Client Engagement Lead, Insurance
Boston, MA

I manage Quality Engineering teams in Boston, Toronto, Buenos Aires, Kolkata, Kochi, Bangalore and Chennai. What I like best about my work is that there’s no room for complacency. Technology is changing so fast. It’s like fixing a car while the engine is running. My mission is to help clients build great organizations by focusing on people, process, and technology. When my customer feels they’re in good hands, it makes my day. 

We spend a lot of time as a team ideating and exploring new ideas in hyper-automation and full-stack quality engineering. The real value is in the team, and in our collaboration. When I joined Cognizant right out of college, one of my managers said, “Happy people do quality work, so I want you to be happy.” As I’ve grown, I’ve realized that extends to the people around me. If I can truly understand customers’ needs and add a softer touch in terms of encouragement to my team, it makes a huge difference. I want everyone on the team to feel safe and supported, and free to share their ideas without feeling judged. I truly believe that building psychologically safe teams, organically produces high performing teams!

Even when I’m not at work, I like to stay busy. I like my days to be packed. Music is my passion. I love listening to music and I practice violin and drums.

AVP, Consulting
Tampa, FL

I have a coaching approach to leadership, and it’s what I think about every day when I get up. How do I motivate people and teach them to be more influential? 

We’re not successful at a client if only one person has mindshare. Our work is about building relationships and mindshare on a broader scale: Everyone who interfaces with the client has to show passion, capability and creative ideas. So I spend 50% of my day teaching, coaching and mentoring. Most of my teaching moments aren’t about IT but about how we could have done it differently. It’s all about learning. 

I like change, and I like driving change. When I look at a client in distress or a stabilization situation, I see it as a qualified opportunity. I look for the potential beyond the initial issue to be solved.

In adversity, you get opportunity. That’s been a cornerstone of my life. I started out as a chemical engineer and wound up in aerospace. From there I moved on to running supply chains and eventually managed large programs. In each case, I needed to figure out how to leverage a different set of skills.

Now I apply those same problem-solving skills in my work as a consultant. The long and short is, very often in life we’re given opportunities, and if we’re not afraid to fail, we see there’s something we can learn.

Business Analyst and Scrum Master
Insurance, Hartford, CT

My unorthodox journey began with nearly two decades as a high school English teacher in India before I meandered my way to graduate school in the US and then morphed into a technology career as a Business Analyst and Scrum Master. I’ve thrived amid emerging and disruptive technologies, and teams that transcend geographies. 

There are many parallels between teaching and industry. For me, an important one is that both offer opportunities to give back to the communities we live in. I’ve organized more than 100 events in my region for Cognizant, and I can say that the STEM initiatives have helped me keep my connection with teaching and mentoring. Outreach events feed my soul. 

For me, leading volunteer initiatives is as fulfilling as my work. My interactions with nonprofits helped me better understand the needs and challenges of the community we live in. Through the local chapter of Women Empowered (WE), we focus on issues that matter most to women, whether it’s mentoring girl students at a local high school or raising funds to support organizations that focus on women’s health. Most important, by collaborating with clients on STEM, Outreach and WE events, we reinforce our relationships with them and forge great partnerships.

Vice President
Human Insights, Idea Couture
Toronto, Canada

I’ve always been interested in trying to unpack the “why” behind things. Social and cultural anthropology are about understanding assumptions that form how we look at the world. It’s a critical lens.

After teaching a few courses at the University of Toronto, I started looking for opportunities outside of academia. I saw a listserv posting for a job at Idea Couture (IC). The job was resident anthropologist. I had no idea what that was. 

I’ve been at IC for eight years. There’s a greater awareness today of cultural anthropology in business than when I started. I used to have to tell people, “I don’t do bones, I don’t do stones, I do people.”

Being an anthropologist in the workplace means being an outsider—and that’s a good thing. It’s a helpful role when you’re trying to question assumptions. I ask questions in meetings that, say, an innovation strategist might not. I can help uncover ambiguities that need to be understood better.

In our work with clients, we always start with the human experience. Whether we’re creating an online support program for people with lupus, or a dashboard for a bank, the digital piece comes later. Before we articulate the digital experience, we take time to first understand what it means to live with lupus, or to work at a bank. That understanding makes the outcomes we deliver much more relevant.

We have a wacky range of people here at IC. I have one colleague who makes furniture and another who makes bow ties. The company has always been supportive of the broader contexts of our lives. My daughter was about two years old when I started at IC; she’s now 10, and my little guy is six. They’ve both grown up here in the office—spent a lot of time hanging out with mama at work!

