Robin Sutara

One of the Tech Women Celebration 50 - women changing the ratio of the tech workforce

Currently Field Chief Transformation Officer at Databricks, Robin Sutara has built a two decade long career in high stress, and sometimes combative, complex data-led transformations. She has consulted with hundreds of organisations on data strategy, data culture, and building diverse data teams.

Robin began her career in the United States Army, enlisting to pay for university.

"While enlisted, I diagnosed and repaired weapons and electrical systems on Apache helicopters and developed a passion for working with computers along the way. This, in addition to my skill using Excel to solve maintenance tracking issues in the unit, formed the basis for me to enter a career in computer hardware and eventually working at Microsoft."

Robin's miltary experience proved a useful training ground in an environment where women were very much in a minority.

"When I entered my first tech job in the early nineties, I found myself in an environment that was not incredibly friendly to women. The majority of my colleagues were male, and it was difficult to find mentors that understood my experience as a woman looking to progress my career.

"During that time I remained focused on developing the qualifications to get my dream first role at Microsoft - however, simply saying that it was difficult would be an understatement. There were periods of time when I had no support system to fall back on, and no one who understood my situation. This is why I've dedicated much of my career to supporting women who may find themselves in a similar position."

"Helping women enter into the tech industry, particularly from non-traditional backgrounds, has always been a key focus for me. I've made it a priority to help women develop a network of allies to support them through difficult times - the importance of having a mentor who has dealt with similar experiences cannot be overstated."

The efforts to extend opportunity to other women from a diverse range of backgrounds takes many forms.

"At Databricks, I spearheaded efforts for International Women's Day through showcasing stories about inspirational women to the wider business," Robin says. "I led on creating short videos that encouraged dialogue between colleagues about women who have inspired and motivated them - the videos were then shared with the whole EMEA business."

"Through my day-to-day work, I have remained committed to building diverse teams - beginning with the hiring process. The data field in particular holds a lot of potential to attract more women into the tech industry, because it lends itself well to bringing in people with transferable skills.

"Looking outside of traditional qualifications is the key starting point to building a more diverse industry in the future, with female representation even at the highest levels of leadership becoming the norm.

"One of my biggest achievements recently was being named as one of the founding members of Chief - UK Chapter, a network for connecting and supporting women executive leaders."