Diva Tech Talk enjoyed interviewing Sunitha Vinnakota, experienced tech/IT security leader, currently working for General Motors Company, a trailblazer in automotive and transportation solutions for almost a century. Headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, global GM employs over 180,000 people; serves customers on 6 continents across 23 time zones in 70 languages; and focuses on pushing the limits of automotive engineering, while maintaining responsible stewardship of the world’s environmental resources. Currently #10 on the Fortune 500 list, GM is the largest automotive manufacturer based in the U.S. It is now led by Mary Barra, the first female CEO of a major automotive company. In 2018, GM ranked No. 1 on the World Economic Forum’s 2018 Global Report on Gender Equality, and, at that time, was one of only two global businesses displaying no gender pay gap. To that equitable environment, Sunitha brought over 18-plus years of evolving technology expertise, skills, automotive industry specialization, a high degree of intellectual curiosity coupled with drive, and broad business acumen.
Sunitha was interested in technology from her early years, encouraged strongly by her mechanical engineer father (“he always wanted a girl child, equal to boys”) who urged her to “look at the science all around you.” To him, tech was ubiquitous, and touched every aspect of human life. One of two siblings, growing up near Hyderabad, India, Sunitha was fascinated by logic underlying every invention, tool, process, in her life. “Everything has some science.” All her close male relatives were engineers. Sunitha said, “from childhood, I wanted to do something different from what everyone else was doing.” That fascination led her to concentrate on math, physics and computer science, and complete a bachelor’s degree in computer science, and master’s degree in computer applications at Osmania University. During her university days, for financial independence, Sunitha worked as a tutor and instructed high school students in math and physics. She moved to teaching Unix at the Birla Institute of Technology and Science; and, as she completed her masters, was offered a professorship at Osmania. However, Sunitha turned down university life in favor of working on the development of SAT and ACT tests, for 11th/12th graders, at Indotronix International. “There, I got great exposure to content management systems, Oracle, database servers and database applications, and how to write programs in Java,” she said.
Following her marriage, in 2000, Sunitha migrated to Michigan USA. In the course of the move, she mentored two women to take over her Indotronix responsibilities, but then had to wait for full-time employment as her U.S. visa situation normalized. During that first year, she worked part-time, teaching Java and C# programming, on the weekends. After receiving her H1B visa, she quickly became a consulting Java developer at Chrysler Corporation, now FCA Group Intl for a year. She then moved to GM as a consultant and systems analyst, deployed by now-defunct TAC Automotive Group, under contract. After the birth of her first daughter, Sunitha took a leave of absence. Then she chose Ford Motor Company, the fifth largest automotive company in the world, where she worked first as a systems analyst and then as a business analyst over the next six-plus years. “I often worked with my team, in India, until 2 AM,” during that period, since her business skills were supplemented by robust technical background, and many knotty problems wound up in her lap.
In 2013, Sunitha moved back to General Motors as a full-time employee, (“because I really love it”) as a senior business analyst in vehicle ordering and management systems. She ensured that she mastered those systems before moving over to learn ecommerce, in-depth. “It was completely new. We were developing an e-commerce application.” After that achievement, “I was getting kind of bored and wanted to spread my wings across the organization.” So Sunitha became a “quality evangelist” maintaining the integrity of IT application in global sales and marketing for that GSMC, GM’s Global Sales and Marketing, which comprises 1100 people across the globe. Then, in 2018, she wanted another learning experience, and began to work on cybersecurity for GSMC worldwide. She now leads security compliance for 230-plus applications, globally. One of Sunitha’s mantras is that everyone must “stay abreast of the latest technologies today” since data is rapidly exploding at an extraordinary rate. “These days, hackers have become so intelligent, you have to keep running, and learning” just to keep up with them. She is “having fun” because her job encompasses the breadth of GM technology from the “C suite to application owners to the grassroots” of the company. The role heavily focuses on sustaining customer trust, ensuring that “GM customers know their information is safe with us.”
Self-reflectively, Sunitha characterized her major strengths as intellectual curiosity, ambition, learning agility, a penchant for teaching/mentoring, and above all: passion. “Whatever I do, I dive in deep,” she said. She is also devoted to ensuring that her leadership, colleagues and customers have the highest level of trust that she will deliver what she has committed. She wants her stakeholders to say: “I have given this job to Sunitha. It gets done. I can sleep!” To recognize her talents, Sunitha was honored by a 2019 IT All Stars Women of Color Award for her work in improving application quality by 49% in less than 8 months, achieving 95% in standard compliance in record time. She also serves as a lead for operational excellence at GM, helping introduce continuous process improvements.
Sunitha’s method of tackling subtle sexism in her work situations has always been to “double down” in her efforts to prove her worth. When opportunities were available, she increased her skill sets and used them to make a case for traveling, performing at levels above and beyond what is required. She admits that her greatest fear is “not staying abreast of technology. I want to be indispensable.”
Sunitha’s words of wisdom for women leaders in technology are:
“Don’t be hesitant to explore and learn. It’s ok to fear, and to fail, but don’t let it stop you.” Time and perseverance will overcome all challenges.
“Don’t be afraid to ask someone” for help, guidance or answers when you need them.
“Don’t be in your comfort zone for long.”
Along the way, Sunitha has benefited from family mentors: her mother, her father and her mother-in-law, who she admires greatly for having overcome many significant obstacles. All have all helped impart wisdom, supplemented by various GM mentors (Ken Wilhelm and others). Since she loves to teach, Sunitha often works with college age “mentees” who she urges to consistently explore every opportunity. She is also a big believer in developing strong self-respect, and pragmatically rewarding yourself for achievements. “Don’t just buy a tech gadget;” ensure that you fully understand the gadget’s use/application and then “feel proud” of yourself.
In her community life, Sunitha kicked off the internship program for the Michigan Council of Women In Technology Foundation, and also serves on the technology advisory board for the Canton Michigan high school her children attend. Additionally, on weekends, she has begun to teach business analysis skills online for women, who may be currently hesitating to move up or into the technology space. Through that effort, “I have changed 16 women’s lives, so far” because “life is too short; let’s take advantage of it. Don’t give the remote control” away.
Sunitha can be reached by phone at (313) 269-1517, or by email at SunithaVinn@yahoo.com.
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