The 39 most powerful female engineers of 2018
For all the arm waving about the lack of women in STEM professions, the truth is, there are some powerful role-model female engineers having fabulous careers and creating tech used by millions, if not billions of people everyday.
And every year, Business Insider creates this list to give those women a shout out.
These are women with engineering backgrounds who are running big business units at important companies, are building impressive up-and-coming technologies, or acting as leaders and role models in the tech communities.
In honor of International Women in Engineering Day on June 23, take a look at our picks of the most powerful female engineers of 2018.
SEE ALSO: The 43 most powerful female engineers of 2017
No. 39: Carol Leung, engineer manager, Airbnb
Carol Leung leads engineering for the “guest side” of Airbnb’s new Plus initiative, where Airbnb will be adding more types of properties to its network.
She’s admired and respected by everyone from her bosses to her teammates, known for her ability to motivate people, and keep projects on track.
Her promotion as the lead of this engineering team has marked her as a rising star at the company.
When she’s not at work, she’s out running. She laughs that even being pregnant didn’t stop her from her daily runs. “In fact, I was jogging on a treadmill the day of delivery for both of them,” she tell us.
No. 38: Meredith Westafer, senior industrial engineer, Tesla
Meredith Westafer is a senior industrial engineer at Tesla who manages the design and layout of the company’s Gigafactory, which will be the world’s largest factory by footprint.
The factory — located in Reno, Nevada — produces the integral lithium-ion batteries that run Tesla vehicles.
Westafer developed the models that determined how much space the factory needed and how materials flow within the factory. She designed an automated material delivery system that uses a fleet of autonomous mobile robots to deliver goods to and from the production line.
“Sometimes when I drive into work and see this huge building, I’m a little blown away by how big the challenge is, but it’s so fun,” she said.
No. 37: Tanya Lattner, president and COO, LLVM Foundation
Tanya Lattner is president and COO of the LLVM Foundation, an organization she helped to found.
LLVM is a “compiler” project meaning it helps a computer read and understand the software it runs. The LLVM tech is used by many big tech companies like Adobe, Nvidia, MobileEye, Sony.
Lattner is a former Apple engineer who worked on LLVM as a grad student and was a driving force in the project’s success. She’s got five patents to her name, too.
Compiler engineering is a niche that other programmers view with awe and it hasn’t yet attracted a ton of women.
Lattner is not only a role model for her own work, but her foundation has launched programs that encourage more women to try their hand at this type of engineering.
“I am a compiler engineer by training, which is a field that many consider to be intimidating. I love that I am able to change this perspective,” she tells us.