Engineering the future: How Atlassian is powering cloud and AI transformation at scale

Every time a global bank clears a critical compliance need, or a telecom giant seamlessly launches a new pricing plan, chances are Atlassian is working behind the scenes powering the workflows, certifications, and processes that keep these complex systems running without disruption. For many Fortune 500 companies, softwares like Jira and Confluence are the backbone of daily operations, the “system of work” that keeps everything moving.

Shouldering the responsibility of keeping that backbone strong is Govinda Sambamurthy, who leads Atlassian’s Global Cloud Transition team out of India. He empowers 300+ engineers across India, Australia, Europe, and the US to take on one of the most complex challenges in enterprise growth: moving the world’s largest companies into the Atlassian Cloud with zero disruption, while also opening doors to Atlassian’s new era of AI-powered collaboration.

“We’re the vanguard of our customers’ cloud journey, ensuring their first three months in the cloud unlock true value whether it’s AI, analytics, or collaboration,” Govinda says.

From India to the world: Leading cloud transition at scale

Govinda’s team builds the automated pathways that power migrations from on-premises products to Atlassian Cloud, covering not just Jira and Confluence but also the thousands of apps in Atlassian’s marketplace ecosystem.

The stakes are high. A missed migration isn’t just about lost data; it could mean delays in product launches, stalled compliance processes, or even downtime on a semiconductor production line. “For our customers, Jira is a critical piece of their system of work; their core information architecture and business process platform,” Govinda explains.

To meet this challenge, the team developed Lithium, a streaming platform showcased at Confluent’s Current Summit, which dramatically reduces downtime while improving reliability and throughput.

Ascend to the Cloud: A new chapter

That urgency has only grown with Atlassian’s latest move. The company recently announced Ascend to the Cloud, its most ambitious step yet toward a cloud-first future. With 99% of its 300,000+ customers already on Atlassian Cloud, the company is preparing to sunset Data Center products over the next three years.

To support enterprises on this journey, Atlassian is rolling out programs like FastShift and Solution Design Acceleration, designed to help customers modernize faster and with fewer roadblocks.

Atlassian calls this shift “a massive teamwork upgrade,” pointing to benefits already visible for enterprises that have moved: faster delivery, lower costs, and the ability to harness AI-enabled collaboration at scale. For Govinda and his global team, it’s a signal that their work is more important than ever, ensuring that the world’s largest companies don’t just reach the cloud, but thrive there.

Grow Your Career with Atlassian

AI at the heart of scale

If migration is the challenge, AI has become the accelerator. Govinda’s teams were among Atlassian’s earliest adopters, using AI to identify failures in real time, pinpoint root causes, and fix issues while migrations are still underway.

The result is smoother customer transitions with near-zero data loss, and a sharp improvement in reliability. Engineers also see a boost in productivity, no longer tied down to weekend firefighting. AI is also powering new ways of working inside Atlassian: from auto-generating test cases to improving code observability, supported by tools like Rovo Dev CLI, which has become a global productivity game-changer.

“AI has not just improved our products but has transformed how our own engineers work,” Govinda notes.

But Atlassian’s use of AI doesn’t just come from the top; it’s shaped every day by a culture that lets teams experiment and try new things.

ShipIt: Innovation culture in action

That culture comes alive during ShipIt, Atlassian’s twice-yearly hackathon where employees get 24 hours to work on passion projects. Some of Atlassian’s most impactful features trace their origins to these hackathons.

One standout from India is the Migration AI Analyzer, created by three engineers working remotely from different cities. Their idea was to use AI to detect and fix migration issues, turning a pain point into what Atlassian calls “developer joy”.

The project won the Founders’ Choice Award at ShipIt 60 and is now being explored for wider rollout. “To me, this is Atlassian at its best…distributed teams in our Team Anywhere model, solving real-world problems with creativity and AI, and getting recognized at the highest level,” he says.

Experiments like these don’t just stay in hackathon demos. They often spark ideas that flow directly into Atlassian’s larger product strategy, shaping how the company thinks about the future of work in the cloud.

Building the system of work

For Govinda, migration is just the beginning. The true value emerges once customers are in the cloud, where they can tap into Atlassian’s latest generation of AI-powered products. At the forefront is Rovo, Atlassian’s AI powered solution that integrates seamlessly across all cloud offerings, empowering teams to find answers faster and work more efficiently. It also has agents like Rovo Dev, an AI built for software developers. It offers intelligent, context-aware assistance across the entire software development lifecycle, reducing friction points and wait times that traditionally hold them up.

Collectively, these innovations embody Atlassian’s vision for the System of Work—a set of collections designed for effortless collaboration, deep analysis, and continuous innovation. “When enterprises move to the cloud, they gain access to Rovo, Atlassian Analytics, and AI-driven insights into their productivity and velocity. That’s truly transformative,” Govinda emphasizes.

Sharing knowledge with the wider community

For Govinda, leadership extends beyond just building teams and products; it’s also about building communities. He hosts Engineered by Atlassian, a podcast series where he speaks with senior technology leaders about solving challenges at scale. From enterprise migrations to AI in developer productivity, the podcast mirrors the themes Govinda champions inside Atlassian – scale, innovation, and purposeful engineering.

“Tech keeps evolving, and every day is a learning opportunity, whether from technology, business, or colleagues smarter than me. That’s what keeps the passion alive,” he shares.

Leadership, passion, and the ‘why’

What drives Govinda as a leader? He points to the American author Simon Sinek’s philosophy of starting with the why. “When engineers see the direct impact of their work, how their code powers a telecom rollout or a bank’s compliance system, they don’t need external motivation. The purpose speaks for itself,” he says.

That sense of purpose has guided his career – from Oracle to Intuit, where he launched QuickBooks Enterprise Cloud, to PayPal, where he built global merchant lending products out of India. At Atlassian, he has repeated that playbook, scaling India teams into global charter roles that define the company’s enterprise future.

Grow Your Career with Atlassian

Atlassian: The sweet spot for talent

The mix of scale, innovation, and purpose is what makes Atlassian such a compelling place for ambitious engineers and designers. Teams here handle challenges at massive scale from enterprise cloud migrations to AI-driven products like Rovo while also contributing to entirely new product launches.

The culture encourages creativity through initiatives like ShipIt and recognition like the CEO Awards, while the Team Anywhere model makes global collaboration seamless.

“It’s hard to find a place where you get global roles, advanced decision-making privileges, and exposure to AI, scale, and new products — all while enjoying the flexibility of Team Anywhere,” Govinda says. “If you’re passionate about growth and impact, Atlassian is the place to join.”

The road ahead

Looking forward, Govinda sees three parallel priorities shaping Atlassian’s enterprise journey: AI, enterprise growth and System of Work. While AI opens up new possibilities for productivity, compliance builds the trust enterprises need through offerings like Gov Cloud, Isolated Cloud, and multi-cloud deployments with Google Cloud.

“It might sound like an oxymoron; offering AI while also doubling down on governance. But that’s exactly what enterprises need today,” he says. “And that’s where Atlassian is uniquely positioned to lead.”

For ambitious engineers and designers, Atlassian offers a chance to solve problems that matter, work in a culture that values curiosity and autonomy, and build products that millions depend on.

If you’re ready to be part of a company that is redefining how the world works, Atlassian is hiring, and your next chapter could start here.