Padmaja Vrudhula considers herself a reluctant technologist. In fact, she originally planned on being a neurosurgeon, but her early experience with an internship at a Seattle software company led her in a different direction.

“I loved the new technology that I was working with, and it was super exciting to develop products that people used,” she explained with a smile. “I did the one thing that Indian parents fear, which was to say, ‘I’m going take a year off to work to save money for med school.’ Fast forward 20-some-odd years, and I’m still working in tech, with med school in the rearview mirror.”

Vrudhula is currently vice president of industry solutions at Snowflake, a global cloud-based data platform. Prior to working at Snowflake, she held a number of industry-facing tech roles at VMware.

While pursuing a career in tech, she has also been active in several non-profits, primarily geared toward creating opportunities for the economically disadvantaged. Over the last ten years, this work has evolved into a focus on education and inclusion in technology.

“As a child of Indian immigrant professionals, it never occurred to me that women were supposed to be bad at math and science,” Vrudhula said. “Also, joining tech at a time when credentials weren’t as important as skills and talent, I had a much more diverse experience than those entering the workforce today. This is why I am so focused on ensuring that students have a variety of opportunities to participate in technology.”

To that end, Vrudhula has always enjoyed teaching and mentoring others, whether as an adjunct instructor at the University of Washington or a mentor at the Foster School. She has also helped students in the Align program in Seattle to discover the same spark that led her to pursue a career in technology.

“If there’s one thing I wish I could hear people, particularly women, stop saying is ‘I am not good at math’ or ‘I am not technical,’” said Vrudhula. “The popular notion of math and programming savants needs to be replaced with the idea that it is a learned skill, just like anything else. We are all technical, it is just a matter of degree.”

What resonates for me regarding Khoury and the Align program, and how I got involved, was trying to bring in students with non-traditional backgrounds. These are students who may have had a change in what they wanted to be when they were in their 20s compared to what they want to be in their 30s

“Padmaja has been supporting Aligners since her role at VMWare and now as a VP at Snowflake,” said Mary Trimarco, Khoury College’s business and outreach director. “Her insights are so valuable, and she is a strong advocate for our students.”

Recently at Snowflake, Vrudhula brought in two Align students (both women of color) as interns. They proved their value immediately and will join her team as full-time employees after graduation. For both women, the internship was a way to discover the thrill of problem solving while applying the knowledge they gained during their studies.

Over the past few years, Vrudhula has worked with the Align team to provide math tutorial sessions for students requesting additional support. In addition, she has spoken on panels with Aligners and mentored several students.

“What resonates for me regarding Khoury and the Align program, and how I got involved, was trying to bring in students with non-traditional backgrounds. These are students who may have had a change in what they wanted to be when they were in their 20s compared to what they want to be in their 30s,” Vrudhula said. “As somebody who continuously questions ‘Is this really what I want to do when I grow up?’ that’s something that really resonates with me. This program is also one of the best ways to take action in terms of building diversity in technology, not just from a demographic point of view, but in terms of experience and capabilities.”