We are seeking session proposals for the 4th Annual Girl Geek X: Elevate 2021 Virtual Conference to be held March 8th, 2021 – inviting women technologists, innovators and tech leaders from around the world to participate in  Elevate to share the latest in tech and leadership with fellow mid-and-senior level professional women.

This virtual conference is FREE for attendees – last year, over 3,000 women signed up to attend – tuning in from 42 countries around the world – to be inspired by speakers on the latest in tech trends and leadership on International Women’s Day.

Sessions may reflect the theme of this year’s conference – “Resilience” – and content typically covers the following topics:

• Lightning Tech Talks – Dive deep into an area that’s unique / critical to your business or role, from engineer to PM.
• Technical Skills & Tactics – Tutorials, walkthroughs, or deep dives into a skillset or tactical approach to how you solved a real-world challenge.
• Learning & Development – Topics include negotiation, mid-career job searches, interviewing tips, managing up the chain of command, self-awareness, management, overcoming ageism / return to work bias, etc.

Work on a unique technical project or have interesting insights you’d love to share with other women & allies? We want to hear from you!

Tip: The best proposals include 3 key takeaways — things attendees can expect to learn from your talk!

Submit your proposal for a talk or panel here by Nov. 2nd, 2020 (11:59pm PT) for 2021 Elevate virtual conference.

Both first-time and experienced speakers are welcome to apply. 

Why Speak at Elevate Virtual Conference?

• Share the technology you’re working on and tough problems you’re solving.
• Increase your visibility within your own organization and position yourself as a subject-matter expert in your field.
• Share what you’ve learned the hard way so that other women can more easily navigate their own careers — your talk will reach thousands of viewers!
• Highlight issues unique to women in technology/leadership, and issues you’ve experienced or are passionate about.
• Connect with other great women leaders, peers and mentors.
• Elevating other women is a fun and rewarding experience.

Here are female founders solving problems for developers. Developer tools run the gamut from Chrome DevTools, to solutions for all kinds of issues. Check out the innovative features these inspiring girl geeks have built for teams!

1 – CodeSee CEO Shanea Leven

Shanea Leven founded CodeSee, a developer platform helping developers and development teams visualize codebases. She has over a 10 years of experience of leading teams, delivering high quality and innovative features for consumers and developers at Google, eBay, and Cloudflare. Follow her on Twitter at @shanealeven.

2 – Noteable CEO Michelle Ufford

Michelle Ufford is Founder & CEO of Noteable.io, an early-stage startup building next-gen analytics infrastructure. Before starting Noteable, she led the Big Data Tools engineering team at Netflix, where she was responsible for platform innovation and analytics tooling for Netflix’s industry-leading data platform. Prior to that, she led data engineering, data management, and platform architecture for GoDaddy, where she set a TPS record for SQL Server and helped pioneer Hadoop data warehousing techniques. Follow her on Twitter at @MichelleUfford.

3 – Instantish Founder Marissa Montgomery

Marissa Montgomery is Founder of Instantish, letting you do your issue tracking in Slack. Before starting Instantish, she led engineering at Zebra Intelligence. Prior to that, she was a senior software engineer at Spoke — and before that, worked at Google as a software engineer. Earlier in her career, she founded Swingset Labs. Follow her on Twitter at @MarissaMary.

4 – Chrysalis Cloud CEO Kate Whitcomb

Kate Whitcomb co-founded Chrysalis Cloud, the first low cost, light-weight streaming platform-as-a-service (PaaS) for real-time video processing and AI. The company was spun out out of smart baby monitor maker Cocoon Health, which used computer vision to inform new parents. Before that, Kate was a partner at HAX hardware accelerator — and before that, she led Growth and Innovation for Target’s Consumer IoT team.

For more inspiring women in tech:

• 60 Female CTOs to Watch in 2020
• 60 Engineering Leaders to Watch in 2020 – Future FORTUNE 500 CTOs
• 16 Female Infosec & Cybersecurity Executives To Watch
• 12 Product Design Leaders To Follow
• 12 Inspiring Female Architects in Software and Data

Update: This content is out of date. Check out this list of 60 Female CTOs to Watch in 2023!

These powerful women leading technology and innovation at their companies are ones to watch. Many earned advanced degrees in engineering and robotics, serve on boards and give back.

We are unlocking the clubhouse and building a bigger table for CTOs of companies big and small — more opportunities for women and underrepresented groups to lead.

1 – ADP CTO Urvashi Tyagi

ADP CTO Urvashi Tyagi joined the benefits and payroll company in New York in 2019. Before joining ADP, Urvashi worked at American Express, most recently as Vice President of Global Head of Commercial Data Engineering. Before American Express, she was a Director of Engineering at Amazon. She began her career as a Software Engineer at NuGenesis. Urvashi mentors at Newark Venture Partners and Illicit Mind. Follow her on Twitter at @urvashidtyagi.

2 – Adstream CTO Katie Nykanen

Adstream CTO Katie Nykanen has been at the digital advertising company in London since 2012. Prior to Adstream, Katie worked at Nokia for six years, most recently as Marketing Solutions Development Manager. Prior to Nokia, she spent a decade working at B&Q as a Project Leader. Check out this interview she gave recently about working in tech. Follow her on Twitter at @katienykanen.

3 – Advanced Energy CTO Isabel Yang

Advanced Energy CTO Isabel Yang has been at the innovative power company in Denver since 2018. Prior to Advanced Energy, Isabel worked at IBM for over 19 years, most recently as Vice President of Research Strategy. She began her career as a Lead CMOS Device Engineer at Motorola. She earned advanced degrees from MIT, and is open to serving on boards.

4 – Biden for President CTO Jacky Chang

Biden for President CTO Jacky Chang was a senior engineer on Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign and worked for the Democratic National Committee’s voter protection team during the 2018 midterms. She spent most of her career as a software engineer in Silicon Valley, working for companies like Stripe and Eventbrite. Prior to Eventbrite, she was CTO and co-founder at Plympton and began her career as a Research Engineer at StumbleUpon. Follow her on Twitter at @kyoki.

5 – Bloc CTO and Co-Founder Amina Yamusah

Bloc CTO Amina Yamusah co-founded the career service management platform for job training organizations. Prior to Bloc, Amina worked at MoveOn as a Data Engineer. Before MoveOn, she was a Social Entrepreneurship Fellow at Echoing Green in New York. She began her career in diversity affairs at Princeton University, where she received her bachelor’s degree in politics, and led a career development organization, Our Bloc, dedicated to lowering the black collegiate unemployment rate from 13% to 5%. Follow her on Twitter at @AminaYamusah.

6 – Breaker CTO and Co-Founder Leah Culver

Breaker CTO Officer Leah Culver co-founded the social network for podcasts in 2016. Prior to Breaker, she worked at Dropbox, Medium and Sincerely. Before that, Leah co-founded Convore and Pownce (acquired by Six Apart). She is an angel investor in GitHub (acquired by Microsoft), Sentry, Numeracy (acquried by Snowflake), Opsolutely (acquired by Shift), and many more. She is an author of OAuth 1.0, passionate about many technical topics, and a frequent conference speaker. Fun fact: she is renovating the Pink Painted Lady, one of the famous Painted Ladies in San Francisco. Follow her on Twitter at @leahculver.

