Engineering Resilience: A Case Study of Super Bowl 2020 Live Streaming by Fox by Melody Hildebrandt, James Birchler
Super Bowl 2020 set a new record for peak concurrent live streams while also offering the content at a new quality bar - UHD HDR - for the first time. For Fox Sports, this meant 5X'ing its previous platform record on the highest stakes day of the year when several things broke, but customers never knew! In this talk, Melody Hildebrandt, EVP of Engineering at FOX, will share lessons learned from preparations to deliver this event digitally - from architecting a highly scalable API tier to aligning 20+ technology partners against a common objective.
Melody Hildebrandt
Melody Hildebrandt is Chief Technology Officer for Fox Corporation, where sets set the comprehensive technology strategy for the Company. She previous served as the company’s Chief Information Security Officer and as the President of its research and development subsidiary, Blockchain Creative Labs. In her current role, Hildebrandt leads the development, design and implementation of emerging technologies across the FOX enterprise, spanning FOX Sports, FOX News, FOX Entertainment, FOX Television Stations, and Tubi Media Group. Her current focus is on future planning, including developments in artificial intelligence and authenticating and monetizing premium content via blockchain technology. She also continues to oversee the cyber-security posture of the business and leads technology M&A efforts, identifying areas for investment and growth. Prior to FOX, Hildebrandt held the role of Global Chief Information Security Officer at 21st Century Fox, where she was responsible for the cyber security posture of 21CF businesses, including 20th Century Fox, FOX Networks Group, National Geographic Partners, FOX News, Star India and others. Before 21CF, she was Forward Deployed Engineer at Palantir Technologies, where she helped start its commercial work and led Palantir’s business in cyber security, anti-money laundering and rogue trading detection. Prior to that, she consulted US and international governments with Booz Allen Hamilton, where she designed military and strategy wargames. Hildebrandt is the Executive Sponsor of Women in Technology at FOX.
James Birchler
James Birchler is an executive leadership coach and technical advisor who specializes in helping engineering leaders and founders develop greater self-awareness and build high-performing teams. He combines deep technical expertise with practical leadership development, making him particularly valuable for technical leaders scaling their organizations. As both a founder and engineering leader, James has more than 20 years of experience leading teams at companies ranging from early-stage startups to Amazon, where his current role is Technical Advisor to the VP of Amazon Delivery Routing and Planning. Most recently, he founded NICER, a premium natural personal care company, and Actuate Partners, his executive coaching and technical advisory practice. He also held VP of Engineering roles at companies including Caffeine (backed by Greylock and Andreessen Horowitz), SmugMug (where his team acquired Flickr), and IMVU. At IMVU, James implemented the Lean Startup methodologies alongside Eric Ries, author of The Lean Startup and creator of the methodology, literally the first company to apply these principles. His team helped pioneer the DevOps movement by building infrastructure to ship code to production 50 times per day and coining the term "continuous deployment." This experience in systematic experimentation and continuous improvement now informs his coaching approach through frameworks like [CAMS](https://jamesbirchler.substack.com/p/stop-coaching-your-tech-team-and) (Coaching, Advising, Mentoring, Supporting) and the [Think-Do-Learn Loop](https://jamesbirchler.substack.com/p/the-think-do-learn-loop). James completed his executive coaching certification at UC Berkeley Haas School of Business Executive Coaching Institute. His coaching practice focuses on self-awareness, integrity, accountability, and fostering growth mindsets that support continuous learning and high performance. He writes the [Continuous Growth](https://jamesbirchler.substack.com/) newsletter and offers both individual executive coaching and peer learning circles for technical leaders. Through his advisory work with growth-stage startups in the US and Europe, James helps leaders navigate common scaling challenges including hiring and interviewing, implementing development methodologies, establishing operational cadences, and developing other leaders. His approach treats leadership development like product development—with systematic feedback loops, measurable outcomes, and continuous improvement. You can find James at[ jamesbirchler.com](https://jamesbirchler.com/), [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesbirchler/), and [Substack](https://jamesbirchler.substack.com/).
