Four women in tech say what engineering leaders need to hear

Most people have probably already heard the business case for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts in the workplace: diverse teams make smarter decisions and increase companies’ bottom lines. Research consistently shows why DEI is worth the effort, but these efforts remain difficult to scale and replicate, especially for technology teams.

Whether you think it’s a “pipeline problem” or something more complex, no company has fully solved it yet, but asking the right questions to people on the ground is often a great first step to creating lasting organizational change.

Start early to encourage women to work in tech

Nisha Paliwal

For Nisha Paliwal, her role as managing vice president of enterprise data technology at Capital One came decades after an unexpected career shift.

“My engineering career started purely by chance,” says Paliwal. “After completing my master’s in microbiology, I lived with my mother and took care of her while she was sick. I needed a job, but there weren’t many jobs in microbiology, so I decided to learn C#. That was the start of my engineering career, a journey of learning, unlearning, and relearning.”

A large part of Nisha’s journey has been dedicated to her non-profit work with organizations like Boolean Girls, CodeVA, and Wings For Growth, helping open educational and career doors for women in tech.

Danica Fine

For Danica Fine, staff developer advocate at Confluent who has spent her entire career in engineering, these types of programs are beneficial but there is room for improvement.

“‘Women in tech’ is still a relatively new concept, which is why it’s perplexing that so many of the women’s tech groups and career development programs are run and supported solely by women. While these programs are important, everyone should support efforts to bring more women into the industry,” Fine said.

Smriti Sridhar

Smriti Sridhar, a solutions architect in Confluent’s Professional Services team, explains how company-sponsored programs can help women succeed in the field.

“After completing my master’s degree, I joined Confluent as an Associate Consultant Engineer (ACE). The ACE program was exactly what I was looking for. I wanted something different from software development, but a non-traditional role like product management was out of reach for me so early in my career,” says Sridhar.

Sridhar explained that the learning opportunities he received during the one-year program helped him quickly advance to the position of solutions architect.

‘[Engineering leaders]”In addition to supporting female engineers at the entry level, we should also encourage them to stay with the company, invest time in their promotions, and become leaders.”
— Smriti SridharSolutions Architect

“I attended the ACE class with two other women, and it was invaluable to learn with people who face similar challenges,” she says. “Seeing the variety of roles out there now, I hope we’ll see more of these programs and make it better for women in the long run. These programs shouldn’t just help female engineers at the entry level, they should also encourage them to stay with the company, work their way up the ranks, and become leaders.”

Sneha Wadhwa

According to Sneha Wadhwa, senior software engineer at Confluent, advancing women’s success in engineering requires more than just training and recruiting.

“Leaders also need to introduce flexible work policies that are considerate of women juggling work and childcare responsibilities. Offering options such as working from home, flextime and parental leave will help retain talented female engineers,” she said.

Wadhwa added, “Women have a lot to contribute in the field of engineering and technology. They bring different skills, ideas and mindsets that make the sector better and more welcoming for everyone.”

Opportunities for women in technology

Although these four women have different roles and responsibilities, they all share one consistent piece of advice: prioritizing continuous learning.

“If you constantly push yourself to improve as an engineer, you’ll progress in your career,” Fine says.

Paliwal echoed this sentiment, saying, “Always keep learning, get qualified and don’t be satisfied with the status quo. Challenge yourself and strive to reach new limits.”

For Sridhar in particular, the customer-facing experience was a great opportunity to boost her confidence in her skills and expertise.

Sridhar explains, “My role is to help clients remove technical barriers by training their teams, recommending use cases and doing hands-on work with our consulting engineers. Being a jack-of-all-trades has made me prepared for anything, confident in my knowledge and creative thinker. These are things I want all women in tech to experience and I think taking on these lesser known roles in engineering can be extremely challenging and rewarding for many women.”

“More and more women are entering the field as entry-level engineers every day, but the representation of women gradually decreases as you move up the corporate hierarchy.”
— Sneha WadhwaSenior Software Engineer

Similarly, Wadhwa has found that his voice is one of his most powerful assets in a software engineering role. When asked about the advice he would like to impart, Wadhwa responded, “Speak up. Be confident and don’t shy away from expressing your ideas and opinions and participating in healthy debates in meetings and projects. Speaking up within and outside your team not only gives you a fuller picture of the organization and its mission but also makes you an integral part of its success.”

Actively creating opportunities for women to grow

“I would like to see more companies mentor and support women in general,” Paliwal said. “It’s unfortunate that there is a lack of women in middle and senior management roles. Companies and senior management must help change this.”

To achieve this, Fine believes companies need to give women in tech a broader base of support that encourages them from the top down.

“I see so many women feeling overwhelmed by the unfair expectation that they have to continue these programs for themselves. They should have support from everyone across the company,” she said.

As a vice president with direct experience contributing to these efforts, Paliwal recommends a hands-on approach, which she outlined step by step:

“First, start joining nonprofits that dedicate their time to early education of girls in tech. Second, find two or three women you want to support so you can share insights and mentor them throughout their careers. Finally, it’s not enough to just hire women; you need to retain, develop and support them so that opportunities open up for female engineers and female leaders within your organization.”

Building a brighter future for women in tech

Each of these women put in a lot of effort to advance their education and careers, but all four learned best when others were ready and willing to help them grow. Both Paliwal and Wadhwa stressed the importance of leadership to create opportunities for inspiration, career advancement and mentorship so successful women engineers can achieve the career progression they deserve.

“More and more women are entering the field as entry level engineers every day, but the representation of women gradually declines as you move up the corporate hierarchy,” Wadhwa said.

“I can’t wait. [women have] “We’ve seen enough progress across the industry that we no longer feel it’s something we need to point out.”
— Danica FineManaging VP of Enterprise Data Technology at CapitalOne

“If this trend continues for a long time, we will end up saying there are many female engineers but not many female leaders. That is not the future I want to see. Leaders need to advocate for active collaboration in the workplace and ensure that women’s contributions are recognised, rewarded and compensated equally.”

Like the other three women, Fine considers being a successful and visible woman in engineering to be something to be very proud of. At the same time, she also says she “looks forward to the day when we’ve made enough progress across the industry that we no longer have to blame it on others.”

Zion Samuel is a Technical Content Writer at Confluent. Prior to joining Confluent, Zion spent several years working with technology and healthcare professionals writing thought leadership and educational content on digital and organizational transformation, automation, cloud and edge computing, and more.

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