7 – Cabot CTO Patricia Hubbard

Cabot CTO Patricia Hubbard has been at the chemicals and performance materials company in Boston since 2018. Prior to Cabot, Patricia worked at Avery Dennison as Vice President of R&D and Materials. Before that, she worked at PolyOne for nine years, most recently as Vice President of Technology. Before that, Patricia worked at GE for a decade, most recently as CVD Technology Manager.    

8 – CBS Interactive CTO Elizabeth Carrasco

CBS Interactive CTO Elizabeth Carrasco joined the online content network in 2011. Prior to CBS Interactive, Elizabeth was CTO at Clicker Media (acquired by CBS Interactive). Before Clicker Media, she was Vice President of Engineering at Spot Runner, Authenticlick, and United Online. She started her career as an Engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Follow her on Twitter at @deneiges.

9 – Change.org CTO Elaine Zhou

Change.org CTO Elaine Zhou joined the platform for change in 2020. Prior to Change.org, she was at Vidado as CTO, and has held leadership positions for over a decade at companies including HomeStore, PlanetOut, IAC and more. She’s been a longtime mentor at Upwardly Global. Follow her on Twitter at @softwired.

10 – Curve Health CTO Cheryl Porro

Curve Health CTO Cheryl Porro joined the senior health platform company in 2020. She spent 13 years at Salesforce.com and Salesforce.org building platforms and industry-leading products that helped grow multiple business lines into 100Ms+ in annual revenue. She has led technology teams for Amazon, DigitalThink, and most recently Thrive Global. Follow her on Twitter at @cporro_sf.

11 – Democratic National Committee CTO Nell Thomas

Democratic National Committee CTO Officer Nellwyn Thomas has been leading technology and analytics for the Democrats since 2019. Prior to the DNC, she worked at Facebook in data science and served as Deputy Chief Analytics Officer for the Hillary for America campaign in 2016. Before that, she worked at Etsy for over four years, most recently as Senior Director of Analytics & Business Intelligence. Follow her on Twitter at @nellwyn.

12 – Digital Guardian CTO Debra Danielson

Digital Guardian CTO Debra Danielson has been at the data loss prevention software company in Waltham since 2019. Prior to joining Digital Guardian, Debra was at CA Technologies for 30 years, serving in a variety of VP and SVP roles. She began her career as a Software Developer at Applied Data Research. Debra serves on the board of Rock Solid Technologies and Springboard Enterprise’s Technology Council. Follow her on Twitter at @debradanielson.

13 – Dina CTO Erin Karam

Dina CTO Erin Karam has been at the AI-powered care coordination company in Chicago since 2015. Prior to Dina, she was at Solstice Mobile as Director of Solution Delivery. Before that, Erin was at Clean Urban Energy as Vice President of Engineering. She began her career at IBM as an IT Specialist, and worked her way up to IT Architect in nine years. Follow her on Twitter at @erinkaram.

14 – Ding CTO Barbara McCarthy

Ding CTO Barbara McCarthy has been working at the international mobile top-up platform in Dublin since 2019. Prior to Ding, she worked at HubSpot as Director of Engineering for four years. Prior to HubSpot, Barbara worked at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for over seven years, most recently at VP of Software Development. She serves on the board of Social Innovation Fund Ireland and mentors at 30% Club Ireland. Follow her on Twitter at @babsogrady.

15 – EXOS CTO Yvette Pasqua

EXOS CTO Yvette Pasqua joined the human performance company in 2020. Previously, she held product and engineering leadership roles at Meetup, Haven, and the WPP Group. She’s an advisor at Chloe Capital and cares deeply about doing the work to support people from underrepresented groups in the technology industry. Follow her on Twitter at @lolarobot.

16 – ezCater CTO Erin DeCesare

ezCater CTO Erin DeCesare has been at the online catering marketplace in Boston since 2019. Prior to ezCater, she was Vice President of Data and Analytics at Bottomline Technologies and Vistaprint. Before Vistaprint, Erin worked at Fidelity Investments as Director of Program Management and was a Project Manager at Sovereign Bank and Woodman Design.

17 – FCC CTO Monisha Ghosh

18 – FeelIT CTO and Co-Founder Meital Segev-Bar

FeelIT CTO Meital Segev-Bar has been working on predictive maintenance and sensing solutions since 2017 in Haifa. Prior to co-founding FeelIT, she earned her PhD focused on Nanotechnology from Technion – Israel Institute of Technology.

19 – Firefly Health CTO Mimi Liu

Firefly Health CTO Mimi Liu has been working on technology-powered concierge medicine service for average Americans since 2020. Prior to Firefly Health, she worked at Devoted Health. Before that, Mimi worked at athenahealth for over 12 years, most recently as Executive Director of Engineering. She began her career as a Senior Developer at athenahealth.

20 – Flare CPTO Liz Crawford

Flare CPTO Liz Crawford has been working at the HR software company in Sydney since 2018. Prior to Flare, she consulted for Skillshare, Outdoor Voices, Flare and more. Before that, Liz was CTO at Birchbox in NYC for over five years. She is a serial entrepreneur, launching Aprizi and Crono, after earning multiple engineering degrees and publishing over 20 academic journal and conference publications. Follow her on Twitter at @liscrawford.

21 – GE Renewable Energy CTO Danielle Merfield

GE Renewable Energy CTO Danielle Merfeld has been working at GE since 2007, leading technical efforts to develop differentiated products and services across a broad renewable energy portfolio. She began her career as a Solar Platform Engineer at GE, after earning multiple degrees in electrical and electronics engineering. Follow her on Twitter at @dwmerfeld.

22 – Glassdoor CTO Bhawna Singh

Glassdoor CTO Bhawna Singh has been working at the recruiting and jobs company since 2016. Prior to Glassdoor, Bhawna worked at Ask for over seven years, most recently as Senior Director of Search Intelligence. She began her career as a Software Engineer at Sybase and AT&T. Follow her on Twitter at @bhawna_tweets.

23 – Global Payments CTO Shannon Johnston

Global Payments CTO Shannon Johnston has been working at the pure play payments technology company in Atlanta since 2016. Prior to Global Payments, she worked at ShopVisible as COO and was CTO at Points of Light Institute. Before that, she was at CompuCredit, most recently as VP of Global Infrastructure Services.

24 – Glossier CTO Pawan Uppuluri

Glossier CTO Pawan Uppuluri has been working at the beauty company in Seattle since 2019. Prior to Glossier, she worked at Amazon for over 14 years, most recently as Director of Alexa Orchestration Engine. Before Amazon, Pawan worked at i2 Technologies, most recently as Director. 

25 – Halma CTO Catherine Michel

Halma CTO Catherine Michel has been working at the global group of life-saving technology companies since 2019. Prior to Halma, she worked at Sigma Systems for six years, most recently as CTO. Prior to Sigma Systems, Catherine worked at Tribold (acquired by Sigma Systems) as CTO and co-founder. She began her career as a Senior Manager at Accenture.

