Women in tech: Meet Tiff Willcox

Research in recent years has revealed a disparity in the workforce within the technology industry:

• 3% of CTO or Technical Director roles were held by female staff (as of 2021)
• In London and the South East, 28.4% and 27.7% of the workforce in tech are female (as of 2021)
• Over a quarter of female students were put off applying for technology roles because as it is too male-dominated (2017)
• 79% of women agreed that there is a pay gap in the technology sector (as of 2023)

In short, there is a steep challenge to facilitate women joining the tech industry. 

We spoke to Tiff Willcox, our Chief Technology Officer, to learn about her career in tech and how she knew joining Datapharm was the right step. 

Could you share a bit about your career journey?

I started my career as a programmer, and I quickly realised that it probably wasn't the best use of my skill set. I love talking to people and being that bridge between the really clever technical people and really clever commercial people. So that's where I've landed as CTO. 

My career has spanned many different areas of technology, from software development through to infrastructure development, telecommunications, and satellite communications. I find it a fascinating, fast moving and really enjoyable area to work in. 

I've been super lucky that across my career I've seen parts of the world I probably would never have seen. I've been involved in creating some seriously cool stuff that, if I look back now, I almost have to pinch myself that I've done it. And I just genuinely really enjoy technology. I'm a logical thinker by nature, and it fits the way my mind works. 

Tell us about your role at Datapharm

My role here is being responsible for all things tech - so from the products that we provide through to the infrastructure and security in our back of office technologies, they all sit within our team. 

No two days are the same. I can walk into work one day with a full plan of what I'm going to do, and it can all change in a moment.

But that's part of why I love my job, and part of why I love being a woman in tech, because I think we see things differently, we approach things differently. It's thoroughly enjoyable.

Tell us about the team you work with

I think the team are phenomenal. Our software development processes and releases are very cutting edge and we are constantly evolving the way we do things.  

As well as shaping and supporting our delivery today, our architecture team have an eye on the future and together, as part of our strategic planning, we look at where we want to go and what our roadmap looks like. Technology changes so quickly, it’s hard to keep up sometimes but having curious, like-minded people who work together, keeps us all on track.  

We also have our product managers who are constantly looking at our products, establishing our value propositions, looking at all of our customer base, how they use it, what's important and what's needed, and various other roles within the team that we work with. 

Can you share a recent project at Datapharm that you are proud of?

I'm proud to be able to say I'm part of the team because I think the team are amazing. 

We're in the middle of a massive re-platforming project, and for anyone who's been in tech or around tech projects, you'll know that replatforming is a significant undertaking. 

We're also changing the underlying data structure entirely from one data format to another. We're talking about terabytes worth of data here. It is a lot of data that needs to be taken out, transformed and loaded into a completely new data structure. It’s also new for the team, so there is alot of learning as we go.  
 
I'm really proud of how the team have tackled it,  planned it, and how they work on it tirelessly to make sure that what we're doing gets delivered. 

What has surprised you most about working at Datapharm?

The thing that surprises me on a daily basis, having come from relatively big companies, is how many amazing things we're able to deliver with the size of team we have. I think that's what I'm enjoying the most –  what can be achieved with a small but agile team.  

Another thing that's been pleasantly surprising is how many women we have in our tech team and the diversity that it brings. I think diversity of thought is really critical.   

What would you say to someone considering a career in the tech industry?

What I would say is just to try it. There are so many different avenues that you can go down. And if you're curious and you're interested in how things work, I think it's a great way to explore and make that change. If you don't enjoy one avenue, you can go down another one, depending on your personality type. You don't have to be super technical to have a career in tech.

Find roles that interest and put you in front of really interesting businesses where you can examine and solve the complex technology needs.

What advice or wisdom would you give to anyone considering working at Datapharm?

You'd be mad not to! It's such a cool place. You read about companies who say they're B Corp and they're flexible working and they're all about women empowerment and all of that. Then you get there and they're really not.

But Datapharm live their values on a day-to-day basis. I've never felt more welcome, more a part of the team and more empowered to be exactly who I am and bring that to my work. 

Datapharm is committed to creating an outstanding workplace which is underpinned by its culture of care, courage and collaboration. If you would like to become part of the Datapharm journey, or see our current list of vacancies, visit our careers page.