✨ New Series: Getting to know the wonderful folks that are part of our Continuous Delivery Community
Tiffany Jachja
Pronouns: She/Her/Hers
Location: Maryland, USA
Who are you?
I am a people person! I share stories and am passionate about creating opportunities for people around the world through my work and experiences. Community is important to me, so I find it essential to meet people where they are at when I work or collaborate with them, by being communicative, open, and kind. I believe that leadership is inspiring and that it gives people the push to live a life that is more true to them. I care a lot about environments that promote the well-being of others and the people in their lives.
What are your hobbies?
I am also an avid sticker collector, cat mom, intuitive healer, and personal development coach. Outside of tech, I like to explore the interests I’ve held since I was a kid, including food, art, animation, and business ventures. I find that having more resources, like money, makes you more of who you are.
What did you want to be when you were a kid?
As a kid, I wanted to be a creative business owner. I was always collecting, painting, and crafting things from items around the house. Once I had access to a computer, I collected, painted, and crafted things online.
What led you to a career in tech?
That passion led to a career in tech, surprisingly. My parents are first-generation immigrants who came to the US on a green card lottery incentive, and they were the first in their lineage to attend higher education schooling. This is to say they and I knew very little about college/university prep when it was time to apply for schools. Of course, when you don’t know something, you start with what you do know. So based on what I knew about myself my options were to go to business, art, or engineering school, and engineering school, I did go. I thought that pursuing a computer engineering degree could help me to express my creativity. I didn’t realize the opportunity it created for me to share and be known for my work till much later.
Do you remember your first open source contribution?
I do remember my first open source contribution! I had just given my first talk at Red Hat Summit in Boston, and I had talked about leveraging distributed tracing technologies to improve the performance of reactive microservices. I made a commit containing sample code examples as part of the talk. The experience was memorable because the main open source maintainer of the project at the time had attended my talk and shared some stickers with me as a thank-you for my contribution to the project. As I gave more talks, more people came to know me in the community.
How did you get involved in the Continuous Delivery Foundation?
That is the start to how I eventually got involved in the Continuous Delivery Foundation. I kept sharing talks of the development and consulting work I was doing internally and for enterprise customers. I eventually focused on that level and type of enablement through managing programs, talks, events, and projects. I heard about the Continuous Delivery Foundation and became an ambassador, then outreach committee chair for the year 2021. [Photo from cdCon 2023]
What is your favorite thing/project/tech to work on?
I love working on digital transformations. It’s a blend of organizational and technical competency that allows me to help developers deliver better software. I love seeing the impact of my work and people management has been my focus for the last three or so years. I want more opportunities to explore and expand my leadership and hopefully help people align with their careers.
Tell us about the thing you’re most proud of and why?
I am most proud of my last talk, which I gave at a women’s conference at my university earlier this year; it was hosted by American Association of University Women (AAUW). I talked about finding your career path, and I remember closing the talk off by talking about how to bridge the gap around who you are and who you want to be. Sometimes it feels impossible to chase the future. We don’t realize that if we do just one thing that the future version of ourselves would do, that we’re one step closer to becoming. Sometimes it’s just putting on that blouse, that pair of earrings, or drinking more water. When I looked at the room full of women moved to tears, I felt moved.
What is the best connection you’ve made through open source?
The best connections I’ve made through open source include many great people. Lisa-Marie Namphy is a star. She’s someone who I enjoy running into in person and online, and I learn so much from her. Same with Tracy Ragan. I’ve also met so many great engineers like Eric Murphy, Andrew Baumann, Ales Nosek, Nicolas Perez, and Gwyneth Pena Siguenza, to name a few. I also have my favorite community organizers, including Bart Farrell, Paul Bruce, and Michael Thomas Clark.
What is your #1 top tip for getting involved in the community?
If you want to get involved in the community, let others connect with you. That can mean being seen or recognized for your contribution, it can also mean having someone reach out. The root word of community is commune, and I think we can gain so much confidence from letting others see and learn from our work.
“The root word of community is commune, and I think we can gain so much confidence from letting others see and learn from our work. If you want to get involved in the community or grow your career, let others connect with you. That can mean being seen or recognized for your contributions. It can also mean sharing your accomplishments and being open to someone reaching out to you.”
– Tiffany Jachja
Where can we find you?
I’m on Linkedin! That’s the best place to find me nowadays.
What’s happening next?
Catch Tiffany at cdCon Japan in Toyko on December 4! 🗼 Her talk: Unlocking ML Magic: A Guide for Using ML to Meet Continuous Delivery Needs