26 – Healx CTO Meri Williams

Healx CTO Meri Williams has been working at the AI-powered, patient-inspired technology company in Cambridge in England since 2020. Prior to Healx, she worked at Monzo Bank and Moo.com. Before that, she worked at Marks and Spencer as Head of Engineering and at Proctor & Gamble, most recently as Head of Operations. Follow her on Twitter at @Geek_Manager.

27 – Honeycomb CTO and Co-Founder Charity Majors

Honeycomb CTO Charity Majors has been working at the full stack observability company in San Francisco since 2016. Prior to founding Honeycomb, she worked at Facebook as a Production Engineering Manager. Prior to Facebook, Charity worked at Parse as Infrastructure Tech Lead. Before that, Charity was a Systems Engineer at Cloudmark, Shopkick and Linden Lab. Follow her on Twitter at @mipsytipsy.

28 – Intuit CTO Marianna Tessel

Intuit CTO Marianna Tessel has been working at the global financial platform company in Mountain View since 2017. Prior to Intuit, she worked at Docker as SVP of Engineering and VP of Engineering at VMware, Intaact, Ariba and General Magic. Follow her on Twitter at @mariannatessel.

29 – Iron Mountain CTO Kimberly Anstett

Iron Mountain CTO Kimber Anstett has been working at the storage and information management company in Boston since 2019. Prior to Iron Mountain, she worked at Nielsen for over 19 years, most recently as Chief Information Officer. Follow her on Twitter at @kimanstett.

30 – Itaú Unibanco CTO Vanessa Fernandes

Itaú Unibanco CTO Vanessa Fernandes has been working at the bank since 2017. Prior to Itaú Unibanco, she worked at Itaú BBA as CIO. Before that, Vanessa worked in compliance at Itaú Unibanco. Before Itaú Unibanco, she worked as VP at JP Morgan Chase and Deutsche Bank.

31 – Johnson & Johnson CTO Rowena Yeo

Johnson & Johnson CTO Rowena Yeo has been working at the healthcare company since 2016, when she joined as VP and CIO for Asia Pacific at Janssen Pharmaceuticals. Prior to Johnson & Johnson, she worked at Cargill for 21 years, most recently as Global Group CIO. Rowena began her career as a Systems Engineer at IBM.

32 – Kapor Center CTCO Lili Gangas

Kapor Center CTCO Lili Gangas has been working at the social impact non-profit in Oakland since 2016. Before Kapor Center, she was a Tech for Good Fellow at New America. Before that, Lilii worked at Accenture and Booz Allen Hamilton. She began her career as an engineer. Lili is on the advisory board for Techqueria and a board member for Latinas in Tech. Follow her on Twitter at @LilsG31.

33 – Kennametal CTO Carlonda Reilly

Kennametal CTO Carlonda Reilly has been working at the materials company in Pittsburgh since 2018. Prior to Kennametal, she worked at DuPont for 22 years, most recently as Global Technology Director. She began her career as an Engineering Technology Manager at DuPont. Carlonda serves on the board of directors at W. L. Gore, Saint Vincent College, and the United Way of Westmoreland County.

34 – Khan Academy CTO Marta Kosarchyn

Khan Academy CTO Marta Kosarchyn has been working at the educational company in Palo Alto since 2017. Prior to Khan Academy, she worked at SCI Solutions as SVP of Product Development and Operations. Prior to SCI Solutions, Marta worked at Intuit as Director of Product Development. Before that, she was in management at Hewlett-Packard. Follow her on Twitter at @mkosarchyn.

35 – LimeLoop CTO and Co-Founder Chantal Emmanuel

LimeLoop CTO Chantal Emmanuel has been working at the shipping company in Emeryville since 2018. Before launching LimeLoop, she worked at SYPartners and Red Clay as a Software Engineer. Before Red Clay, she worked at New York Cares as Community Programs Officer. She began her career working at AmeriCorps. Follow her on Twitter at @chantalemmanuel.

36 – Lululemon CTO Julie Averill

Lululemon CTO Julie Averill has been working at the athletic apparel company in Seattle since 2017. Prior to Lululemon, she worked at REI, most recently as CIO Prior to REI, Julie worked at Nordstrom for over a decade as VP of Selling and Marketing Systems. She has taught classes on strategy and engineering at Seattle University, and began her career as a Project Manager at Weyerhaeuser. Follow her on Twitter at @julie_i_b.

37 – Lyra Health CTO Jenny Gonsalves

Lyra Health CTO Jenny Gonsalves has been working at the teletherapy company in Burlingame since 2016. Prior to Lyra Health, she worked at SugarCRM, most recently as VP of Engineering. Before SugarCRM, Jenny worked as a Senior Software Engineer at Epiphany. She started her career as a Programmer Analyst at RBC Dominion Securities. Follow her on Twitter at @jenny_gonsalves.

38 – Carbon Health CTO Claire Hough

Carbon Health CTO Claire Hough previously worked as CTO at ticketing company Lyte. Prior to Lyte, she worked at Apollo GraphQL as VP of Engineering. Prior to Apollo, Claire worked at Udemy, most recently as SVP of Engineering. Before Udemy, she led engineering at Tapjoy, Citrus Lane, NextTag, Blue Martini Software, Napster, and Netscape. She is a Limited Partner at Operative Collective.

39 – McKesson CTO Nancy Flores

McKesson CTO Nancy Flores is EVP and CIO, leading the company’s technology initiatives including software, infrastructure, application development tools and processes, operations, and cybersecurity. She also guides the overall direction for the company’s healthcare technology products and data and analytics. Prior to McKesson, she served as CIO at Johnson Controls (JCI) where she was responsible for information technology, cybersecurity and analytics. Previously, she spent 22 years at Abbott in several leadership roles including chief information officer. She serves on the board of the Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin.

40 – Navenio CTO Niki Trigoni

Navenio CTO Niki Trigoni has been working at the infrastructure-free location company in Oxford since 2019. She has been a Professor of Computer Science at the University of Oxford for the past 13 years. Before that, she taught Computer Science at University of London and was a Postdoctoral Researcher at Cornell University.

41 – NovoEd CTO and Co-Founder Farnaz Ronaghi

NovoEd CTO Farnaz Ronaghi has been working at the online-learning company in San Francisco since 2012. She designed and built the first version of the NovoEd platform at Stanford’s Social Algorithms Lab. The project was part of her PhD thesis on collaborative learning at scale, and her research focused on incentives and motivators in online learning environments. Follow her on Twitter at @farnazr.

42 – Nylas CTO and Co-Founder Christine Spang

Nylas CTO Christine Spang has been working at the unified communications company in San Francisco since 2013. Prior to launching Nylas, she worked at Oracle for two years, most recently as Principal Developer. Christine joined Oracle by way of acquisition of Ksplice, where she worked as Software Engineer after graduating from MIT with a degree in Computer Science. Follow her on Twitter at @spang.

