Her Story
About Shivani
I moved to the U.S. in 2024 to pursue my Master's in Information Systems at the University of Maryland, College Park, an experience that really pushed me and built a lot of resilience. I joined tenneco as an intern and later transitioned to a full time Application Integrations Analyst for the Enterprise Applications Team.
My role sits at the intersection of project management and application integration. I work with projects that keep data syncing between applications and ensure everything flows correctly across 40+ ERP systems. Our main goal as Enterprise IT is to support a system to make the life of plant workers safer, secure and efficient. I've also gotten to explore how AI can play a role in that work, which is something I'm becoming increasingly passionate about.
I'm early in my career in a pretty niche space where IT meets auto parts manufacturing, and a lot of what I do, like integration and working across enterprise systems, I learned on the job. But I've been really fortunate to have genuine support from the people around me at Tenneco, which has made a big difference. That's pushed me to grow quickly, and I think that adaptability has become one of my biggest strengths
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Shivani
01What do you attribute your success to?
I’d attribute my success to being comfortable with not having all the answers. I moved to a new country, stepped into a niche field I wasn’t fully trained for, and learned enterprise integration largely on the job - none of that came with a roadmap. What carried me through was staying curious, asking the right questions, and trusting the people around me. I think when you stop needing to look like you already know everything, you actually start learning faster than you thought possible.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
Stop waiting until you feel ready and just dive in. Most of what you learn is what you experience not what you’re waiting to experience.
03What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
The learning curve is real, both technically and interpersonally. ERP systems and enterprise integration aren’t things you encounter outside of large organizations, so there’s no classroom preparation for it. You learn by doing.
And then there’s the bridge I sit on daily, between different technical teams. My work is about making applications and systems talk to each other seamlessly across a complex enterprise environment. Getting teams with different priorities and expertise aligned around integration solutions is its own challenge.
The opportunity with AI is enormous, but so is the complexity. Even though there’s been tremendous growth in the AI tools and plugins available, they still don’t sit well with legacy manufacturing software. And beyond compatibility, there are bigger questions around enterprise-level security and how you actually build a strategy around AI adoption at scale. We’re at the very beginning of figuring that out, and I think it’d be interesting to see the speed at which organisations adopt AI
04What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Integrity and curiosity are the two values I come back to in everything I do.
Integrity to me is about being someone people can trust, not just professionally but as a person. It means being honest even when it’s uncomfortable, standing by your values when it would be easier not to, and treating people with respect.
Curiosity is what keeps me going. I work in a space that is constantly evolving and the moment you stop asking questions is the moment you stop growing. It’s what pushes me to keep exploring, keep learning and stay genuinely excited about the work.
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