Employee Stories - Women in Tech Doing Incredible Work

Women in tech are doing some incredible work at The Hartford – as developers, data engineers, executives and more. Here are the stories of three women who have found their niches in this fast-paced world, projects that excite them and how they’re making a difference with customers.

 

Amanda
Senior Software Engineer
Years with The Hartford: 7

 

When Amanda graduated from college, a technology career wasn’t even on her mind. She had an anthropology degree and her first professional jobs were in The Hartford’s claims department. She initially worked as a call center representative and later as a claims adjuster.

 

When The Hartford launched the HartCode Academy Developer Program, which teaches non-tech employees to become junior developers, Amanda seized the opportunity. She graduated 13 weeks later, which prepared her for a new position.

 

“The three-month boot camp training was immersive,” Amanda says. “It took the place of a full-time job, with lots of additional learning after hours, but it was an awesome opportunity. People go to school for years to learn these skills, and I am well on my way to expanding my knowledge in this field.”

 

Amanda’s first assignment was on a click-to-engage pilot project. She was able to help deliver a higher level of self-service to The Hartford’s customers, contributing her business expertise and exercising her newly acquired coding skills.

 

Today, Amanda is a member of the company’s enterprise web content team. She and her team are working on migrating the organization to SharePoint online in the cloud, developing analytics using Microsoft’s PowerBI, and developing custom SPFX applications – all of which make it easier for employees to share and collaborate.

 

“I’ve consulted with numerous internal organizations and groups of individuals to help migrate and modernize their sites with SharePoint online,” Amanda says. “I help to solve their problems and offer them insight into how they can make their daily tasks easier. Those interactions with other employees are what I find the most rewarding.”

 

Amanda is excited about The Hartford’s tech opportunities and her new career path.

 

“Technology is constantly changing, and you’re constantly learning,” she says. “I thrive on that. There’s never a dull moment.”

 

She also values the company’s agile mindset and the supportive atmosphere she’s discovered among her IT colleagues.

 

“The Hartford has an incredible women-in-technology community guided by women executives. I feel like I’m part of a community and part of a company that invests in its employees and what they have to say.”

 

Katie
Director of Data Engineering
Years with The Hartford: 13

 

Katie may not have a traditional tech background, but that hasn’t stopped her from carving out a successful career in IT. She started out with a college internship in tech, which led to full-time roles as an IT project manager. Now, almost 20 years later, she is a Director of Data Engineering for The Hartford’s Enterprise Data Office. In her role, Katie supports the Group Benefits line of business.

 

Katie’s team is responsible for integrating the essential data needed to make informed business decisions quickly and with ease. Continuous improvement and customer focus are driving forces behind the team’s efforts.

 

“We’re interested in connecting with our customers to get them the information they need in the way they want,” Katie says. “We’re constantly asking, ‘How can we help enable our internal partners to get easier and faster insights through data?’”

 

Technology is the great enabler of data-driven improvements and the Enterprise Data Office is constantly looking out for industry innovations. This helps ensure that the enterprise and individual teams have access to best-in-class data and analytics tools for the business problems they face. These include:

 

To keep pace with the fast-changing world of technology, a continuous growth mindset is essential. The Hartford offers many educational resources for employees, such as:

 

Katie also encourages her team to take on tasks within their Agile Delivery teams that may be new for them, fostering continuous learning in a familiar, supportive environment.

 

“Ideas and conversations on how to accelerate value delivery from across our team are welcome,” Katie says. “We are continuously looking at how to use technology as an enabler for speed and quality. I love the work we do here. Making sure data is available to our internal partners at the right time in the right way keeps me highly engaged and my great team keeps me energized. If you’re eager, motivated and willing to constantly learn, there’s endless opportunity.”

 

Vidya
Vice President and Group Benefits CIO
Years with The Hartford: 10

 

As CIO for The Hartford’s Group Benefits line of business, Vidya is driven by two key concerns:

 

Vidya has seen firsthand how technology can transform business. One example is a digital intake solution her team developed that immediately helped The Hartford’s customer service representatives improve their response to customers, creating a better experience for internal partners and external customers.

 

Vidya’s team is looking at other investments in technology and data that will continue to transform our customers’ experience. There is a lot of focus on innovation and using a “test and learn” approach to test the viability of solutions. This lets them quickly learn if the solution will be:

 

An example of this approach is when the team was working on integrating data science insights into real-time applications. They tested a lightweight solution in one area to see how the real-time integration would work to deliver customer and business value. The test-and-learn approach informed the architectural pattern that integrates the output of Data Science models (built in Python code) to applications such as Claims Center, The Hartford’s claim processing application.

 

“We’re hiring machine learning engineers who can help seamlessly integrate the insights from data science models to our core applications. We are also hiring software engineers and automation testers who can help us deliver with agility,” Vidya says. “The Hartford is committed to an Agile transformation within IT and throughout the enterprise. The more agile the teams are, the more empowered they are and the more innovative they become with their ideas. We are building high-performing Agile teams that are focused on innovation, making this an exciting time to be in tech at The Hartford.”

 

In Vidya’s experience, opportunities abound at The Hartford – to learn and apply the latest technologies but also to solve business and customer challenges within the framework of existing technologies. Both require creativity and build experience, offering different ways to develop as a tech professional. The breadth of technology experiences is especially relevant for those professionals that are interested in a leadership path in technology.

 

“We’re focused on how technology can help us be a better insurance company – how technology can change our model as an insurer and make us more competitive and customer oriented.”

 

Learn more about an exciting career in Tech & Data at The Hartford.