43 – Omada Health CTO Maria Latushkin

Omada Health CTO Maria Latushkin has been working at the digital care company in San Francisco since 2018. Prior to Omada Health, she was Chief Technology Officer at Narvar, One Kings Lane, and Peet’s Coffee. Before Peet’s, Maria was at Walmart, most recently as Director of Engineering. She began her career as a Software Engineer at Homewarehouse.

44 – One Medical Group CTO Kimber Lockhart

One Medical Group CTO Kimber Lockhart has been working at the primary care company since 2014. Prior to One Medical Group, she worked at Box, most recently as Senior Director of Web Application Engineering. Prior to Box, Kimber was CEO and founder of Increo Solutions (acquired by Box).  Follow her on Twitter at @kimber_lockhart.

45 – Outer Labs CTO Jen Carlile

Outer Labs CTO Jen Carlile has been working at the modern architecture, engineering, and construction software company in San Francisco since 2018. Prior to founding Outer Labs, Jen worked at Flux Data for five years as VP of Engineering and co-founder. Before Flux Data, she worked at Google[X] as a Software Engineer for almost two years. She began her career as an Audio and Acoustics Engineer at AuSIM. Jen mentors at Hackbright and Stanford. Follow her on Twitter at @jencarlile.

46 – Pilot CTO and Founder Jessica McKellar

Pilot CTO Jessica McKellar has been working at the finance company in San Francisco since 2017. Prior to founding Pilot, she worked at Dropbox for three years as Director of Engineering. Before Dropbox, Jessica was co-founder and VP of Engineering at Zulip (acquired by Dropbox). She began her career as a Software Engineer at Ksplice (acquired by Oracle). The open source developer is PyCon North America’s Diversity Outreach Chair. Follow her on Twitter at @jessicamckellar.

47 – Precisely CTO Tendü Yoğurtçu

Precisely CTO Tendü Yogurtçu has been working at the data integrity company in New York since 1997. She began her career as a Senior Software Engineer at Precisely. Tendü has also served as a part-time Adjunct Professor for graduate level courses (Programming with C++, C++ for Financial Engineering, Programming with JAVA, and Computer Architecture). Follow her on Twitter at @tenduyogurtcu.

48 – Puppet CTO Abby Kearns

Puppet CTO Abby Kearns has been working at the continuous delivery company in San Francisco since 2020. Prior to Puppet, she worked at Cloud Foundry Foundation for four years, most recently as CEO and Executive Director. Prior to Cloud Foundry, she worked at Pivotal Software and OPSWAT. Before that, Abby worked at Verizon and Totality. Follow her on Twitter at @ab415.

49 – Redfin CTO Bridget Frey

Redfin CTO Bridget Frey has been working at the real estate company in Seattle since 2011. Prior to Redfin, she worked at Lithium Technologies, most recently as Director of Engineering for Analytics and Business Applications. Before that, she worked at IntrinsiQ as VP of Development and IMlogic as Senior Program Manager. She began her career as a Software Engineering Manager at Plumtree, after interning at Microsoft and Motorola. Bridget serves on the board for Premera Blue Cross. Follow her on Twitter at @svbridget.

50 – Refinitiv CTO Alex Cesar

Refinitiv CTO Alex Cesar has been working at the financial infrastructure company in London since 2017. Before Refinitiv, she was at Thomson Reuters as Global Head of Risk Technology, at Deutsch Bank as Head of Governanc, and at J.P. Morgan as Head of Compliance. Before that, she was at Standard Chartered Bank as Head of Compliance and Assurance Technology. Alex began her career as a Technical Analyst at HSBC.

51 – Silicon Valley Bank CTO Ivneet Kaur

Silicon Valley Bank CTO Ivneet Kaur has been working at the bank in Santa Clara since 2020. Prior to Silicon Valley Bank, she worked at Equifax for over a decade, most recently as CTO. Before that, Ivneet worked at Claritas for six years, most recently as Product Development Manager. She began her career as a Software Engineer at Microsoft.

52 – Skillz CTO Miriam Aguirre

Skillz CTO Miriam Aguirre has been at the eSports company in San Francisco since 2013. Prior to Skillz, she worked at Financial Engines for over eight years, most recently as Software Architect. Follow her on Twitter at @techaguirre.

Sky Medical Technology CTO Rachel Fallon has at been the UK-based medical devices company since 2010. Their products include Geko devices, OnPulse technology, and Firefly recovery.

54 – Staples CTO Pragati Mathur

Staples CTO Pragati Mathur has been at the worklife fulfillment company in Framingham in 2017. Prior to Staples, she worked at Biogen as CTO. Before Biogen, she worked at Boeing as Enterprise Chief Architect. Before that, she worked at General Motors for a decade, most recently as Chief Architect. She started her career as a Senior Consultant at PWC. Follow her on Twitter at @pragatimathur2.

55 – Starbucks CTO Gerri Martin-Flicking

Starbucks CTO Gerri Martin-Flickinger has been at the coffee company in Seattle since 2015. Prior to Starbucks, she worked at Adobe for over eight years, most recently as CIO. Before that, she was CIO at VeriSign and Network Associates / McAfee. Gerri began her career at Chevron. Follow her on Twitter at @gmflickinger.

56 – SurveyMonkey CTO Robin Ducot

SurveyMonkey CTO Robin Ducot has been at the survey company in San Mateo since 2017. Prior to SurveyMonkey, she worked at DocuSign as SVP of Engineering. Before DocuSign, she was VP of Engineering at Eventbrite, Linden Lab, Adobe and Avolent. She began her career as a Software Engineer at BGS Systems. Folow her on Twitter at @rducot.

57 – ThoughtWorks CTO Rebecca Parsons

ThoughtWorks CTO Rebecca Parsons has been at the global software consultancy company in Seattle since 1999. Follow her on Twitter at @rebeccaparsons.

58 – Token Transit CTO and Founder Ekaterina Kuznetsova

Token Transit CTO Ekaterina Kuznetsova has been at the shared mobility marketplace company in San Francisco since 2016. Prior to launching Token Transit, she was at Meteor Development Group as a Core Developer for two years. Before that, Ekaterina worked at Google and Akamai Technologies as a Software Engineer. Follow her on Twitter at @technekate.

59 – Transposit CTO and Founder Tina Huang

Transposit CTO Tina Huang has been at the incident resolution company in San Francisco in 2016. Prior to launching Transposit, she was an Entrepreneur in Residence at Sutter Hill Ventures and a Founding Engineer at Sigma Computing. Before that, Tina worked at Twitter for four years as Staff Software Engineer. Prior to Twitter, she worked at Google and Apple as a Software Engineer. Follow her on Twitter at @kmonkeyjam.

60 – Verizon CTO Rathi Murthy

Verizon Media CTO Rathi Murthy has been at the media company in Sunnyvale since 2020. Prior to Verizon, she was CTO at Gap — and served as CIO at American Express. Rathi has been in engineering leadership at eBay, Yahoo!, Metreo, and WebMD. She began her career as a Software Engineer at Sun MicroSystems. Rathi serves on the board of directors for PagerDuty. Follow her on Twitter at @rathi_murthy.

