Aura Talks x Accurx | The female Engineering Leader - what does 'hands on' leadership look like for Women in the world of AI?
The role of the hands-on engineering leader has changed a lot in the last few years. Engineering Managers & Directors are expected to be technical, contributing to architecture and technical decisions. The rise of the Technical Lead and the move to a player coach approach has been central. It has come about from more agile teams and the rise of AI.
With the change happening almost overnight, it has been harder to take a step back and see how it impacts existing EMs, Staff + Engineers and those Seniors about to 'pick a path"....
But the one topic that hasn't been discussed all that much is how it impacts female leaders specifically. There are more demands, more options and the speed of change is happening quicker than ever before. 3 years worth of change is happening in 3 months, which makes it more difficult to balance work and life.
So this evening we will be hearing from three women currently leading engineering, talk about what it has actually changed for them, and how they got to the point of having a view on it.
It will be hosted by Accurx, a brilliant mission driven Series B startup, who encapsulate this topic perfectly. They have been on a transition with the EM role, making it more technical. As well as hiring Staff and Principal Engineers over the last year or so. They also put a lot of emphasis on diversity and inclusion which you can see on their careers site.
📋 The Session
We have 3 excellent Leaders; who have built products and led teams at different stages in different roles: Ashita Kachru (Eng Director at 9Fin), Danielle Tinkov (EM at Accurx) and Hannah Craighead (Founding Engineer at Neurotype)
First, the career stories. Each speaker will talk through their career and how they got to their current position.
Then, the questions. We will then sit down for a panel discussion to find out more about some of the specific problems, changes and opportunities for female Engineering Leaders.
What has changed for female engineering leaders in the world of AI?
Career pathways: should I pursue technical leadership or technical management?
What does hands-on actually mean now, and how do you stay technical enough to lead when you are not in the code every day?
Does a career break cost more than it used to, when the tooling reinvents itself twice a year?
What are you looking for when you hire engineering leaders now, and has AI moved it?
Where do women most often come off the leadership track, and what would have changed it?
The session will be discussion-led rather than presentation-heavy. No slides. Each speaker will share her experience before opening up the conversation to questions and discussion from the room.
⏰ The Format
6:00pm - Food & drinks
6:30pm - Stories + Panel
7:30pm - Audience Q&A
7:45pm onwards - Networking
👥 Who's in the room
Senior Product Engineers, Staff Engineers, Principal Engineers, Tech Leads and Engineering Managers from some of London's most exciting startups and scale-ups. This one is built for the women in those roles, for the women heading towards them, and for anyone coming back to the job after time away and working out how much has moved.
This is an, invite-only evening designed for women in engineering working out their own route. The invite is open to anyone who wants to hear that conversational. Places are limited to keep the discussion interactive and high quality.