Welcome to the latest in our series of Q&As with inspirational mentors and community builders in the technology industry! It’s an honor to have had the opportunity to hear from these inspirational leaders who dedicate their time and positive energy to shaping a better future for developers.

Each interviewee is a recipient of Twilio's Developer Searchlight project, which we created to celebrate the most inspirational, motivating mentors who are uplifting developers in 2022 through community, mentorship, or code.

Today, let’s get to know Rukmini Reddy. Rukmini is the SVP of Engineering, Platform at Slack.

She joined Slack in 2020 to lead teams that deliver exceptional first-party and third-party app experience, as well as drive the vision of Workflow Builder - Slack's no-code automation tool.

Before Slack, she was VP of Engineering at Abstract, Model N, and other enterprise SaaS companies. Her experience as an immigrant, a woman, and a developer with over a decade of technical experience, has prepared her to lead large and diverse engineering teams, and forge genuine human connections with her colleagues.

She is based in the San Francisco Bay Area and has been juggling work and home-school like most parents in recent times for her twin boys.

Who are you, where are you based, and what are you working on right now?

I’m Rukmini Reddy and I am an SVP of Engineering for Slack based out of the San Francisco Bay Area. I currently lead the engineering teams at Slack, with a focus on Workflow Builder.

Right now, we’re working on bringing our completely re-engineered platform to everyone so they have the tools to make work simpler, more pleasant, and more productive with the power of automation.

Congratulations on being selected as a Twilio Developer Searchlight honoree. What does being a mentor or community builder mean to you?

Thank you! Mentorship has played such a huge role in my career development and it’s something I’m now dedicated to providing my teams. Being a mentor and community builder means creating safe spaces and communities where people can do the best work of their lives.

You do this by being transparent, data-driven, and sharing feedback based on their actual performance. You invest in your relationships with people by caring about them in a genuine, consistent way.

It makes a world of difference to get to know people, their families, their pets, and their hobbies outside of work. I also call my team members and spend time with them to learn what they are struggling with so I can help them figure out how to solve their problems.

I have their back, and they have mine. We give each other the space to fail and time to learn, then we go and do it again. That’s how we build amazing products: together.

You are passionate about empowering women of color in the tech industry - tell me more about how you incorporate this passion into your role at Slack and how it translates into a successful, collaborative team environment?

Women of color are still dramatically underrepresented in the tech industry, and while things are changing, they aren’t changing quick enough. When I first began my career, I rarely saw people that looked like me in leadership positions.

As I’m finding myself in those roles now, I feel like it’s my job to build an environment that shows that we have each other’s backs – one that brings up peoples’ names behind closed doors in management meetings, involves them in discussions around important issues, and judges them on their actual performance.

Myself and other female leaders within Slack have formed close circles with each other to share our experiences and it’s such a great community to be part of.

We’re constantly learning from each other and we work hard to provide mentorship opportunities to help elevate more women so they feel empowered to fill those senior roles.

At Slack, we try to inspire our team members by mapping out their career paths. By identifying each person’s strengths and development areas, we help them determine their long-term journey and then pair them with projects that align with their own skills and interests.

We also define different archetypes to show each person what different types of engineers they can be at Slack— a builder, generalist, organizer, technologist, and Kickstarter.

These definitions help us show all the key roles of teams and publicly equalize different strengths that help managers remove bias and further empower their team members.

What’s your one best piece of advice for aspiring or early-in-career developers?

Imposter syndrome is real, and it never goes away. Even after two decades, I can sometimes struggle with it. Just remember: you belong! If you ever start to feel yourself losing confidence, don’t hesitate to ask your team for help and support.

Just for fun: what was your first computer or your most memorable piece of tech?

I actually didn't own my first computer until my freshman year in college when I started studying computer science. My parents saved for several months to be able to afford my Compaq PC, which is what I ended up teaching myself C++ on.

To this day, I still have such vivid memories of the sounds of the modem while using dial-up internet and using Yahoo Messenger to chat with my friends.

Thank you, Rukmini, for taking the time to share your story. Stay tuned to learn more about the honorees in our series of interviews. You can also read more about the honorees in this Insider article, which unpacks how they’re shaping a better future for developers.