Valanka loves to move. Whether innovating seamless tech solutions in the city that never sleeps, hiking on the weekends or dancing, she is constantly in motion. Managing an engineering team, she sits at the center of JPMorgan Chase operations, supporting every business line.

Valanka is one of the thousands of technologists responsible for the solutions and services that the world’s most important institutions, corporations, and governments rely on. The stakes are high; there’s little room for error.

Valanka and her fellow 55,000 technology experts bring unique lived experience to the table, drawing on knowledge from a wide—and sometimes surprising—range of backgrounds to develop for today and anticipate for tomorrow. Veterans, academics, volunteers, scientists, coaches, immigrants, mentors, parents, and caretakers are leading new ways of doing business.

Meet Valanka, and get to know the technologists of JPMorgan Chase as they're "Chasing Technology": http://www.technologyreview.com/chasi... #ChasingTechnology

—
Credits:

"Chasing Technology" is presented by MIT Technology Review in partnership with JPMorgan Chase.

MITTR Studios for MIT Technology Review: Caitlin Bergmann
Production Company: The Reserve Label
Executive Producer: Ryan Slavin
Director/DP: Brooks Reynolds
Producer: David McGinley
Editor: Jeremy Huff
Post Producer: Carly Wolfson
Post Producer: Kong Yang
Title Design & GFX: Joe Dietsch
Colorist: Nick Lindell-Wright
Composer: Michael Beliveau

—
Transcript:

I love the city. It’s so crowded but whenever I’m in the city, I feel I’m part of it.

I'm Valanka Fernandes. I’m an engineering lead at JPMorgan Chase.

I'm from India. Every movie over there is songs and dancing.

Dancing has been a part of my culture … like weddings and everything. So dancing was natural to me. I go to a Zumba class, and I come out energized. That high energy and confidence makes me feel good about myself.

I started as a junior developer, and I grew into leadership a role. Growth for me is personal, professional and emotional.

In the tech industry, every piece is critical. It’s a lot of coordination and a lot of work needed in order to build something. Security is very critical for us. Nothing else matters.

We ensure that the person who is logging in … is the Chase customer. It should be a simple experience too. It should not be a complicated flow of multiple screens.

I hope that we can deliver more features which customers can relate to, which makes their life easier.

The technology is changing. The business is changing. The customer itself is changing. They are more tech savvy now. You are part of someone's life and ensuring that people are happy and using it, and are benefiting.

It starts as a tiny idea to the part where you actually build everything, roll out everything, and then it's finally out there. And I have contributed my small bit in that journey, makes me happy.

###