Navigating the engineering field as a woman often feels like traversing a labyrinth filled with unexpected barriers and unfair dead ends. These five Austin companies are actively mowing down the misogynist maze, replacing it with clear pathways that allow women to build successful, fulfilling engineering careers.
Despite making up nearly half the U.S. workforce, women account for just 15 percent of engineers nationwide. That number is even lower for openly LGBTQ engineers and women of color, who account for only 5 percent of women in STEM.
The gender gap in engineering is not only caused by issues with recruiting and hiring women; it’s also a result of companies’ failures to retain women engineers and support their career growth.
While women make up 20 percent of engineering graduates, a 2014 study by the American Psychological Association found that nearly 40 percent of women with engineering degrees quit or never entered the field. Women who persisted in engineering credited career satisfaction and supportive leaders, colleagues and organizations.
The five Austin tech companies included below are stepping up to create workplaces where women are fairly compensated and promoted to leadership roles. First Dollar, for example, created a transparent career rubric to ensure engineers are compensated equally across different titles. In 2020, Rapid7 reported its leadership is 49.7 percent women and people of color — just 0.3 percent shy of the 50-50 goal it set two years prior. At LogicMonitor, the majority of its C-suite is led by women.
Built In Austin connected with engineering and recruitment leaders at Rapid7, Red Ventures, findhelp, LogicMonitor and First Dollar to discuss their efforts to recruit, hire and support women engineers.
Rapid7, a cybersecurity software company, partners with its newly-appointed DEI director and inclusive conferences to meet measurable, specific recruitment goals of women and people of color. Once hired, women engineers are supported through leadership development programs, women’s groups and subscriptions to LinkedIn Learning and Masterclass.
Describe your recruiting efforts to get more women into engineering roles at your company.
I feel fortunate to work at a company with a genuine focus on fostering a positive environment for women inside the company and in the community. Rapid7 has both long-term investments to elevate women in tech as well as time-based, measurable goals.
In 2018, Rapid7 leadership made a goal to be 50-50 by 2020 — 50 percent women and people of color. We are proud to say that we ended 2020 just shy of our target at 49.7 percent. We could have rounded up, but we are proud of what we achieved and continue to strive for greater parity across the company.
Our 2022 goals are focused on increasing our global representation of women to 35 percent. In order to continue progressing toward our goals, we hired our first director of diversity, equity and inclusion, Sophia Dozier, in early 2022. Sophia is an inspirational leader who’s already creating a big impact. The people team partners closely with the business to ensure that our DEI goals are strategically woven in throughout our: hiring process; tooling and data; branding; leadership and development training; workplace experience and more. We continue to sponsor and partner with the Conferences for Women, WISE, Hack.Diversity, Cyversity and more.
There are visible, influential, inspirational and kind women at all levels and job categories in the company.”
What makes your company an attractive place to work for women in engineering?
Before joining, I did my research to ensure there was a sincere leadership focus on diversity and social good. I could see that Rapid7 has a range of ongoing investments in diversity in tech and education. We’ve also been included in the Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index since 2019.
These external efforts are backed up by a culture and values system that is fully embraced by leaders throughout the organization. During my interview process, it was clear that every person I spoke to truly cared about the people they work with. You can tell a lot about a company in the interview process based on who shows up and how they talk about their people. Support for women in engineering roles was organically apparent with the women leaders who I connected with during the process.
Since joining, I found this support to be consistent. There are visible, influential, inspirational and kind women at all levels and job categories in the company, including in our executive leadership team.
Once you hire women in engineering positions, how does your company support them?
Rapid7 has a very unique culture rooted in a community that strives to create intentional and empathetic relationships. We support all women and team members by giving them resources and tools that support their professional growth, while contributing to a psychologically safe environment that encourages new ideas and collaboration.
One of our core values is “never done,” which means we are all avid learners. Opportunities for learning and development exist in formal programs like our manager bootcamp and technical and non-technical leadership development programs. Informally, we support growth and development by providing licenses to LinkedIn Learning and, most recently, gifting all employees a one-year subscription to Masterclass as part of our 2022 company kickoff event.
At Rapid7, we refer to our contributors as ‘moose’, a word that is the same in both singular and plural forms. Our Moose Women Rapid Impact Group is a community that is supported by DEI and guided by the needs of our women-identifying moose. We recently had a subset of this group form that is focused on supporting women in sales, and we look forward to future expansions of this community.
Red Ventures, a portfolio of digital companies including Lonely Planet and Healthline, partners with inclusive groups and conferences such as Women in Tech, Women Who Code and Out in Tech to recruit women and LGBTQ engineers. The company hired a chief diversity officer in 2020 and hosts an ERG to support women and nonbinary people.
