AUSTIN — October 29, 2026 — Sonar, the global leader in agentic code governance and verification, today announced that Dr. David Knott has joined the company as a Senior Advisor. Dr. Knott will advise CEO Tariq Shaukat and Sonar’s Product and Go-to-Market leadership on the needs of enterprise organizations adopting AI and agentic software development, bringing more than 30 years of experience across government, financial services, technology consulting, and a range of other industries.
As enterprises give AI agents a greater role in software development, they need confidence that the resulting software will meet the demands of their business. That must be built into agentic software factories, with clear requirements guiding agents, independent verification of their work, and evidence that standards are met.
Dr. Knott’s experience leading technology development and architecture in complex, highly regulated environments will help to inform Sonar’s product roadmap and engagement with enterprise customers navigating that transition. Previously, Dr. Knott served as Chief Technology Officer for the UK Government and as Chief Architect at HSBC where he was accountable for all technology design decisions across the organization. He has also held senior roles at Google Cloud, Lloyds Banking Group, Wipro, and Boston Consulting Group.
“I’m delighted to have David join the Sonar advisory team. His perspective spans some of the most mission critical and complex technology environments imaginable,” said Tariq Shaukat, CEO of Sonar. “Enterprise leaders want to turn AI’s potential into business value without increasing operational risk or creating software that becomes harder to maintain. David is a technology leader that understands the complexities involved. I’m excited to have him on the team as we help enterprises use agentic coding with confidence.”
“The promise of agentic software factories depends on confidence in the software they produce. I have seen firsthand, across financial services and government, the consequences of treating code verification and governance as an afterthought. Sonar is doing something important: helping developers and organizations integrate that confidence into how their agents work, from the start,” said Dr. David Knott, Senior Advisor to Sonar.
About Sonar
Sonar enables organizations to ship agentic code with confidence. Trusted by 75% of the Fortune 100, Sonar reduces outages, improves security, and lowers the cost and risk of agentic software development. SonarQube, Sonar's core platform, verifies over 750 billion lines of code every day, catching bugs, vulnerabilities, and architectural flaws before they reach production. Sonar is relied on for AI code verification and governance by 7M+ developers globally, including teams at Nvidia, ServiceNow, Booking.com, Goldman Sachs, AstraZeneca, and Ford Motor Company. A Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ Leader¹, Sonar is the essential trust layer for the enterprise agentic software factory.
To learn more about Sonar, please visit sonar.com.
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