Her Story
About Sandra
Sandra Bettger serves as Senior Principal at Leidos in a director-level position she has held for two years. With 20 years of experience in the technology field, she leads and mentors capture managers on pursuits ranging from several hundred million to multiple billion dollar opportunities. Her background includes work in geographic information systems, which helped transition her from international development into program and capture management roles. Bettger holds an ITIL Version 3 Foundations Expert certification and is a Program Management Professional through the Program Management Institute, of which she is a member. She earned a master's degree in Community and Regional Planning, also known as Urban Planning, and another master's in Latin American Studies, as well as bachelor's degrees in International Studies and Spanish. Among her honors are Capture Team of the Year and Program of the Year awards from Unisys Corporation in 1998, and a Business Development Capture Award from Leidos in 2014. She previously led a non-profit organization. Bettger attributes her success to proactive planning and management, collaboration, and facilitating open decision making. She advises women entering the field to take advantage of opportunities, embrace leadership positions and risks, and draw inspiration from those around them.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Sandra
01What do you attribute your success to?
I guess largely, you know, proactive planning and management, probably, and ability to collaborate and open decision making. Facilitate decision making.
02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I think to take advantage of opportunities and new experiences, and not to be afraid of leadership positions. Right, not to shy away from that, and just to kind of take the bull by the horns. And, try it out. Right, and take those risks. And take advantage of the opportunities in front of you. And not be, you know, not be afraid if you're in a room full of men, right? ... not to be dismayed by that. And to find inspiration from the men around you, instead of seeing them as a threat... derive inspiration and guidance and mentoring and leadership from the men around you, because you will find yourself surrounded by men.
03What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
The biggest opportunities are the ability to collaborate across levels and across functional areas and technical areas. The biggest challenges are the large complex bids and also the latest commercial acquisition that the government is doing, which makes it pretty complex.
04What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
In my personal life, having a really strong family base. We're all located pretty close by each other, and so we have a lot of support from family. And each other, and also being creative at home with projects.
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