Get your FREE Elevate conference pass to join us to celebrate International Women’s Day 2022 with thousands of women & allies – Hear from 35+ women speakers sharing their expertise on engineering, leadership, career planning, managing your mental health at work & much more! [Agenda + FREE ticket]

For more inspiring women in tech:

• 60 Engineering Leaders to Watch in 2020 – Future Fortune 100 CTOs
• 16 Female Infosec & Cybersecurity Executives To Watch
• 12 Product Design Leaders To Follow
• 12 Inspiring Female Architects in Software and Data
• 4 Female Founders Building Developer Tools

We have celebrated Chief Technology Officers, Infosec & Cybersecurity executives, Product Design leaders, Architects – and now we are celebrating engineering leadership in 2020!

Here are 60 technical women to watch – the next FORTUNE 100 CTOs!

1 – Amy Hurlbut – Salesforce Senior Vice President of Software Engineering

Amy Hurlbut is Senior Vice President of Software Engineering at Salesforce, where she’s worked for over seven years. Prior to Salesforce, Amy worked at Echelon for 23 years, where she was most recently Vice President of Software Engineering. She began her career as a Hardware Engineer. Follow her at @amyhurlbut.

2 – Amy Truong – Patreon Vice President of Engineering

Amy Truong is Vice President of Engineering at Patreon. Prior to Patreon, she worked at Planet, where she was most recently Senior Director of Product Engineering. Prior to Planet, she was at Twitter, Rackspace and IBM in engineering management. Follow her at @amyt.

3 – Analyn Sales Nouri – Ticketmaster Vice President of Engineering

Analyn Sales Nouri is Vice President of Engineering at Ticketmaster, where she has worked for 19 years. Prior to Ticketmaster, she was a serial entrepreneur, co-founding Echo-Sigma Emergency Systems and Fluent Home. She began her career as a Software Developer at iXL. Follow her at @analynnouri.

4 – Annabel Liu – Curated Vice President of Engineering and Co-Founder

Annabel Liu is Vice President of Engineering at Curated. Prior to co-founding Curated, Annabel worked at LinkedIn for over seven years, where she was most recently Vice President of Engineering. Before LinkedIn, Annabel spent nine years at Ariba.

5 – Annie Kao – Simpson Strong-Tie Vice President of Engineering

Annie Kao is Vice President of Engineering at Simpson Strong-Tie, where she has worked for over 13 years and she started her career as Branch Engineer. She serves on the board of directors at Structural Engineers Association of Southern California. Follow her at @annietrankao.

6 – Arquay Harris – Slack Senior Director of Engineering

Arquay Harris is Senior Director of Engineering at Slack. Prior to joining Slack, she was a Web Development Manager at Google, where she led a large team of information architects, developers and designers. Before Google, she worked at CBS Interactive as Director of Engineering.

7 – Ashley Ha Dudgeon – Salesforce Vice President of Software Engineering

Ashley Ha Dudgeon is Vice President of Software Engineering at Salesforce, She began her career as a software developer after graduating from UC Berkeley with a degree in computer science. She finds inspiration and empathy in her background as a refugee and is a proud mom to two young boys.  

8 – Bela Labovitch – athenahealth Vice President of Engineering

Bela Labovitch is Vice President of Engineering at athenahealth. Prior to athenahealth, she worked at inVentiv Health, LogixHealth, MedMinder Systems, and Newsilike Media Group in engineering leadership. Follow her at @bmedminder.

9 – Cailin Nelson – MongoDB Executive Vice President of Cloud Engineering

Cailin Nelson is Executive Vice President of Cloud Engineering at MongoDB. Prior to MongoDB, she was at Turntable.FM as Vice President of Engineering. Cailin has held engineering roles at Kiva, Zicasso, SquareTrade and Applied Financial Technology.

10 – Caitlin Smallwood – Netflix Vice President of Data Science and Engineering

Caitlin Smallwood is Vice President of Data Science and Engineering at Netflix. working on predictive decision models, algorithm / machine learning research, and experimentation science. Prior to joining Netflix in 2010, Caitlin worked at Intuit, Yahoo!, and several consulting firms.

11 – Cathleen Wang – Udemy Senior Director of Engineering

Cathleen Wang is Senior Director of Engineering at Udemy, Prior to Udemy, she was at Simply Hired for four years as Director of Engineering. Prior to Simply Hired, she worked in engineering at Nest Labs, One Kings Lane, Netscape and more. Follow her at @cathleenwang.

12 – Cathy Edwards – Google Vice President of Engineering

Cathy Edwards is Vice President of Engineering at Google. Before she joined Google, Cathy was a serial entrepreneur. She was CTO and co-founder at Chomp (acquired by Apple) and CEO and co-founder of Undecidable Labs (acquired by Google). Follow her at @cathye.

13 – Claire Delaunay – Nvidia Vice President of Engineering

Claire Delaunay is Vice President of Engineering at Nvidia. Prior to Nvidia, she was Vice President of Engineering and co-founder at Otto (acquired by Uber). Prior to Otto, Claire worked at Google and founded Botiful. Follow her at @lullabeee.

14 – Dawn Baker – Fitbit Vice President of Engineering

Dawn Baker is Vice President of Engineering at Fitbit (acquired by Google). Prior to Fitbit, Dawn worked at LinkedIn, where she was most recently Senior Manager of Site Reliability. She has held various leadership roles at Advantaged Technology Group, Arc90 and OpSource.

15 – Elaine Teoh – Flexport Vice President of Engineering

Elaine Teoh is Vice President of Engineering at Flexport. Prior to Flexport, she was Vice President of Engineering at Periscope Data and Lookout. Prior to Lookout, she was at OpenTable for five years, most recently as Senior Director of Engineering.

16 – Elizabeth Bierman – Comcast Vice President of Engineering

Elizabeth Bierman is Vice President of Engineering at Comcast. Prior to Comcast, she worked at Honeywell for over seven years, most recently as Senior Technical Manager. Follow her at @ekbierman.

17 – Erica Joy Baker – GitHub Director of Engineering

Erica Joy Baker is Director of Engineering at GitHub. Prior to GitHub / Microsoft, she worked at Patreon where she was a Senior Engineering Manager. Prior to Patreon, she was at Slack as a Senior Build and Release Engineer. Prior to Slack, Erica spent almost a decade at Google, most recently as Site Reliability Engineer. She is a founding advisor at Project Include. Follow her at @EricaJoy.

18 – Erica Lockheimer – LinkedIn Vice President of Engineering

Erica Lockheimer is Vice President of Engineering at LinkedIn, where she leads the teams responsible for LinkedIn Learning. Prior to LinkedIn, Erica worked at Good Technology for nine years. She was the first in her family to attend university and almost dropped out. She went on to graduate from SJSU with a degree in Computing Engineering. Follow her at @EricaLockheimer.

19 – Heidi Williams – Grammarly Head of Engineering

Heidi Williams is Head of Engineering at Grammarly. Prior to Grammarly, Heidi was CTO and co-founder at tEQuitable. Prior to that, she was Box’s Vice President of Engineering for four years, and spent over a decade at Adobe in engineering management. Follow her at @heidivt73.

