How Erica Riello Uses Her Career in Tech in Favor of Inclusion

Photo Alt Text: Erica Riello, Software Engineer, smiles wearing a grey coat in front of a bamboo grove.

Written by Gisela Bobato

Erica Riello is part of the Engineering team in São Paulo, working as a  Backend Engineer on our Uber Eats Safety team. Being experienced in different areas and stacks, Erica found at Uber an opportunity to apply her knowledge and life experience in a product with global impact.

She’s also a “nUber” (someone who has just started working at Uber), a member of LadyEng, our community of women in Engineering at Uber Brazil, and also happens to be hearing-impared. Erica reinforces the importance of hiring diverse professionals in order to develop products that are as inclusive and accessible as possible.

Three months into her Uber journey, Erica is part of the team responsible for striving to help  Uber meet its goal to be the safest food marketplace choice for eaters, restaurants and couriers. Among the team’s many goals are food safety in restaurants, increasing safety sentiment among users, and incident reduction.

Since she started, Erica has been participating in important projects and already foresees great learning opportunities along her journey. “Working in a project means also taking on large-scale challenges, since, when we implement a feature or an enhancement, we impact users around the world, not just in Brazil.”

Before starting at Uber as a Backend Engineer, Erica worked as a Full Stack Developer and Android Engineer—experiences she credits as essential for her current job. “Possessing technical knowledge in other areas is crucial when we think about global impact while developing a feature and about delivering the best solution.”

And challenge is what motivates Erica, who points out other benefits to having a breadth of technological knowledge. When we asked about the application of this knowledge on Uber’s product development, she highlighted: “When I think about the interface which impacts users with different cultures, who live in countries with different economic scenarios and with different kinds of access to the internet, I get excited to contribute as a Backend Engineer with knowledge in frontend development. Working with a diversity of scenarios and users is very attractive.”

The São Paulo Uber Tech Center is growing in both technical challenges and in headcount. In Brazil, we have teams in Safety and Insurance, Customer Identity Platform, and Order Platform. Because of our different technical challenges, having a diverse team and inclusive work environment is essential.

“At first, having the opportunity to work in a position where we can inspire other individuals is rewarding,” Erica says, referring to a statement from her deaf friend, who affirmed it was amazing to see her as an Engineer. And more than being a source of inspiration, it’s about having a fundamental role in a tech team. “Some products and features with a focus on female users and on people with disabilities possibly wouldn’t have been developed without the presence of women engineers or professionals with any sort of disability,” she reiterates.

Working as an Uber Engineer means making a real positive difference in the lives of millions while in an environment that’s a playground for growth and the opportunity to learn on the job comes daily. “It seems like a cliché, but it’s true. I see that Uber always provides new challenges and that it’s almost impossible for your career to get stalled,” said Erica.

Erica highlights that her day to day activities as an Engineer also reflect some of the reasons that made her want to join Uber during her hiring process—the possibility of learning and going deeper on very technical concepts. “In one of the meetings, I had a technical conversation with one of the most senior Engineers on our team, and I learned two architectural concepts and how to apply them. The perspective of having this complexity level during a conversation about architecture was something that fascinated me at first,” she remembers.

It is the ability to work with technical challenges that reflect on her career evolution and on the experience of people (with or without disabilities) that moves Erica. If you have interests in common with Erica, apply to one of the many career opportunities at the Uber São Paulo Tech Center →