A lifelong learner, Flavia Rangel developed a passion for technology early on as part of an afterschool program. And during her first internship, her fate in engineering was solidified: “It became clear to me that I couldn’t imagine myself doing anything else.” Since that internship, Flavia has continued to grow the scope and complexity of her role. Now a people manager, she continues to pursue her passion for tech at Uber and supports her team to do the same: “I continue learning every day, living the company purpose, and feeling proud of how much my team and I can change the world for good with the technology we deliver,” she shares below.
Tell us about yourself.
“My passion for technology started with a school program that allowed me to complete my final years of high school in a technical college. During those three years, I studied for my regular courses in the afternoon and my technical courses in the evenings. It opened my mind to the world of programming and algorithms. The final step to graduate from the technical school was to take a technical internship. It was during this internship that it became clear to me that I couldn’t imagine myself doing anything else.
After graduating, I started my degree in Computer Science at a public University in Brazil. In my second year in the University, by achieving good grades and working hard to learn English, I was granted a full scholarship to study in the United States. I studied Computer Science for 2 semesters at Missouri State University and did a summer course at Stanford University. I have such great memories from this experience and I learned so much, but most importantly, I learned that if I worked hard I was capable of doing anything. I came back to Brazil in 2013 and graduated in 2014. In 2018, I started working for Uber as a Software Engineer and that was the best choice I’ve ever made. Today, I’m an Engineer Manager for the Trusted Identity team and I continue learning every day, living the company purpose, and feeling proud of how much my team and I can change the world for good with the technology we deliver.”
Describe your career journey and experience at Uber.
“I started at Uber as a Software Engineer in 2018 with the start of the Brazil Tech Center in Sao Paulo. Fun fact: at the beginning of the Tech Center, it was only the Tech Center director, myself, and three other engineers. After onboarding, I started working in the Trusted Identity team. During my years working on building the Identity Platform, I learned a lot as an engineer. I learned about software engineering principles and applicabilities, about system design, availability, and scalability. I also learned how to respond to emergency situations. And by participating in interviews and meetups I learned how to live, work, and represent a culture of respect by doing the right thing. Today, as Engineer Manager, my process of learning and growing is still enormous, but it is super nice to see how much I can contribute to my team’s organization and people’s careers.”
How did Uber empower you to drive your growth and shift from an individual contributor to a people manager?
“Uber empowered me by first believing in my potential and creating the right environment for me to thrive. During my migration process, I was still doing some engineering tasks and doing an internal training process to learn more about this new career. After the training program, I started leading with a small scope and a close leadership to help me evolve and, with time, I was able to express my leadership skills and grow my scope.”
What does your day-to-day look like?
“Every day, I like to keep a few main goals in mind:
- Provide engineers on my team with project opportunities for them to express their skills and develop as tech professionals.
- Make sure my team is consistently delivering on the company’s global and local goals and objectives.
- Ensure my team’s work is organized, that there is clear communication between us, and that their projects are challenging with a well-defined scope.
With those goals in mind, I organize my team’s meetings to optimize our time with planning, retrospective, and standup meetings. I also do one-on-one meetings with engineers to track projects and to have ongoing career conversations.”
What advice do you have for people looking for career growth at Uber?
“Talk to your manager about your goals and work together with them to set small deliverables to reach them. You can look for a mentor as well by yourself or by enrolling in Uber’s formal mentorship program. Having a mentor is a great opportunity to hear experienced people, collect feedback, and exchange ideas.”
What’s one thing that has made you smile at work recently?
“When one of the engineers in my team got promoted. His promotion was 100% his merit, but I helped him to prepare for the promotion process and it was super satisfying and fulfilling.”
What has been your favorite feature/project you have worked on at Uber?
“My favorite project was helping deliver the document scanning feature as part of the Identity Verification platform. I feel super proud every time we launch it in new countries. This project increases rider verification, which can reduce the possibility of conflicts and improves driver safety sentiment regarding new riders in Latin America.”
Posted by Uber
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