20 – Isaura Gaeta – Intel Vice President of Security Research

Isaura Gaeta is Vice President of Security Research at Intel. She has been at Intel for over 25 years. She serves on the board of directors at The Hispanic Foundation of Silicon Valley, and chairs the Nominating and Governance committee. Follow her at @isauragaeta.

21 – Jan Chong – Tally Vice President of Engineering

Jan Chong is Vice President of Engineering at Tally. Prior to Tally, Jan was Twitter’s Senior Director of Engineering. Prior to Twitter, she was at OnLive, where she spent four years in engineering management. Follow her at @lessachu.

22 – Jessica Popp – Twilio Vice President of Engineering

Jessica Popp is Vice President of Engineering at Twilio. Prior to Twilio, Jessica worked as Senior Director of Engineering at SendGrid and DDN Storage. Before that, Jessica spent five years at Intel, most recently as Senior Director of Engineering. She began her career as a Software Engineer for Circuit City.

23 – Jill Wetzler – Pilot Head of Engineering

Jill Wetzler is Head of Engineering at Pilot. Prior to joining Pilot, Jill was Lyft’s Director of Engineering Leadership Development. Prior to Lyft, she worked at Twitter and Salesforce in engineering management. She speaks at conferences on building inclusive teams. Follow her at @JillWetzler.

24 – Joy Su – Twitter Vice President of Engineering

Joy Su is Vice President of Engineering at Twitter, where she’s worked at for over seven years. Prior to Twitter, Joy was at Topix for eight years, most recently as Senior Director of Engineering. She began her career as a Software Engineer at Patkai Networks. Follow her at @joyousx.

25 – Kate Bergeron – Apple Vice President of Hardware Engineering

Kate Bergeron is Vice President, Hardware Engineering at Apple. Kate has almost 20 years of industry experience in high volume consumer electronics and manufacturing domestically and abroad. She has extensive experience in the commercial world and bringing products to market.

26 – Kathy de Paolo – Disney Vice President of Engineering

Kathy de Paolo is Vice President of Engineering at The Walt Disney Company. Prior to Disney, she worked at Qualcomm for 22 years, most recently as Director of Engineering. She began her career as a Firmware Engineer.

27 – Lakecia Gunter – Microsoft Vice President

Lakecia Gunter is Vice President and General Manager at Microsoft, leading IOT Global and Strategic Engagement. Prior to Microsoft, she was at Intel for over 12 years, most recently as Vice President of Programmable Solutions and General Manager of FPGA Ecosystem Development and Operations. Follow here at @lakeciagunter.

28 – Laura Thomson – Fastly Vice President of Engineering

Laura Thomson is Vice President of Fastly. Prior to Fastly, she worked at Mozilla for over 12 years, most recently as Senior Director of Engineering. She served on the board at Internet Security Research Group for four years, and published books on PHP and MySQL web development. Follow her at @lxt.

29 – Lei Yang – Quora Vice President and Head of Engineering

Lei Yang is Vice President and Head of Engineering at Quora. Prior to Quora, Lei worked at Google for over seven years, most recently as Staff Software Engineer. She started her career as a Research Intern at NEC Laboratories America.

30 – Leslie Carr – Quip Senior Director of Engineering

Leslie Carr is Senior Director of Engineering at Quip (acquired by Salesforce). Prior to Quip, she worked at Clover Health, most recently as Engineering Manager. Leslie began her career as a Network Engineer at Twitter, Craigslist and Google. Follow her at @lesliegeek.

31 – Li Lin – Marvell Vice President of Engineering

Li Lin is Vice President of Engineering at Marvell. She joined Marvell in 2005 and now leads a team of 900+ globally to develop wireless transceiver systems for mobile, connectivity and IoT applications.

32 – Lisa O’Malley – PayPal Vice President of Product and Engineering

Lisa O’Malley is Vice President of Product and Engineering for Large Enterprise Solutions at PayPal, where she’s been for over 12 years. Prior to PayPal, she worked at Creative Labs for seven years, most recently as Director of Product Marketing.

33 – Maria Zhang – LinkedIn Vice President of Engineering

Maria Zhang is Vice President of Engineering at LinkedIn. Prior to LinkedIn, Maria was Chief Technology Officer at Tinder. Prior to Tinder, she worked at Yahoo! where she was Vice President of Engineering. She was founding CEO at Alike (acquired by Yahoo!) and has worked at Microsoft, Zillow, NetIQ and Sirana. Follow her at @mariarenhui.

34 – Marian Croak – Google Vice President of Engineering

Marian Croak is Vice President of Engineering at Google. Prior to Google, she was Senior Vice President of Research and Development at ATT Labs. It was at Bell AT&T Labs where she collaborated with colleagues to invent Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP). She holds over 200 patents in VoIP technology.

35 – Michelle Grover – Twilio Chief Information Officer

Michelle Grover is Chief Information Officer at Twilio. Before Twilio, she was Vice President of Software Development at SAP Concur, where she led a global team of mobile and platform engineers who focus on TripIt. Follow her at @jcmish.

36 – Milena Talavera – Slack Senior Director of Engineering

Milena Talavera is Senior Director of Engineering at Slack. Prior to Slack, she worked at Talkdesk as Director of Engineering. Prior to Talkdesk, Milena was at Twelvefold Media for six years, most recently as Vice President of Engineering. She began her career as a Software Engineer for the US Government.

37 – Monica Bajaj – Workday Senior Director of Engineering

Monica Bajaj is Senior Director of Engineering at Workday. Prior to Workday, she worked as Director of Engineering at Ultimate Software and Perforce Software. She is on the board of Women in Localization, as a Chief Compliance Officer for GDPR and security initiatives. Follow her at @mbajaj9.

38 – Neha Narkhede – Confluent Technical Co-Founder and Board Director

Neha Narkhede is a technical co-founder and serves as board director at Confluent. Previously, she led the streams infrastructure area at LinkedIn, where she worked for four years. She began her career as a Member of Technical Staff at Oracle. She is a co-creator of Apache Kafka. Follow her at @nehanarkhede.

39 – Ning Li – Facebook Vice President of Engineering and Product

Ning Li is Vice President of Engineering and Product at Facebook, where she has worked for over 11 years. She began her career working at IBM for eight years as a Software Engineer.

40 – Prachi Gupta – Discord Vice President of Engineering

Prachi Gupta is Vice President of Engineering at Discord. Prior to Discord, Prachi was worked at LinkedIn for over a decade, most recently as Director of Engineering. She began her career a Software Engineer at Impetus.

41 – Preeti Somal – Hashicorp Vice President of Engineering

Preeti Somal is Vice President of Engineering at Hashicorp. She has shared lessons learned in HashiCorp’s hypergrowth of remote-first engineering culture. Prior to Hashicorp, she was Vice President at tech giants like Yahoo!, VMware and Oracle. Follow her at @psomal.

