Meet Danielle, a Technical Lead at Redgate Software. In her own words, she’s a tech nerd, petrol head, dog-mom and just a little bit crazy. It’s also abundantly clear from speaking with her that she is a wonderful, kind-hearted, driven and incredible woman. Her energy and passion shine through in an instant and we’re very excited to be sharing her story.

From her early years of dreaming of becoming a fighter pilot to now being a super successful software engineering manager across many amazing companies over varied industries. Her career is nothing short of remarkable and inspiring.

Danielle is a compassionate leader with a hunger for leading teams to greatness through transparency, support and personal progression.

She has a personal soft spot for the LGBTQI+ community & will always push to ensure a safe, accepting and loving space for all people!

Now a Women In Tech Nominee and Public Speaker, Danielle continues to use her experience to drive teams to greatness, inspire others through talking at meetups and just generally being a great human.

Hi Danielle, thank you for being involved with Women Rock, can’t wait to get your story out there.  Could you tell me a bit about how you first got started in Tech?

Hi, thanks for inviting me!

My tech journey is a little different to most I think. I originally wanted to be a fighter pilot, however, after washing out of selection I did a degree in the first thing that sounded interesting, which was ‘Computer and Multimedia Systems’. I only went to university because I had no other ideas on what I wanted to do with my life and that degree covered everything from the math and physics behind the hardware all the way up to web development and databases; things I found really interesting. During my time at university I found that software development came quite naturally to me, so I stuck with it and built a career from there.

You mentioned your dream as a child was to be a fighter pilot? How hard was it for you when this didn’t happen and what advice would you give to someone whose first career choice didn’t work out the way they wanted it to?

I was told I washed out exactly seven days before my 17th birthday, and honestly, I just went back to bed, cried, and then slept it off. Certainly not a healthy way of dealing with it. However, I’d also put all of my efforts into achieving that one singular goal and had no backup, which, on reflection, made everything worse.

My advice for anybody whose first choice doesn’t work out is to look at what skills you have, look at what you enjoy doing and focus on the things that – even if they don’t make you happy – just make sense. I have a lot of people in my life whose initial career dreams never worked out, from a professional scuba diving instructor to a university lecturer. They aren’t doing what they dreamed they would do, but they’re living their best lives surrounded by amazing people and still finding fulfilment and enjoyment in what they do today.

It can feel soul-crushing in that moment when you find out it’s not going to work. It is quite literally having your dreams crushed, and that can be truly traumatic. Lean on your friends and family for support and talk to someone, anyone, and I’ll be here for you too if you need someone to listen.

You are a Technical Lead at Redgate, we love to see a woman leading from the front within a Tech company. How would you describe your leadership style and what do you enjoy most about managing people?

What I enjoy most will tell you a lot about my leadership style. I love seeing people open up, push themselves, take on bigger and more exciting challenges and ultimately grow; both personally and professionally.

I try and embody what it means to be a servant leader. From enabling my engineers to building cultures of trust, respect and diversity, and through the spaces I’ve built I’ve seen individuals go from strength to strength, land those promotions, land new roles and go on to inspire others.

Every success that my engineers - past and present – achieve is another little success that I silently cherish.

As a woman in technology, what would you say is the best and worst thing you’ve encountered within the industry over the years? How did you overcome these things and who supported you through it? 

Oof, that’s a tough question.

The worst thing? It’s a coin-flip between being a token hire or the silent sexism I’ve endured in some roles. I don’t want to dwell on it as it’s behind me, but it took one of my own engineers to point out the sexist behaviour I was brushing off and it was a light-bulb moment, where all the struggles and fights I’d endured in that role somehow made sense, and it prompted my resignation.

The best thing is by far seeing so many other women in tech. I’d worked with a few women in project management roles associated with tech teams, but I’d never met a female engineer until I met Christine, and though she might not like me saying it, she’s my role model. Since then I’ve worked with (and hired!) several female engineers and it makes my heart glow

You mentioned your role model was your old boss Christine (She sounds incredible!). Can you tell us why she was your role model? What did you first think when she came into your office? What made her so good? How and why did she in inspire you?

So I first met Christine around 12 years ago I think now. I started a new role and Christine joined about a month after I started. She rocked up to an office looking like a million dollars and rather than sitting in an office and commanding from “on-high” like others I’d worked for, she came and sat down with me and the other engineers. She worked beside us, talked to us, got to know us personally and in time became integral to everything we did.

Christine wasn’t a soft touch that would let us goof off, she was strict when needed, but she would listen to us all, she’d give us the space to explore our options, she’d defend us when the business pushed for too much.

Christine also supported me personally through some of the most difficult times in my adult life, and I’ll always be thankful for the support and kindness she showed me.

What was it like being the only female employee in the engineering team and sometimes office? How important was it for you to have other women or more diversity in the workspace?

I’m pretty sure I’ve been a “token hire” at least once in my career, and you’re right, one time I was the only woman in the office. It was a really weird situation to be in, and one of the more difficult environments I’ve encountered.