Head of Mentor Network
Cognizant Accelerator
Boulder, Colorado

Scale interests me. I like to get stuff done and build things, and I’m excited about scaling up a team as we expand here in Boulder. I’m interested in exploring ideas like how we preserve our culture in a big company when people don’t necessarily know each other.

I started my career as a web developer in the late 1990s and then began focusing on venture-backed product startups. In 2010, I launched my own consulting company, Quick Left. In 2016, we were acquired by Cognizant.

We’re now part of Cognizant Accelerator, and the idea of working on new enterprise projects is exciting. The Launch Pad Challenge is an in-house incubator we’re building. Twice a year we choose around 10 products and work with them for six months to test their market viability.

As head of the mentor network, my role directly impacts how we grow the Launch Pad Challenge teams within the Accelerator, as well as how we help contribute to the teams’ success. Strong mentors are one of the keys to success in building a strong company. We provide the projects with a lot of guidance.

Do I miss engineering? I do sometimes. I liked the challenges I’ve had to undertake in running a company, everything from setting up health benefits to difficult HR decisions. But you can’t always figure out people the way you can figure out code.

One area in which I’ve grown is public speaking. Bless their heart, a local group invited me to be among their speakers when I was just starting out. They gave me five minutes to speak. Being an engineer, I used note cards to make sure I spoke precisely for five minutes. I was very awkward. But I kept going at the public speaking.

Since then, I’ve become much more relaxed at it, and I feel good about that. I recently shared my story and experience at TriZetto, and it reminds me that in a large company like Cognizant, WE is an extremely important organization to have. Our members and chapters are doing great work.

Vice President, Corporate Marketing 
London, UK

When I graduated from Georgetown University, an advisor told me, “Go west. There’s this technology thing going on.” So I started a tech company, and I’ve worked in technology ever since. In particular, I’m drawn to the problem-solving aspect of product marketing. I love the thought and rigor involved in taking a product to market.

At Cognizant Accelerator, I help create new business models for the company as part of our corporate innovation efforts. That includes incubating new practices and internal startups, everything from product-market fit to positioning and messaging. We collaborate closely with our business units to identify good ideas and ensure they have the executive support and resources they need to grow.

New ideas are the heart of my work. I got an MBA from Harvard, then returned to the Silicon Valley start-up scene, just as the market crashed. After Cisco acquired the start-up I was working for, I led product marketing at various emerging technologies within Cisco, including its video content and IoT business units.

My focus at Cognizant draws from that experience: We're exploring ideas for new business models made possible by digital technologies such as blockchain, AI and IoT. My managers emphasize impact over activity and give me the autonomy I want to do the work and to make the changes needed to forward our agenda. I’ve also been able to take advantage of training, such as an executive speaker class, which has helped me develop some of the soft skills that are so necessary to be effective in a large company.

When I’m not working, my husband and our two young boys like to jam on instruments: I’m figuring out how to fiddle. I’m also learning ballet, which feels like a more painful form of yoga. I regularly hike the trails of an urban forest reserve behind my house. It’s one of the largest in the country—and yet another reason that advisor was right about going west.

Irene recently took on the new role of Vice President of Corporate Marketing.

VP, Consulting Partner
Communications, Media & Technology
Dallas, Texas

The best part of my job is sitting with clients and my team, listening and talking and working through problems. Creating solutions with clients is always exciting to me. A lot of our sessions are about brainstorming ideas and diversification of opinion. How can we push our thinking to get clients where they want to be?

I wear two hats at Cognizant. On the technology side, I focus on communications and media, working with clients across their enterprises and on digital transformation. I also work on digital infrastructure like software-defined networks and virtualization. How do you take a network environment and add software capabilities to create cool experiences for customers and the enterprise? And what does it mean for those affected in terms of reskilling?

A client once told me that she liked that I was straight with her even in uncomfortable situations. She said she could trust me to solve problems in a fair way. I always make a point of passing that along to my team. Always be straight with clients, even when the information can be uncomfortable. Nothing ever goes perfectly. It’s how you deal with it that makes a difference.

When I began my career at Cognizant, my boss made sure I got a lot of engagement and exposure and the ability to jump into things and make decisions. Now I work for Chell Smith, and she’s a good, strong advocate.

Likewise, I make sure I take time to advocate for others. It’s amazing what we can do when someone tells us we can get there. Everyone has a different path. There isn’t just one way.

Outside of work I’m a family person. I have the neighborhood house that all the kids feel comfortable coming over to. My family and I are always out walking or biking through the neighborhood.