Lyft Names Senthil Padmanabhan Chief Technology Officer

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Lyft, Inc. (Nasdaq: LYFT) is welcoming Senthil Padmanabhan as Chief Technology Officer, joining July 20, 2026, reporting to CEO David Risher. With decades of experience, Senthil is the rare technical leader who operates at every altitude: going deep on the most complex problems, driving company-wide change at a global scale, and bringing the team with him every step of the way.

Most recently as VP of Engineering at eBay, where he first earned recognition as a Technical Fellow, Senthil scaled the company's core engineering platform, applications and infrastructure. His leadership helped eBay become the segment leader in key categories such as Parts & Accessories and Collectibles, while making eBay the fastest e-commerce site globally. He led a company-wide AI transformation that fundamentally changed what his teams could build, enhancing customer experiences and dramatically increasing engineering throughput – and transformed how those teams work, reducing deployment cycle times which has resulted in 10x more deployments and 6x more experiments than was possible four years ago.

In a moment where companies are often tempted to use AI only to cut costs, Lyft is betting differently on what it can unlock: faster innovations and experiences for riders and drivers that weren't possible before.

At Lyft, Senthil will lead the engineering foundations that power everything the company builds – and in an era where AI is reshaping how we work, those foundations matter more than ever. Senthil will set that direction: building on a world-class technical foundation to unlock what the company is able to deliver – helping riders get where they need to go, supporting the drivers who make that possible, and connecting people to the places and communities that matter to them.

“Lyft has a clear purpose, a product millions of people love and rely on every day, and a team that genuinely cares about getting it right,” said Senthil. "My job is to make sure the Lyft ceiling keeps rising – using technology to multiply what we can achieve and unlock what wasn't possible before."

Outside of work, Senthil is an avid reader and self-described foodie who loves exploring new restaurants with his sons. He and his wife are longtime Lyft riders who swear by scheduled rides to the airport. His tip: book the night before, and the rest takes care of itself.