Culture
A Day in the Life: Director of Engineering Nafisa Chowdhury
This story is a part of our ‘A Day in the Life’ series that highlights the career journeys of 2U employees across the world. Throughout May we’re celebrating Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month and featuring 2Utes of Asian-Pacific Islander (API) descent.
Nafisa Chowdhury has spent the majority of her career providing her technical expertise to increase the efficiency of product strategy at mission-driven businesses. Whether at Teach for America or Comcast, Nafisa’s focus has always been on breaking down walls in incredibly complex markets to deliver great outcomes. Today, her job is no different.
As director of engineering at 2U, Inc., Nafisa uses the skills she learned as a classroom teacher, solutions architect, and product manager to build software. She leads her team in delivering the products needed for marketing and curriculum delivery.
“To do this, I consider myself an advocate of the team I help lead,” said Nafisa. “My role is to influence, inspire, protect, and stand up for the engineers so they can do their best in their roles.” Nafisa’s job requires her to be strategic and technical to bring her architectural vision to life, as well as a steward for highly maintainable and scalable systems to support business needs. 2U moves fast, and Nafisa’s team must remain nimble to meet the growing demand for well-engineered solutions.
While she has many tight deadlines, Nafisa manages to inject fun into her day, too. She finds joy in delivering innovative technology that transforms the student experience and opportunities for experimentation never cease to excite her.
Are you interested in learning more about Nafisa, her role at 2U, and her perspective as a 2Ute of Asian-Pacific Islander (API) descent? Read on for a day in the life of Nafisa Chowdhury.
Why did you join 2U? What is it about the company that sparked your interest?
I joined 2U because of its scale and its mission. While my background was not in education technology, I knew my experience in programmatic marketing and building software for online curriculum could be best served at the scale of universities served by 2U.
What do you find most rewarding and challenging about your job?
Recently, the most challenging part of the job has been trying to answer, “How do we keep ourselves productive in such uncertain times? How do we make sure people are taking care of themselves first?”
The most rewarding parts of the job are always when our team delivers on behalf of our stakeholders. Most recently, we were able to launch two new internal features and services to ensure we are collecting the right data to create the best experiences for prospective students.
What’s your favorite part about working at 2U?
There are some phenomenally smart people working here. I have pretty much learned something new every day in the two and a half years I’ve been at 2U and have been able to apply those learnings back to my work.
What does Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month mean to you?
This month is a time to reflect and re-learn the history of Asians in this country—both good and bad. We’ve not had a perfect history and have been under systemic duress in many ways that limit our community’s ability to thrive. This month is also a moment to be introspective. Despite a tumultuous history, the majority of the Asian Pacific Islander community holds quite a lot of privilege. I believe this month is a moment to celebrate who we are, but also be activists for our brethren in other disenfranchised communities and show true intersectional solidarity.
Who is your Asian-Pacific Islander (API) icon?
Yuri Kochiyama was a friend of Malcolm X who was present during his assassination. She led movements for ally-ship between Black and Asian communities during the Civil Rights Movement and beyond.
What advice would you give to someone just starting at 2U?
I would encourage newer 2Utes to seek out community within 2U. This is where I’ve been able to be my most authentic self at work.
Are you interested in a job like Nafisa’s? Check out our Tech & Data Science team page for more information.
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