Elizabeth Excell

‘Elizabeth is a visible role model who champions diversity, ethical AI, and continuous learning’

Part of the Tech Women Celebration 50 – a curated list of some of the most inspirational women working at all levels of tech

Elizabeth Excell is a Senior Software Engineer with a passion for mentoring and empowering women in tech. With a background in Data Science and Full-Stack Development, she has rapidly progressed from graduate to leadership roles, driven by a commitment to technical excellence and inclusive innovation.

Elizabeth has led impactful initiatives such as the Coach to Code programme, matching hundreds of women and non-binary individuals with mentors to support their transition into tech roles. She actively contributes to external mentoring schemes such as TechUPWomen and bloss.m bInspired and has upskilled female engineers in advanced technologies including React, Golang, and DevOps.

Recognised as Role Model of the Year - Financial Services in the Women in Tech Excellence Awards 2024, Elizabeth is a visible role model who champions diversity, ethical AI, and continuous learning. Her work is shaping a more inclusive tech industry and inspiring the next generation of female leaders.

What do you consider to be your biggest achievement to date?

My biggest achievement in the tech industry is designing, developing, and deploying a bespoke internal web application that transformed how our organisation manages and analyses operational data. Built with React, Golang, and cloud-native DevOps practices, it delivers real-time insights, automates manual workflows, and supports strategic decision-making. What began as a proof of concept quickly scaled due to its impact, and I led the full development lifecycle - from requirements and architecture to implementation and rollout.

The system integrates advanced data pipelines and analytics dashboards, enabling data-driven decisions across departments. A highlight was mentoring two female engineers in React, Golang, and DevOps, helping them grow into confident contributors. The app’s success drove adoption across multiple teams and inspired three additional solutions based on the same architecture. This achievement reflects my ability to pair technical excellence with inclusive leadership to deliver scalable, high-impact results.

What is the most significant challenge you have overcome?

The most significant challenge I’ve overcome was leading my team through a strategic shift in deployment tooling and engineering practices, making us the pathfinder for native Cloud deployment. The goal was to improve scalability, reliability, and developer experience while managing technical complexity and organisational resistance. I led the migration from Jenkins to Harness, designing CI/CD pipelines, integrating infrastructure, and ensuring compliance.

In parallel, I onboarded the team to our new internal developer platform, creating tailored training, workshops, and one-on-one mentoring to build confidence with the new tools. This fostered a culture of learning and experimentation. The initiative earned our team recognition as a pathfinder for native OCP deployment and influenced the wider engineering strategy. It significantly improved deployment speed, reliability, and developer autonomy. The experience reinforced my belief that impactful tech leadership

Tell us something about you people would find surprising

I originally planned to pursue a career in Biotech, not Fintech. My academic interests and early career aspirations were rooted in the intersection of biology and technology, and I even completed an internship at a genetic sequencing company.

During that time, I worked on data analysis pipelines for genomic datasets, gaining hands-on experience with bioinformatics tools and learning how computational methods could drive breakthroughs in personalised medicine. This experience sparked my passion for data and problem-solving, but it also made me realise how transferable those skills were across industries.

While I was drawn to the mission-driven nature of Biotech, I found myself increasingly excited by the pace and scale of innovation in Fintech. The opportunity to work on high-impact systems, lead technical transformations, and mentor others ultimately led me to pivot into the financial sector. My background in genetic sequencing continues to influence how I approach data ethics, model bias, and the importance of inclusive technology. It's a reminder that tech careers can take unexpected paths, and that diverse experiences often lead to the most meaningful contributions.