Describe your recruiting efforts to get more women into engineering roles at your company.
We’re always looking for ways to target more diverse groups in our recruiting efforts. Our female leadership attends women-centric events and conferences, such as Women in Tech, so we can network with other engineers or aspiring engineers and grow our women candidate pipeline.
We joined a bunch of women-centric meetups in our respective areas and attend them regularly, in-person and virtually, to grow our skills and meet like-minded people with whom we’d love to work. We also partner with Women Who Code and Out in Tech, both of which empower women and LGBTQ people in tech.
What makes your company an attractive place to work for women in engineering?
Red Ventures is the front-runner of places where I have worked that has the most women in engineering leadership positions. We recognize the value of having diversity in our senior leadership teams and actively strive toward having all groups represented. I personally had the pleasure of working closely beside directors of engineering right up to senior vice presidents who identify as women, all of whom have great mentorship skills and provide indispensable feedback on what it means to be a woman in engineering and how to be successful.
Beyond that, DEI is one of our key performance indicators and we hired a chief diversity officer in 2020, so we’re assured Red Ventures is striving for equality. Our all-employee meetings often are DEI-centered to allow us to have an insight into how we’re doing. We also have a few women-based ERGs, such as Empowered in Tech, that gives all women and nonbinary employees a platform to harness advice, get together and share experiences. Not to mention, it’s a great place to make friends and have some fun!
Red Ventures is the front-runner of places where I have worked that has the most women in engineering leadership positions.”
Once you hire women in engineering positions, how does your company support them?
As mentioned, we have a strong emphasis on DEI at Red Ventures and appointed a DEI team. They’re continually analyzing compensation across Red Ventures, internal opportunities, promotions, etc. to ensure we have gender equality and that no gender gaps form across the engineering organization.
Our annual employee experience survey, administered by Perceptyx, measures sentiment across our organization, including belonging and inclusion. The survey enables us to measure our progress and to hold ourselves accountable for driving meaningful change. It also enables our employees to continue to be the authors of our story.
Findhelp is a platform that connects people to food, health, housing and employment programs. The company joins women-focused college recruitment events and partners with Austin Women in Technology to grow its pool of women engineering candidates. Once hired, women are supported through great benefits including generous parental leave and an in-office breastfeeding room.
Describe your recruiting efforts to get more women into engineering roles at your company.
Findhelp recently engaged with Austin Women in Technology as a hiring partner. We also join college recruiting events that are geared toward women in technology, which includes engineering roles. At community and hiring events, we put forward many of our women staff to show our inclusivity and commitment to DEI.
As part of findhelp, I have had numerous opportunities to start initiatives, get support for them and bring them to fruition. Being part of a work environment like this is really fulfilling.”
What makes your company an attractive place to work for women in engineering?
There are several things from my experience that made findhelp an attractive place to work. First, one of the best parts of the job is the amazing women and nonbinary engineers within the organization. We have a group that has almost doubled in size since I started about a year ago. It’s exciting to see the representation grow and to see each of us succeed and make an impact within the company in different ways.
Second, another great part of the job is our mission to connect all people in need and the programs that serve them with dignity and ease. Working at a company with a strong mission has been a game changer for me. There is an inherent sense of motivation because every employee is there for a unified cause.
Last, as part of findhelp, I have had numerous opportunities to start initiatives, get support for them and bring them to fruition. Being part of a work environment like this is really fulfilling.
Once you hire women in engineering positions, how does your company support them?
I already mentioned the group we have internally, which creates a space for women and nonbinary coworkers to support each other. Another group we have that is companywide is an inclusive recruiting and partnerships group, which works to help improve the visibility of our job postings to a more inclusive audience.
Once hired, we have many amazing benefits that benefit women’s healthcare and new parents, such as parental leave and a breastfeeding room. We also have many volunteer opportunities, which is always a plus for me to see a company and employees who want to give back to the community. Earlier this year, a group of engineers participated in Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day at UT Austin, an event through the University of Texas where companies host hands-on learning activities for girls K-12 to learn more about STEM.
LogicMonitor, a platform for companies to monitor their networks, applications, clouds and more, supports women in engineering through mentorship programs, community groups and great benefits including robust parental leave and infertility coverage. The company also runs an anonymous employee hotline, coffee chats with women leaders and regular audits to ensure equal pay.
Describe your recruiting efforts to get more women into engineering roles at your company.
Our hiring practices promote diversity and inclusion from the very beginning. Through our applicant tracking system’s built-in inclusivity nudges, interviewers are reminded to focus on the skills needed for a role and to check any biases they may have. Additionally, we ensure all interviewers represent a wide range of backgrounds, traits and experiences.
