to decoding financial behavior. Here’s how he applies 10 years of biotech engineering leadership to a new generation of AI-driven products.

That’s the story of Dmitry, who spent a decade at Natera, helping turn a 30-person genetic testing startup into a biotech powerhouse. He started as a hands-on engineer and left as Senior Vice President of Engineering, having built everything from the ground up: systems, culture, and leadership muscle.

Now, as Co-Founder and CTO of Holistico, he’s applying those lessons in fintech where he’s building leaner, faster, and smarter from day one.

In this edition, we explore:

• How Dmitry scaled Natera’s engineering org from 10 to 500 people

• How to balance regulatory compliance with startup agility

• The metrics that matter and the ones that don’t

• How AI is changing what “good engineering” means

• And why every engineer should value marketing & sales more
  

  

  
  

🧩 From Hands-On Engineer to SVP: The 10-Year Climb

When Dmitry joined Natera, there were fewer than 10 engineers.
By the time he left, the company had gone public and was worth over $15 billion.

“I joined as a software engineer, went back to coding after managing before, and ended up as SVP running a 500-person organization. My job changed every year. I was never bored.”

The evolution from individual contributor to executive wasn’t linear.
He learned to lead through mentorship, curiosity, and structured autonomy: hiring leaders better than himself and learning from them as the company scaled.

“Certain things came naturally: motivating people, building high-performing teams. But I had to learn how to think strategically. I was lucky to have mentors and later hired senior leaders who taught me as much as I taught them.”

⚙️ Staying Fast Inside a Regulated Industry

Genetic testing isn’t a space known for speed.
Every release must meet strict documentation, risk, and quality controls.

“You have to find a way to be compliant yet agile. That was the ongoing challenge.”

His solution: discipline through tools, not meetings.
Every feature linked to Jira, GitLab, and documentation in a tight loop—requirements, test specs, validations, approvals—all traceable and minimal, but complete.

“We created a culture of writing things down just enough, so we could move quickly, but still satisfy regulators.”

🧠 Architecting for Scale

By the end, Dmitry’s org was a constellation of 50 autonomous teams, each accountable for a piece of the company’s software stack.

“We built small, complete teams—each responsible for their own code, infrastructure, testing, and production. They were independent, but still aligned on the same product.”

That autonomy came with complexity.

Every new genetic test required coordination across all teams.
So Dmitry built horizontal structures—architecture, project management, reliability—that “glued” teams together without killing speed.

📈 Metrics That Matter

“Measuring engineering performance is hard. You can’t manage engineers like sales.”

Natera experimented with every metric, from PR turnaround times to DORA metrics, but most failed in the biotech context.

“We used DORA metrics later, but some weren’t relevant. You can’t release daily in biotech. Regulations just don’t allow that.”

Instead, his focus became finding process bottlenecks: where features sat idle between dev, test, and deploy.

“If something sits untested or undeployed for weeks, that’s a signal. It’s not about output, it’s about flow.”

See where your work actually stalls
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🔥 Avoiding Burnout in a 10-Year Marathon

Why didn’t he burn out?

“The mission kept me going. We helped families have healthy kids and saved lives. That’s hard to beat.”

And the work evolved fast enough to stay fresh.

“The company changed so much, my job changed every year. It was never the same role.”

🤖 Embracing AI Without Losing the Human

Now at Holistico, Dmitry is building with AI not as a replacement for engineers, but as a practical teammate.

“We’re living in a great time. These tools won’t replace engineers, but they can take on about 80% of the work for certain tasks.”

He describes it like having a capable assistant sitting next to you—one who can write code, generate documentation, find bugs, or create specs—but still needs your review and corrections.

“You give it some key points, it does the heavy lifting, and then you refine it. It’s like writing an email with ChatGPT—you still have a couple of touch points before it’s ready.”

For him, the value of AI isn’t in replacing talent, but in freeing engineers from the slow, repetitive parts of their work—especially in regulated or documentation-heavy environments like biotech.

“If we’d had AI tools at Natera, they would’ve saved engineers enormous time on writing specs and tables. It’s about applying AI where it’s good, and letting humans focus on what they do best.”

💼 From Corporate Exec to Startup Founder

Leaving a $15B public company to start from scratch wasn’t easy.

“I always wanted to try building a company. But I realized if I stayed two more years, I might never leave.”

At Holistico, he’s learned one humbling truth:

“Building a great product isn’t enough. Sales, marketing, and distribution are much harder than I thought.”

He now approaches problems differently:

• First question: Is this an engineering problem or a sales problem?

• Test demand before building: “Sell the air before you make it.”

• Technical debt is just cost: “If ugly code brings $50M, who cares?”
  
  

💬 Final Lessons for Engineering Leaders

1. Autonomy scales better than control.
   Design your org like a network of teams, not a pyramid.

2. Don’t over-optimize metrics.
   Look for flow and bottlenecks, not vanity dashboards.

3. Keep your mission visible.
   Nothing drives performance like meaning.

4. AI is a multiplier, not a replacement.
   Teach engineers to use it thoughtfully, not fear it.

5. Every engineer should understand the importance of sales.
   The best code in the world means nothing if no one buys the product.
   
   

What’s Next?

We’ll dive into how other engineering leaders are redefining “velocity” in regulated and high-stakes environments from MedTech to FinTech and AI!