At Sopra Steria, we have always valued diversity and we’re lucky enough to have a great team of female leaders and mentors, each of whom have their own stories to tell about overcoming challenges and creating opportunities that have shaped their careers, and their lives.
The next in our series of short interviews is with Clare Moseley, Senior Product Manager within the Public Safety Group at Sopra Steria. Clare shares her experience of stumbling into the IT industry and how roles within it don’t always mean coding.
Tell us a bit about your role and what your day-to-day looks like
I’m a Senior Product Manager within our Public Safety Group (PSG), which is part of the Aerospace, Defence and Security (ADS) business area within Sopra Steria.
The PSG team partners with emergency services across the blue light sector, and most notably delivers the STORM Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) software to almost 70% of the UK's police forces. STORM is a long-standing central component to policing (we’re coming up to its 30th birthday!) and is essentially the gold standard for emergency response management. Depending on where you are in the UK, if you dial 999 for the police, it’s likely to be STORM that handles that call and dispatches the police response.
I’m really lucky in that my role means I get to work very closely with colleagues across the whole PSG team, ensuring that we prioritise work and focus on developing the product and services to meet both our business needs and, most importantly, the evolving needs of our customers. This means no two days are ever the same, balancing competing priorities, ensuring our deliveries and the product run smoothly whilst also driving new product development, features and ideas. These can vary from very technical, small-scale developments, to larger, standalone developments that really impact people’s lives.
We’re a small team, so we are really careful about where we spend our time, always thinking about what brings the most value to the customer.
Tell us a bit about your experience and pathway into the technology sector
My career started when I joined a Graduate Programme in another organisation after finishing my master’s degree. It was there that I ‘stumbled’ into IT. The graduate programme had us undertaking various placements, and an opportunity arose in the IT space. I had no coding experience and didn’t have a particularly technical background, but I was able to join the IT team due to the opportunities available and absolutely loved it. I had an absolute incredible line manager and mentor there, who saw something in me, and put me to work!
That was my last placement, as I never left the team, and saw out my graduate programme within the IT space. The rest, as they say, is history! I was supported to flourish and try new things, and that was really the springboard that launched my career. I’ve been in tech roles ever since in various roles across supplier management, IT Service Delivery, IT Project Management, and then into Product Management.
I joined Sopra Steria in February 2022. I was looking for somewhere where I could grow my career, as, like most of us, I have career ambitions, and felt there were no real opportunities for progression in my last role. I found the Sopra Steria advert on LinkedIn, which made it clear that even if I didn’t think I ticked all of the boxes on the ad, I should apply anyway. I’m so glad I did, I had no prior background in policing or the emergency or blue light sector, but lots of product management experience to bring to the table.
What do you enjoy most about your role?
Broadly, no two days are the same. I work with a great team with amazing colleagues who are so passionate about the role that PSG plays in public safety, and I feel a strong sense of purpose in what we do. I have been lucky enough to visit quite a few of our customers and see our software in action. It’s amazing to see incredible frontline professionals using our software to enhance public safety. When we’re progressing through the product management lifecycle, taking something from an idea to reality, it’s genuinely humbling to know it will make a real difference to people’s lives.
There’s also great autonomy in my role, which means I’m trusted to do what I need to so that my team and I meet our objectives. The role is flexible, so I can manage my time as I need to. This is important when balancing other things in life and means I can work when I work best. In the winter particularly, getting away from the desk in the middle of the day helps to keep the winter blues at bay, and personally, for things that need me to sit down and think, I often find that an hour or two in the evening is the best time for me to work through them – my time is mine to plan, and that works perfectly for me!
Why do you think it’s important for more women to join the tech industry?
This is something I could talk about all day. The world is just better when there’s a diversity of opinion and input - and IT is no different. In my near decade of being in IT, I’ve got used to often being the only woman in the room. This is getting so much better, but there is still so much more to do. There are so many varied roles within the industry so it’s vital that we have a diverse workforce. The term ‘IT’ means so much. It doesn’t just mean coding, it’s Business Analysis, Project Management, Support – almost anything you can think of. Technology impacts every aspect of life and the opportunities to get involved with software, or hardware, or delivery are endless. The impact that can be made in the technology space is huge, and feeling like I’ve made a difference has always been a huge career motivator for me.
I also really believe that the technology industry is one step ahead in terms of human-centered working. Depending on your role, my experience is there is so much more flexibility than you might get in a traditional 9-5 role.
What initiatives have you been a part of to support the progression of women in the tech industry?
This is a topic I’m hugely passionate about, and something I have looked to support across my various roles in IT. Finding my career in IT was a total accident, and only happened by chance. I often think how different my life would be if that hadn’t of happened, and for those who aren’t as lucky as I was, what I can do to show others the variety that a tech career has to offer. I’m a member of a number of organisations, such as TechSheCan, that help to support women in tech. I’ve also visited schools and universities to talk to young people about the opportunities that technology can provide, and hopefully motivate more young girls and women into the tech space.
Within PSG we have a great group of women – in roles ranging from developers to commercial, project management to training, as well as our CTO, who get together every other month or so, to chat, network and to share experiences and ideas. We’ve been seeing that number grow, which is amazing, and I can’t wait for it to grow even further! Whatever your skillset, whatever your strengths, there’s almost certainly a role for you – have a look, you just might find it is.
Head to our website to find out more about our Diversity & Inclusion vision and read more about our celebration of women in the tech industry.