Categories

Award for a CTO or VP of Engineering who demonstrated exceptional technology leadership, built high-performing engineering culture and drove technological decisions that delivered measurable competitive advantage. Judged on engineering output quality, team growth and retention, technical strategy documentation and evidence of impact on business outcomes.

Award for a software development company whose engineering practices, delivery outcomes and client results demonstrate the highest standards of quality, scalability and reliability. Judged on technical rigour, team culture and measurable product impact. Entries should include engineering metrics: deployment frequency, lead time, change failure rate, and MTTR — the DORA framework provides the objective language here.

Award for an AI or machine learning project that delivered genuine business value through practical application of modern ML techniques. Judged on model performance benchmarks, data quality indicators, production reliability and measurable impact on business outcomes in CIS enterprise or consumer markets. Not all AI is equal — judges are looking for real deployment, not science fair projects.

Award for a cybersecurity product that demonstrably improved threat detection, incident response or security posture for organisations operating in the CIS. Judged on technical depth, real-world effectiveness, deployment scale and measurable risk reduction. Entries should include case studies with quantified security improvements — not just feature lists.

Award for a technology startup that demonstrated rapid growth, product innovation and a viable path to scale in CIS markets. Judged on revenue or user growth trajectory, product innovation depth, team quality and defensibility of the market position. Entries from Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan are particularly encouraged — these markets are underrepresented in regional tech awards.

Award for a product manager who ensured the successful launch and growth of a digital product through disciplined discovery, ruthless prioritisation and cross-functional leadership. Judged on product metrics, evidence of customer discovery process and ability to navigate organisational complexity. The best PMs in the CIS are building for uniquely challenging markets — that context matters.

Award for a team or organisation whose platform engineering, infrastructure automation or DevOps practices delivered measurable improvements in deployment frequency, reliability, lead time and developer productivity. Judged on DORA metrics, infrastructure cost efficiency and evidence of engineering culture improvement.

Award for a data platform enabling reliable analytics workflows, faster decision-making and measurable data democratisation across the organisation. Judged on data quality standards, pipeline reliability, analytics speed and self-service capabilities. Entries should demonstrate how data infrastructure translated into business intelligence that changed decisions — not just how many dashboards were built.