Sowmya Shree

“Sometimes technology’s greatest impact comes from helping individuals learn, grow and gain confidence”

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

Sowmya Shree is a senior technology leader with over 17 years of experience in software engineering, site reliability engineering (SRE), observability, and enterprise platform engineering. Having built and supported large-scale systems within the financial services sector, she specialises in operational resilience, monitoring strategy, AI-enabled observability, and engineering excellence.

Alongside her corporate career, Sowmya is the founder and author of PlatformSignals, a technical publication focused on reliability engineering, observability, and AI systems. She is also the creator of BrainQuest, an educational application designed to help children prepare for 11+ examinations through engaging learning experiences.

Passionate about making technology accessible, she actively contributes to the engineering community through technical writing, speaking engagements, mentoring, and knowledge sharing. Her mission is to bridge traditional reliability engineering practices with the emerging world of AI systems and intelligent operations.

Tell us about your biggest achievement to date

My biggest achievement has been combining enterprise-scale engineering leadership with public technology contributions that extend beyond my day-to-day role. Over the past 17 years, I have helped build and operate critical technology platforms supporting highly regulated financial environments, specialising in reliability engineering, observability, operational resilience, and platform modernisation.

More recently, I have focused on applying these principles to AI systems and emerging technologies. To share this knowledge with the wider community, I launched PlatformSignals a technical publication where I write about AI reliability, observability, SRE practices, and engineering leadership.

In addition, I independently developed BrainQuest, an educational application created to support children's learning and exam preparation through interactive technology.

These initiatives demonstrate my commitment not only to delivering technology within large organisations, but also to contributing knowledge, innovation, and educational value to the wider technology community.

What is the most significant challenge you have overcome?

Like many women in technology, much of my early career was focused on delivering results within large organisations rather than promoting my achievements publicly. While this enabled me to gain deep technical expertise and leadership experience, it meant that many contributions remained largely invisible outside my employer.

Over the past two years, I have deliberately worked to change this by sharing knowledge publicly through technical writing, speaking engagements, and technology projects.

Launching PlatformSignals required developing new skills in content creation, community engagement, and personal branding while continuing to lead demanding engineering initiatives. This transition challenged me to step outside my comfort zone, become more visible within the technology community, and contribute more broadly to discussions around reliability engineering, observability, AI systems, and engineering leadership.

The experience has reinforced the importance of representation in technology and inspired me to encourage more women engineers to share their expertise and pursue leadership opportunities.

Tell us something about you that people would find surprising

Many people are surprised to learn that some of my most rewarding technology projects were inspired by my own children. Outside of my professional career in enterprise engineering, I created BrainQuest, an educational learning application designed to help children prepare for 11+ examinations.

The idea came from observing how children engage more effectively with interactive learning than traditional worksheets. Building the application allowed me to combine my technical skills with my passion for education and problem-solving.

Seeing children use something I created and genuinely enjoy learning from has been just as rewarding as delivering large-scale technology initiatives in my professional career. It has also reminded me that technology does not always have to solve enterprise-scale problems; sometimes its greatest impact comes from helping individuals learn, grow and gain confidence.