Sowmya K.
5.0
Elevate Your Career with a Stanford GSB-Certified Leadership Coach
Studied at Stanford Graduate School of Business
Works at IBM
Available Wednesday at 1:30 AM UTC
Questions? Start chatting with this coach before you get started.
Sowmya’s Career Development Qualifications
Coaches professionally
Experience level: Director
Balancing short-term goals with long-term vision can be overwhelming. I’ve been there - executing multiple career pivots to build a breadth of experience, juggling work and family while being mindful of self-care, and driving impact as a purposeful leader in the technology industry. With a rich background in leadership and career development, I bring over two decades of experience from top tech companies like Google, IBM, and Amazon. As the CEO and Founder of Pellucid Communications, I have coached senior leaders across various roles, helping them build strong team cultures, develop management skills, and navigate key career transitions. My coaching is informed by my work in strategic roles, such as Director of University Education and Workforce Development, where I align cross-functional teams to drive global skilling initiatives. I am a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach (CPCC) and an International Coaching Federation Associate Certified Coach (ACC), dedicated to empowering individuals to reach their full potential. Let's connect to tailor a career development plan that aligns with your goals!
Sowmya can help with:
Skill Building
Career Planning
Professional Networking
Personal Branding
Networking Strategy
Work Experience
Director, University Education and Workforce Development
IBM
January 2024 - Present
I set the strategic direction for scalable skilling initiatives that drive adoption of IBM AI technologies globally. By aligning cross-functional teams, industry partners, and educational institutions, I ensure our programs create a pipeline of credentialed talent, accelerating customer success and ecosystem growth. I am the co-chair of the Skills and Education working group in the AI Alliance.
CEO and Founder
Pellucid Communications
March 2023 - Present
As a strategic partner and executive coach, supported senior leaders, at Google and at startups, across a range of roles in engineering, sales, finance, professional services, and more. - In the Stanford Graduate School of Business’s Seed and LEAD Incubator & Startup Accelerator (LISA) programs, mentor startup founders on product and go-to-market strategy. - In the Startups for Sustainable Development program, coached leaders at startups on building a strong team culture, identifying blind spots, and managing relationships with the founding team. - In the Phoenix Asian Women Leadership Development program, coached women leaders on how to self-advocate, build influence, and develop high-performing teams - In the g2g coaching program, helped leaders across Google develop their careers, grow management skills, navigate key transitions, and handle crucial conversations. I am a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach (CPCC) and International Coaching Federation Associate Certified Coach (ACC). Coaching, Leadership Development Coaching and +1 skill
Leadership Coach
March 2023 - January 2024
In addition to my full-time role as Global Lead for Developer and Future Workforce programs, coaching senior leaders, at Google and at startups, across a range of roles in engineering, sales, finance, professional services, and more. - In the Startups for Sustainable Development program, coaching leaders at startups on building a strong team culture, identifying blind spots, and managing relationships with the founding team - In Phoenix Asian Women Leadership Development program, coached women leaders on how to self-advocate, build influence, and develop high-performing teams - In the g2g coaching program, coaching leaders across Google. Received bonus award for helping leaders develop their careers, grow management skills, navigate key transitions, and handle crucial conversations. Leadership Development Coaching
Global Lead, Go-to-market for Developer and Future Workforce Programs
May 2018 - January 2024
Leading cross-functional teams to define vision, drive customer discovery, develop go-to-market strategy, incubate ideas, and launch scalable learning programs for higher education and public sector skilling initiatives. Programs drive adoption of Google Cloud by providing partners and customers with credentialed talent. - With strong faculty, student, and developer engagement, accelerated adoption of Google Cloud training and credentials in higher education institutions worldwide - Established partnerships with nonprofits and public-private organizations to drive public policy influence and scaled adoption - Expanded footprint from one to over 20 countries - Led over 160% YoY growth in the number of credentials achieved - Built a robust talent pipeline for Google Cloud customers and partners leading to strong student and partner testimonials - Drove thought leadership through speaking engagements at the Google Cloud Public Sector summit and CedMA - Influenced senior stakeholders within and across BUs to secure resource commitments and drive shared goals - Managing geographically dispersed high-performing team with a focus on customer empathy, psychological safety, and empowerment Cloud Computing, Program Management and +8 skills
Lead Technical Curriculum Developer
December 2016 - May 2018
Led overall design and development for strategic technical curriculum offerings in a highly matrixed organization. - Designed and developed curriculum for Cloud Technical Residency (CTR) Intensive, a unique program to build an early-career talent pool for Support, Professional Services, and Customer Engineering roles. The first cohort of trained residents supported over 400 customer engagements in less than a year. - Defined overall roadmap for Google Cloud Application Development curriculum, developed and launched the first major app dev specialization on Coursera and as instructor-led training (Developing Applications with GCP). The curriculum has a 4.7 star rating on Coursera Cloud Computing, Training Needs Analysis and +4 skills
Technical Training Architect
Amazon
May 2015 - December 2016
Planned and delivered major releases of Developing on AWS, DevOps Engineering on AWS, and Data Warehousing on AWS courses. Contributed to minor releases of Architecting on AWS course Cloud Computing, Java and +5 skills
Documentation Manager
Oracle
2010 - May 2015
- Managed a global team of technical writers and drove adoption of Java SE and related products in collaboration with product management, support, marketing, and developer evangelism teams - Co-authored The Java Tutorial fifth and sixth edition books Process Improvement, Technical Documentation and +1 skill
Education
Kellogg School of Management (Northwestern)
Course, Product Strategy
2022 - 2022
Stanford Graduate School of Business
Stanford LEAD Professional Certificate
2020 - 2021
Stanford LEAD is a year-long, 9-course program that develops effective leaders who embody five core leadership competencies: critical analysis, self-awareness, interpersonal acumen, situational awareness, and holistic communication. These leaders complete coursework in key business fundamentals: finance, strategy, and critical analytical thinking, as well as elective coursework which equips them to successfully address and navigate the challenges and opportunities inherent in fostering and implementing change within their organizations. Throughout the program, participants exchange ideas and collaborate on projects with small teams of like-minded, like-motivated peers, and engage with world-renowned Stanford GSB faculty, Silicon Valley leaders, coaches, thought leaders, and luminaries through regular live events, discussions, and facilitated feedback.
6 Reviews
Overall Rating
5.0
Sowmya has helped Leland clients get into T-Mobile