Women of Verkada Spotlight Series: Jane Wang, Lead Engineering Program Manager on the hardware team

This Women’s History Month, we’re kicking off our new Women of Verkada Spotlight Series highlighting just a few of the talented and inspiring women who make up our team. In this post, we’ll introduce you to Jane Wang - Lead Engineering Program Manager on the hardware team. We'll learn more about her role at Verkada, her advice for women starting out in their engineering careers and what she loves most about her work. 

Jane, tell us a little bit about your role and what you do at Verkada.

Hi, I'm Jane, a Lead Engineering Program Manager on the hardware team, focusing on the Verkada Sensor and Alarm products.

What is the most exciting part about working on the hardware for the alarms and sensors team? 

My team works on environmental sensors and various wired and wireless devices that help detect intrusion events. Unlike other products, intrusion detection cannot be easily achieved with one hardware device - it has to be a family of devices.

Working on these devices is both challenging and meaningful. It's challenging because we are designing hardware and software from the ground up and applying some new technologies for the first time. It's meaningful because the products we build help protect people's lives in their day-to-day activities. 

What advice would you give to future women in engineering?

Believe in yourself and be confident. Find what you’re passionate about and dare to accept new challenges, whether it's a technical challenge or a transition in life. Develop a career plan, learn from others and be proud of your achievements.

How do you build a community for women at Verkada?

In the past year, I ran several #IamRemarkable workshops, a 90-minute, interactive workshop that started at Google. The workshop aims to help women learn to practice self-promotion to combat imposter syndrome, something I faced when I first started in my role. I attended the workshop and found it so helpful that it inspired me to become a workshop leader myself. I then led a session at Verkada to help my co-workers who may have also been experiencing imposter syndrome. The session was very successful, and I loved hearing my co-workers share how they applied what they learned.

I believe a community for women in engineering should not just be a place where women engineers can get to know each other, but also where we can learn and grow together. The #IamRemarkable workshop provides this kind of opportunity, so I can't wait to host more sessions!

Why should someone apply?

Verkada is a really exciting place to be, not only because the company is growing quickly but also because the people are so amazing. Some of the people here will become my lifelong friends. Our work is also very impactful, so join the team and let's make the world safer! 

Want to build products that help keep people safe? Apply today!