42 – Rachana Kumar – Etsy Vice President of Engineering

Rachana Kumar is Vice President of Engineering at Etsy, where she’s worked for six years. Prior to Etsy, Rachana co-founded Shaadi Karma and interned at United Nations Population Fund. Prior to that, she was Lead Software Architect at Brighter India Foundation and Web Development Manager at BET Networks. Follow her at @kumar_rachana.

43 – Rachel Potvin – GitHub Vice President of Engineering

Rachel Potvin is Vice President of Engineering at GitHub. Prior to GitHub, Rachel worked at Google for over 11 years, where she was most recently an engineering leader for Google Cloud. She began her career as a Software Developer for Openface Internet. Follow her at @potvinrachel.

44 – Raji Arasu – Intuit Senior Vice President of Platform

Raji Arasu is Senior Vice President of Platform and Services at Intuit, where she leads development of platforms and core services. Prior to Intuit, she served as Chief Technology Officer for eBay subsidiary StubHub, after holding a variety of leadership roles at eBay. She serves on the board of directors at NIC. Follow her at @rarasu.

45 – Rashmi Channarayapattna – Salesforce Vice President of Engineering

Rashmi Channarayapattna is Vice President of Engineering at Salesforce. She joined Salesforce in 2005 as a Quality Engineer after working in a startup and worked her way up.

46 – Reena Tiwari – American Express Vice President of Engineering

Reena Tiwari is Vice President of Engineering at American Express. Prior to American Express, she worked at Symantec for four years, most recently as Senior Director of Digital Transformation, E-Commerce and SAAS. She began her career as Technical Lead onsultant at Argonaut Group. Follow her at @retiwari.

47 – Sarah Aerni – Salesforce Senior Director of Machine Learning and Engineering

Sarah Aerni is Senior Director of Machine Learning and Engineering at Salesforce. Prior to Salesforce, Sarah spent four years at Pivotal, most recently as Data Science Manager. She is a Program Committee Member at Apache Foundation and MADlib committer. Follow her at @iTweetSarah.

48 – Sharmeelee Bala – Gap Inc. Vice President of Engineering

Sharmeelee Bala is Vice President of Engineering at Gap Inc. Prior to Gap Inc., she was at Walmart Labs for a decade, working her way up from Programmer to Senior Manager. Sharmeelee began her career as a Systems Analyst at TCSS and BCSS.

49 – Sharmila Ravi – Capital One Managing Vice President of Software Engineering

Sharmila Ravi is Managing Vice President of Software Engineering at Capital One. Prior to Capital One, she worked at Comcast Cable for 14 years, most recently as Vice President of Product Development. She began her career as a Senior Software Engineer at Toobias Associates / Compustatics.

50 – Silvia Ahmed – Veritas Vice President of Engineering

Silvia Ahmed is Vice President of Engineering at Veritas. Prior to Veritas, she worked at Dell EMC as Senior Director of Product Engineering. Fun fact: Silvia earned undergraduate degrees in Psychology and Cybernetic Systems from San Jose State University.

51 – Shay Bahramirad – ComEd Vice President of Engineering and Smart Grid

Shay Bahramirad is Vice President of Engineering and Smart Grid at ComEd, where she has worked for over six years. Prior to ComEd, Shay was Vice President at IEEE Power Energy Society. Prior to IEEE, she was Adjunct Professor at Illinois Institute of Technology for seven years. Follow her at @sh_bahramirad.

52 – Sue McKinney – Anaplan Senior Vice President of Cloud Engineering

Sue McKinney is Senior Vice President of Cloud Engineering at Anaplan. Prior to Anaplan, she was Vice President of Engineering at Cloudera, Veritas, Symantec and Pitney Bowes. Prior to that, Sue was at IBM. Follow her at @sue_mckinney.

53 – Surabhi Gupta – Robinhood Vice President of Product Engineering

Surabhi Gupta is Vice President of Product Engineering at Robinhood. Prior to Robinhood, she was at Airbnb for six years, most recently as Director of Engineering. Prior to Airbnb, Surabhi was at Google, where she was a Staff Software Engineer. Follow her at @surbs.

54 – Tamar Bercovici – Box Vice President of Engineering

Tamar Bercovici is Vice President of Engineering at Box, where she began working as a Senior Software Engineer a decade ago. Prior to Box, Tamar worked at XMPie (acquired by Xerox) for five years, most recently as a Software Application Engineer. Follow her at @tamarbercovici.

55 – Theresa Vu – Xandr Vice President of Engineering

Theresa Vu is Vice President of Engineering at Xandr. She worked at AppNexus for over a decade, joining as a Senior C Developer. She gave a talk on rap and realtime systems where she talks about her passion for music, and shared about her inspiring mother in an interview. Follow her at @gotvu.

56 – Vanitha Kumar – Qualcomm Vice President of Software Engineering

Vanitha Kumar is Vice President of Software Engineering at Qualcomm, where she has worked for over 24 years. She began her career as a Senior Engineer at Cisco. Vanitha serves as a board director at Elementary Institute of Science and Qualcomm Foundation.

57 – Victoria Kirst – Glitch Vice President of Engineering

Victoria Kirst is Vice President of Engineering at Glitch (Fog Creek Software). Prior to Glitch, Victoria worked at Google for over seven years as a Senior Software Engineer. She loves to teach and has lectured at Stanford. Follow her at @bictolia.

58 – Wendy Shepperd – New Relic Group Vice President of Engineering

Wendy Shepperd is Group Vice President of Engineering at New Relic. Prior to New Relic, she was Vice President of Engineering at Liquid Web, AllClear ID, and WP Engine. She began her career as a Content Developer at Texas Education Agency. Follow her at @WendyShepperd.

59 – Yanbing Li – Google Vice President of Engineering

Yanbing Li is Vice President of Engineering at Google. Prior to Google, she was at VMware for over a decade, most recently as Senior Vice President and General Manager, Storage and Availability. Prior to VMware, Yanbing spent six years at Synopsis in engineering management. Follow her at @ybhighheels.

60 – Yoky Matsuoka – Google Vice President of Engineering

Yoky Matsuoka is Vice President of Engineering at Google. Prior to Google, she was CTO of Nest (acquired by Google). Previously, she was an assistant professor at Carnegie Mellon University and University of Washington, where her research combined neuroscience and robotics. Follow her at @yokymatsuoka.

You can follow these engineering leaders on a Twitter List, Pinterest Board, and the Girl Geek X community on LinkedIn.

We love seeing where women’s careers take them over the years! Technical women leaders of large organizations have demonstrated different pathways to moving up. Sometimes they move up over a decade. Sometimes they are recruited and hired at the top. Some of our favorite technical women are entrepreneurial and spend time outside of the corporate race to the top and instead build their own company or join an early-stage startup.

There are many more women coming up in the corporate and startup ranks.

Get your FREE Elevate conference pass to join us and celebrate International Women’s Day on March 7-8, 2024 with thousands of women & allies online – Hear from 55+ women speakers sharing their expertise on engineering, leadership, career planning, interviewing, AI, much more! [Agenda + FREE ticket]

For more inspiring women in tech:

• 60 Female CTOs to Watch in 2020
• 16 Female Infosec & Cybersecurity Executives To Watch
• 12 Product Design Leaders To Follow
• 12 Inspiring Female Architects in Software and Data
• 4 Female Founders Building Developer Tools

Erica Kawamoto Hsu / Girl Geek X

Neha Narkhede is a technical co-founder and board member at Confluent, the company behind the popular Apache Kafka streaming platform.