As our company continues to grow, we look to our teams for referrals, encouraging them to consider diversity when recommending candidates to help create a more equitable workforce. We’re also proud to partner and volunteer with several different organizations whose goals align with our desire to encourage more women to pursue careers in tech, such as Girls Who Code and Code2College.
Additionally, we’ve scaled our student internship program. This includes allowing for student co-ops beyond the summer months, which opens up more opportunities for diverse students to gain experience in the world of tech.
What makes your company an attractive place to work for women in engineering?
Our culture here is truly special. LogicMonitor is a highly collaborative company that gives everyone an opportunity to provide their thoughts and ideas, and feedback is valued when making important decisions. With the support of mentors and leadership, we encourage the career growth of women as part of our ‘better every day’ core value.
Just recently, Jude Bakeer, a member of our sales engineering team, was promoted to a leadership position after being inspired and motivated by her leadership team. The support of women leaders is also apparent within our majority-women C-suite.
To embody our “trust” core value, we seek to be receptive to one another and have transparent, candid conversations about the topics and changes that will better LogicMonitor as a whole. We also pride ourselves on emphasizing “one team,” one of our core values, which makes LogicMonitor unique and a great place to work.
With the support of mentors and leadership, we encourage the career growth of women as part of our ‘better every day’ core value.”
Once you hire women in engineering positions, how does your company support them?
From day one at LogicMonitor, women in engineering are provided women mentors who hold technical roles in various business functions of the company. Our sales engineering team also implemented a buddy system for our new hires to shadow and learn from their fellow team members.
Through our onboarding process, we introduce all new hires to our community groups — such as Women@LM and Pride@LM — creating a foundation of support from the inception of their career with us.
Our healthcare and benefits are continually improving to support women’s wellness, including services such as robust parental leave and infertility coverage. We also offer an LMer hotline to report concerns while protecting the employee’s anonymity. As part of our commitment to pay equity, we participate in regular compensation audits to ensure fair and equal compensation is being offered to our LMers.
We hosted several company coffee chats, including one with Poornima Parameswaran Batish, co-founder of ThiinkEqual and MadeByHer. We also recently celebrated International Women’s Day, during which we heard stories and advice from our women in leadership to empower our future leaders.
First Dollar, a platform for consumer-directed healthcare benefits, developed a transparent career rubric to ensure that every engineer earns equal pay across different titles. Lead Software Engineer Caryn Ligon co-organizes Women Who Code Austin, a group that empowers women to excel in technology careers.
Describe your recruiting efforts to get more women into engineering roles at your company.
It starts by saying the goal out loud. Through several hiring pushes, our engineering team has consciously had conversations to the tune of “we’ll be a better team because of gender diversity.” By stating this as a value and not making assumptions, we’ve changed every phase of the hiring pipeline — including who we source, how our interview processes support diverse backgrounds and perspectives, and how we equally compensate every member of our engineering team.
What makes your company an attractive place to work for women in engineering?
From the beginning, we’ve held a stance of “relationships over code.” You’ll be treated respectfully and professionally regardless of your experience level, gender, background or any other factor. This inclusion standard is at the forefront of how we build our teams.
Additionally, we have amazing women leaders in our engineering organization. Caryn Ligon, a lead software engineer at First Dollar, co-organizes Austin’s Women Who Code meetup. Caryn recently featured another woman, First Dollar Senior Frontend Engineer Serena Nguyen, in a meetup talk about our web technology. We are constantly looking for ways to elevate and support each other, and efforts like Caryn’s go a long way to building an inclusive culture.
From the beginning, we’ve held a stance of ‘relationships over code.’ You’ll be treated respectfully and professionally regardless of your experience level, gender, background or any other factor.”
Once you hire women in engineering positions, how does your company support them?
It’s easy for early, growing startups to just pile in engineers without spending the time needed to create a healthy framework for engineer career growth. Skipping this step results in engineers existing in purely flat organizations with meaningless titles and an absence of objective criteria for feedback, compensation and career growth conversations. To provide a baseline, we created an engineering career rubric that provides context for job titles and ensures everyone is compensated equally across different titles.
It’s not just in engineering. We recently raised our Series A, and we are building more established processes around feedback cycles and compensation adjustments for the whole company. We’re also establishing company-wide values that every single employee is bought in on. Through anonymous surveys and a diverse panel of moderators, we’re crafting more explicit values. These values uphold and socialize the high standards we have for ourselves when it comes to creating a safe and equitable environment that brings out everyone’s best self.
