Her Story
About Varsha
Varsha Luhadia serves as a Senior Technical Program Manager, a role she has held for nearly three years at her current company. She entered the Technical Program Management field in 2012 and has built a career navigating cross-functional teams, creating frameworks with automation and AI, and introducing processes to support clients and junior team members. With a Bachelor of Science degree and certifications in Scrum, Agile Methodologies, Project Management from Stanford University, and SAFe, Varsha has overcome the challenge of entering the technology industry without a traditional IT background through persistent learning and effort. She values sincerity, empowering people to scale their contributions, and continuous learning. Previously, she volunteered with her company's women in tech ERG group, delivering presentations and supporting initiatives. Varsha credits her success to hard work, ongoing education, and developing rapport with colleagues, and she advises others, especially women entering the field, to never stop believing in themselves while embracing the evolving opportunities presented by AI in strategic program management.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Varsha
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my successes to certainly a lot of hustling and hard work. A lot of learning, never saying no to learning, always be like a student. Learn new stuff. I would think that can make anybody successful the moment you start feeling that you know everything, you stop growing. So for me it has been continuous learning. Because I came from nowhere from a technology background, I constantly strive to learn and put an extra effort more than others to make sure that I am ahead of the game. So I did a lot of hustling, hard work, learning, and continuous learning and also developing a lot of rapport and relationships with people around is just a very very important key aspect that can enable your success.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice I received is that it's okay to not know something, and it's okay to really say no if you don't know something, and ask that question twice. Having belief and faith from senior leaders who could see what I could not see in myself. There's nothing wrong in not knowing something, but there is definitely something wrong in not asking something.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Never stop believing in yourself. My whole career has been based off of that where I had to continuously make an effort to make sure I believe in myself and not get lost and navigate through challenges through that. That would be my mantra.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
The biggest challenge is understanding your roles with AI changing the landscape. Rebuilding your role to provide value, focusing on human in the loop, connecting the dots, looking at bigger picture and strategy. Opportunities are that technical program management is evolving with AI, allowing contribution to larger teams by looking at big picture, making decisions, and creating value-driven deliverables.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
I believe a lot in sincerity and doing your work. Empowering people is something that I really value. When I feel it's empowered somebody they can contribute and really scale and it will give you multiple outputs. A sense of appreciation, gratefulness, and never to stop learning no matter what length or rise up to.
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