When you’re quite distinctly the “odd one out”, it’s not easy to form any type of relationship, and I constantly felt like I was encroaching on other people’s cliques or chuckling at other people’s inside jokes.

For me personally, having other people around me that I can relate to and form a relationship with is essential to me feeling like I belong in a company. Professionally, I crave the diversity of thought and opinion that comes from a diverse team, so having people of colour, different sexualities, different genders and religious beliefs in a team enable such creativity and healthy challenges that can never be achieved by a team of straight white middle-aged men. Having led both, I can promise you the difference is stark!

Why would you say that Redgate is a great place to work for people from all different backgrounds and walks of life? What makes them a great employer and what could other companies adopt from their way of working to be more inclusive and better employers?

I’ve been with Redgate for 7 months now, so my experience isn’t as deep or well-rounded as some of the folks I lead who have been with the company for years. I think the veteran on my team has been with Redgate for 10 years now!

Redgate are honest from the start, and that makes the world of difference. On the second paragraph on our Diversity web page, we openly admit we’re not yet as diverse as we’d like to be, but we’re working on it; and that’s true – we are working on it!

For the first time in my career, I’ve gone into a role and not had to boot-strap a people-first culture from the bottom-up. Redgate is a people-first company right down to the core. On top of that, we run internships, diversity events, provide enhanced benefits for women on maternity leave and so much more.

Redgate even has a term for people who leave then come back – they’re boomerangs, and there’s a lot of them! I’ve never worked for a company where leavers actively want to come back.

If you could go back to your freshly graduated old self, what advice would you give?

Putting yourself first isn’t selfish. Sometimes it’s necessary.
I think 21year old me would really need to hear that, both personally and professionally.

What do you think is the biggest thing tech companies could do to attract more female talent? And I guess, if it was you looking – what would attract you to a company?

Social responsibility and diversity are both crucial for me. Maybe in my 20s I’d have told you something different like career progression, benefits package or pay, but having chased all those things I honestly feel the impact of what I do and the values of the company I work for are way more important than my pay packet. 

I appreciate that I’m in a very privileged position where I can be picky about where my income comes from and I certainly don’t take that for granted, but when choosing between an extra 5grand or a company who will embrace me with open arms – flaws and all; I’ll take that hug, thank you very much.

How to attract more female talent? Honestly, there’s talent out there, but companies need to engage with them. Sponsor events, sponsor social groups, provide boot camp scholarships for women moving into tech, and make sure the wording used on job adverts actually encourages – rather than discourages – female applicants. There’s a world of research on this, so it’s definitely worth reading up on.

We didn’t get the chance out speak about this on the call – It would be great to hear more about your Public Speaking, Women In Tech Nominee and anything else amazing you’ve achieved throughout your career!!

Oh wow, yes. My Women in Tech nomination came before I started public speaking, so I’ll start there. While I was working for Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM), we needed to expand my engineering practice from only a handful of developers to several fully-staffed teams as quickly as possible in order to deliver the digital arm of Manchester’s “Bee Network” – the local equivalent to the Oyster Card system in London. Naturally I spent a lot of time interviewing and hiring, and at each step I was focusing on building and enhancing a blame-free culture where everybody could work in concert with each other. My nomination was for building a huge engineering practice from the ground up with minimal business support, all while keeping everything together.

As for public speaking, that kind of started by accident. One of my contacts in recruitment asked if I wanted to attend a talk on the future of tech, which I gladly jumped on. A few weeks before the actual event she called me and asked when my slide deck would be ready! You can imagine my panic!
Anyway, rather than look daft or admit I was wrong, I promised it would be in a few days and somehow I managed to deliver. My first talk is on Youtube somewhere, and you can see how nervous I was. Since then I’ve given over a dozen talks on a variety of subjects and I enjoy it more every single time.

Finally, could you leave us with your favourite quote? 

“You are not worse for your association with the world, but it is better for its association with you.” Brandon Sanderson; Oathbringer,

Book recommendation?

Way of Kings, by Brandon Sanderson.
This book was my gateway into Brandon Sanderson’s bibliography and while it’s a high fantasy setting (which isn’t really for everybody), it’s unique in its world building and its novel focus on the individuals, their plights, mental health and depression, rather than the big picture which of course is there, but it’s woven between the threads, rather than being everything. There’s so much about this book and the rest of this series that has shaped my life, from the quote at the end of the Q&A I sent you, to the tattoo I’ll be getting on my forearm, to the oaths I’ll swear if I get married.

Song recommendation?

Better Off Without You, by Mallory Knox
This was such a difficult decision and I’ve gone with my favourite track from Mallory Knox because it’s one that’s always going to get me singing along, not because it’s particularly catchy but because the lyrics mean everything to me. From the open statement “You got it all wrong, you think I’m indestructible…” to the tone of managing with depression and anxiety, to the battle that the band went through on their road to releasing that album and how it mirrors the battles I faced at that time, the scars I carry despite my surviving it.

Interviewed by Matt Johnson