Prior to starting Confluent, Neha led streams infrastructure at LinkedIn, where she was responsible for LinkedIn’s streaming infrastructure built on top of Apache Kafka and Apache Samza. She is one of the co-creators of Apache Kafka.

She shared her insights from how women can rise in the workplace, to technical interviewing, during a fireside chat at a Girl Geek Dinner.

What is the most overlooked obstacle for women asking for a promotion?

That’s a great question – something that I’ve thought about it at every stage of my career. It doesn’t seem to ever get any easier. A significant obstacle for women and minorities is the fear of being judged negatively as being too ambitious, when you get ready to really advocate for yourself.

This fear is rooted in some reality – in my observation – obvious bias that normalizes ambition and advocating for yourself for white men, while expecting minorities and women to wait for their turn, or the right time. Another obstacle is, men tend to be assessed by their future potential, and women assessed by past experience, as has been shared by so many women leaders.

It’s okay to feel a little out of place and to feel this fear – you are not imagining it, some of it actually does exist in varying proportions in different cultures.

The trick is figuring out how to ask for it regardless. What has worked for me is to navigate the communication around the ask carefully. Ultimately you have to have a productive conversation – and a series of conversations – to make the change happen.

I typically write down what I want to say ahead of time and have the best possible clarity. That gives me a chance to rehearse and anticipate any objections that might come thru, and keep emotions aside.

Importantly, I make it okay for myself to hear “no” a couple times before it finally gets to a “yes”. Know that a “no” should follow with clear, actionable feedback that allows you to make progress. If you see a situation where consistently it’s “no, but we don’t feel like you are ready”, that doesn’t mean much and it’s probably time to move on, however hard it seems.

A book “Never Split The Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depends On It” written by an FBI negotiator has a lot of practical advice on navigating this situation and many others.

Startups are really chaotic and career growth is one part of that puzzle. It’s a matter of survival or not. Knowing the reason for not being able to have a structured performance.

The secret to growing in a startup is to take ownership of something that needs to be fixed. As the startup grows and go thru its teenage years, there are opportunities to have a positive conversation. Larger companies have more process and more stability. Trade-offs means probably fewer opportunities for step-function growth in your career. As long as the company grows, you have plenty of opportunities for growth if you figure out how to navigate the situation with a lot of persistence.

How did you overcome technical interviewing?

Earlier in my career, when I had to get into the technical interviewing process, it was extremely daunting despite knowing how to code and knowing how to do a good job. I did what I usually do in daunting experiences (that I want to navigate anyway) — I over-prepared to give myself power.

I changed my perspective, from feeling like a victim of an obviously un-ideal situation, to taking control of it by realizing – how you are made to feel in the technical interviewing process is a reflection of the team and company you are signing up to work for.

I picked LinkedIn over other companies based on the quality of my interviewing experience, and it worked out. Realize that it’s your choice too!

Having been on both sides of the table, it shouldn’t be an adversarial experience. It should feel like a collective brainstorming exercise that you want to do with a future colleague. Having a take-home interview helps you prepare for the onsite interview. You learn a lot about a future colleague by studying the quality of the questions asked.

What is some advice to share about interpersonal communications?

It’s okay to start off as a shy, introvert engineer like I was and find yourself up on the keynote stage. Take every opportunity, however super uncomfortable it feels, to be onstage speaking. A secret is – great speakers practice a talk more than 10 times. A lot of us have speaker notes.

I learned on the job that communication is entirely different: communication in one-on-one meetings, communication in team meetings, communication onstage

There’s a lot of value in the book “Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High” at work. Get your hands on it to learn without having to hire a coach.

* This conversation has been condensed for clarity.

Watch the whole fireside chat from virtual Confluent Girl Geek Dinner 2020:

Over one-third of students in Oakland Unified didn’t have internet at home before the pandemic, according to EdSource. With distance learning beginning this fall, underserved students will fall behind without Internet connectivity to learn and do homework!

If you have benefited from having a computer and Internet at home growing up, please consider helping underserved students participate in distance learning during this pandemic.

Here are local San Francisco Bay Area initiatives bridging the digital gap for under-served students, and how you can help:

Donate $300 to provide a low-income student a computer, Internet & support with Oakland Tech Exchange. Get your employer to double your contribution to Tech for All — the program runs under Oakland Public Education Fund, a non-profit 501(c)(3). #TECHFORALL #OAKLANDUNDIVIDED

Donate $500 to provide a low-income student a computer, Internet & support with StreetCode Live in east Palo Alto. Get your employer to double your contribution to StreetCode Academy, a non-profit 501(c)(3). #STREETCODELIVE

Apply to volunteer virtually with an Oakland school this fall or volunteer at StreetCode Academy (headquartered in east Palo Alto).

Tell us about a great program connecting donors with students who need the resources.

Email us at hello@girlgeek.io or tweet at @girlgeekx and we’ll add it to our list here.

Thank you!

It’s been a few weeks of shelter-in-place and your cooking skills are stretched. Give yourself a break and order some food for takeaway, and support your local female entrepreneur/chef!

Here are 4 women chefs — alumnae of La Cocina — that are still cooking and serving up food for curbside pickup / delivery in the San Francisco Bay Area during COVID-19 shelter-in-place:

Besharam

Gujarati chef Heena Patel is offering several options for pickup — from alooo gobi to chicken makhani, and khara lamb! Check out her menu online and call 415-580-7662 to order for pick-up in San Francisco.

Bini’s Kitchen

Nepalese momos are sold in bags of 50 or 100 for curbside pickup — your choice of lamb, turkey, and vegetarian — comes with a generous side of spicy tomato-cilantro sauce. Text or call Bini Pradhan at 415-361-6911 to order in San Francisco’s SOMA district.

Nyum Bai

The award-winning Nyum Bai hawks delicious Cambodian cuisine from chef Nite Yun. Check out her menu online and call 510-500-3338 to place an order for curbside pickup in East Oakland.

Reem’s California

Arab Muslim Palestinian chef Reem Assil runs several locations of the popular Reem’s California’s — her newest location in San Francisco’s Mission district. Her first storefront is in Oakland’s diverse Fruitvale neighborhood. Check out her menu online and schedule delivery/pickup at both locations.

Snacks for delivery? Some La Cocina alumnae operate…

Don Bugito: Prehispanic Snackeria

Monica Martinez is the mastermind behind planet-friendly protein snacks, featuring delicious edible insects in savory and sweet flavors like Dandelion Chocolate-covered crickets. For the less adventurous, there are granola bites powered by cricket flour. Check out her products online.

Oyna Natural Foods

Iranian immigrant Aisan Hoss runs her family food business Oyna Natural Foods to financially support her passion for dance. There are several kuku options for the Persian herb frittata. Check out her products online.