Her Story
About Mounika
Mounika Vanka serves as Senior Technical Program Manager at Microsoft, a role she has held for four and a half years. In this position, she collaborates across teams and organizations to align strategies and drive decisions, with a current focus on improving efficiency for Azure to increase margins. She has over ten years of experience in tech and attributes her success to staying curious, adaptable, and flexible, along with support from mentors and her parents. Mounika holds an undergraduate degree in biomedical engineering from India and a master's degree in biomedical engineering from Duke University, where she focused on AI and machine learning. After completing her master's, she began her career at Lenovo, initially applying AI in the biomedical and medical fields before transitioning to computer vision for video processing. She obtained her PMP certification to facilitate her move from a developer role to program management. Mounika values accountability, integrity, trustworthiness, a growth mindset, adaptability, and curiosity in both her professional and personal life. She advises young women entering tech to stay curious, experiment without fear, and find the intersection of their strengths, passions, and opportunities for growth.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Mounika
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to staying curious, staying adaptable and flexible, and having great mentors from school through my current company, as well as the huge support from my parents.
02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Stay curious. Don't be afraid to experiment and try things because you learn by doing. Find the intersection of what you're good at, what you love doing, and where there are opportunities and growth.
03What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
The biggest challenge is keeping up with the rapid pace of AI changes; by the time you learn one new AI tool, something new is coming out.
04What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Accountability, integrity, trustworthiness, growth mindset, adaptability, and curiosity are most important to me. Doing what is right when no one is watching, and constantly trying to learn new things.
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