Coding Curiosity into Reality

APARNA BALASUBRAMANIAN, DIRECTOR OF SOFTWARE ENGINEERING, GOTO

“GoTo enables more women to take leadership roles by fostering an inclusive, gender-neutral culture where leadership progression is driven by capability, accountability, and impact. The emphasis is on creating equal access to opportunities through clear expectations, consistent standards, and visibility into meaningful work. The recipe for leadership doesn’t vary by gender. What sometimes differs is access to the same levels of trust, feedback, mentorship, and exposure.

From a business standpoint, diversity improves decision-making by reducing blind spots and strengthening execution in complex, cross-functional environments. When people feel heard and respected, collaboration improves and teams are more willing to challenge sub-optimal solutions—leading to better products, more resilient platforms, and outcomes that scale with the business. Our organisation has some seasoned leaders who consciously offer the same treatment and support across the board, remove unintended barriers and allow leadership potential to emerge naturally based on capability and impact, not fit or stereotype.

INSPIRED BY PROBLEMS, DRIVEN BY SOLUTIONS

My journey into technology leadership began with a deep interest in programming and problem-solving during school and college. Early in my career, I focused on building systems and understanding how technology worked at a detailed level. What inspired me to move into leadership was seeing how technology directly shapes business results and customer experiences. Technical choices mattered beyond code. As I worked across platform engineering, data and analytics, and large-scale transformation projects, I consistently stepped into leadership roles that brought structure to complex problems. I translated technical decisions into clear business impact and helped teams move forward with confidence in uncertain environments.”