Women’s Week at VAIVA – Interview with Wafa

To mark International Women’s Day 2024, we are introducing some of our female colleagues in person.

Hello Wafa, you are Senior SW product owner in the “Software Development ADAS / Front” team. What are you responsible for and how did you come to VAIVA?

Yes, I’m a Senior SW product owner with over than 13 years of experience in the automotive area and a mother of two kids 😊

I joined VAIVA beginning of this year. Before that, I also worked on behalf of VAIVA for more than one year through an outsourcing company, as SW product owner responsible for the SW development of the safety cluster project, focusing on safety functions that support the driver for a safer driving experience such as 360 safety degree, Local hazard warning, and much more… 😊

I´m also playing other roles that give me the opportunity to take part in the development of the company, by leading the “Digitalisierungsoffensive”, so called DIG project which aims to digitalize the VAIVA business processes and infrastructure.

Furthermore, I´m supporting VAIVA in the area of project acquisition, through the acquisition of new inquiries, and the enhancement of the ACQ process itself.

Too many highly challenging and exciting work I´m part of, which is the great thing about VAIVA.

How does VAIVA support you with your goals?

At VAIVA, there are many equal chances to grow professionally! My goal for this year is to reach the project manager position and C1 level in German language.

Although this may appear overly optimistic, I believe it is achievable with all the support I´m having from colleagues, management, and particularly great mentors.

Furthermore, VAIVA is offering me valuable professional training and fully supports me to enhance both my technical and soft skills in the project management path.

In addition, the VAIVA working model is incredibly flexible! Since I joined the company, I´ve been able to work from home which helps me as a mother with “many responsibilities outside of work”, to improve my work-life balance and have more time to spend with my family. BTW my spouse is particularly gratefull for this flexibility 😊.

What is special about VAIVA for you?

What I found attractive at VAIVA, is the flat hierarchy which creates more transparency and builds trustful relationships.

Moreover, I can openly speak and bring in my ideas without having to go through multiple levels 😉

In addition, VAIVA is multinational! People with different languages, cultures, and backgrounds can work together in a nice work atmosphere. Furthermore, the diversity and the way how VAIVA unifies the people without any exclusion is one of the company’s strengths.

In the past few weeks, I´ve been part of an amazing food culture experience. With my colleagues from VAI-E13 team and our team lead Nicole, we cooked and brought some special country traditional dishes from Tunisia, Germany, India etc, and shared them. It was just an amazing experience! 😉

In the end, I´m proud of being part of VAIVA community!