Her Story
About Priyanka
Priyanka Patel serves as a Staff Engineer in the field of computer engineering. She began her career as an integration engineer working with banking sector clients such as Wells Fargo on Oracle-based middleware applications. Over the years, she has advanced through roles at organizations including McAfee, Pfizer, Amazon, and Ring, before joining Thermo Fisher, where she contributes to healthcare-related sequencing instruments and compliance-focused software solutions. Patel earned her bachelor's degree in India and completed a master's degree in computer science in the United States in May 2009, achieving a GPA of 3.85. She specializes in cloud platforms, particularly AWS with EKS and ECS, and develops AI agents for automation and customer-centric applications. Outside her professional work, Patel volunteers with nonprofit organizations including Sawa, which supports health goal achievement, and a religious group where she teaches children about multitasking and new technologies.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Priyanka
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to keeping pushing forward without giving up in any situation, staying active, and continuously learning new things. In this AI world, I focus on free trainings, start with small proof of concepts, and then scale up to bigger implementations. Delivering results based on learning is key, whether in professional or personal spaces.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice I received is to keep reading a lot of new books, which helps shape decisions in leadership or team roles. Being a curious person who asks a lot of questions and stays eager to learn new technologies has been instrumental in growing as an influential woman.
03What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
The biggest challenges in my field right now are the pressure from top leadership to deliver solutions in very short timeframes like one week instead of months, while maintaining compliance especially in medical fields. It's also difficult to convey technical messages to non-technical leaders without jargon, and then collaborating with dev and ops teams to close gaps after approval.
04What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
The most important value to me is being a lifelong student, which helps me think wisely, keep pushing myself, stay motivated, and deliver results in both professional and personal spaces.
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