Women in STEM at TE Connectivity: Three Leadership Journeys

Three Different Routes Into STEM Leadership

There is no single route into a successful STEM career.

Some people know from an early age that they want to become engineers. Others discover technical work after beginning in an entirely different field. A career can also develop through several connected disciplines, with each stage adding skills that become valuable later. Marilyn’s performing-arts background helped her develop communication, adaptability and confidence in front of other people. Deirdre’s interest in solving problems and visualising how things fit together led her towards mechanical engineering. Colleen’s early exposure to computers developed into a career spanning IT, training, project management and PMO leadership.

Their paths are different, but each reflects the importance of staying open to new opportunities rather than assuming that an early decision must determine an entire career.

Marilyn Bane: From the Performing Arts to Manufacturing

Marilyn entered manufacturing after working in acting and singing.

The transition was significant. She was moving into an industry she did not yet understand, surrounded by unfamiliar processes, terminology and expectations. However, the skills she had developed outside STEM did not disappear when she changed careers. Performing requires preparation, communication, resilience and the ability to respond when circumstances change. These capabilities can also matter in manufacturing, where leaders need to communicate priorities, support employees and remain composed when operational demands shift.

Marilyn developed her technical and organisational knowledge through workplace experience while continuing her education in business management. She later progressed into production leadership. Her experience offers an important lesson for people considering a career change: a non-technical background does not mean starting again with nothing.

A person may still need role-specific training, qualifications or practical experience, but transferable capabilities can provide a strong foundation. The challenge is to explain how those abilities relate to the new environment. Someone moving from hospitality, retail, education or the creative industries into manufacturing might already have experience in communication, problem-solving, customer needs, team coordination or working under pressure. A credible career-change application connects those strengths with the technical learning required for the new position.

Deirdre Hardiman: From Mechanical Engineering to R&D Leadership

Deirdre’s route into STEM began with an interest in problem-solving and a natural ability to understand three-dimensional shapes.

Those strengths helped guide her towards mechanical engineering. Her career later developed through product-development and R&D engineering work before she progressed into leadership. R&D product-development engineering brings together technical investigation, design, testing and the practical requirements involved in turning an idea into a viable product or manufacturing process.

The work normally requires collaboration across several disciplines. Engineers may need to work with quality, manufacturing, regulatory affairs, suppliers and project teams while balancing technical performance, timelines and business priorities. Progression in this environment requires more than accumulating years of experience. Engineers need opportunities to handle more complex work, explain technical decisions and take responsibility for outcomes that involve other people.

Deirdre’s career reflects the value of taking opportunities that initially sit outside a person’s comfort zone. Continued development may involve learning a new technology, taking ownership of a project or moving from individual technical delivery into responsibility for a team. HERO’s Engineering Salary Guide Ireland 2026 also provides permanent salary benchmarks across product development, manufacturing, automation, project engineering and engineering leadership.

Colleen Markland: From IT to PMO Leadership

Colleen developed an early interest in technology through computers at home. She later studied information technology and built experience across lecturing, corporate training and project management before moving into PMO leadership. Each stage contributed something different to her later work. IT provided a technical foundation. Lecturing and training strengthened her ability to explain information and support other people’s development. Project management introduced structured planning, governance and delivery. Together, those experiences supported her progression into a regional PMO leadership position.

Her journey demonstrates that career progression does not always mean remaining within one narrowly defined discipline.Someone can move from technical delivery into teaching, training, coordination or programme leadership without abandoning their earlier experience. The skills accumulate and become valuable in a different combination.

Colleen also highlights adaptability as an important leadership capability. Project portfolios change, priorities compete and teams may be distributed across functions or regions. Leaders need to respond without losing sight of the objectives, responsibilities and risks involved. Engineers considering a similar transition can read HERO’s guide on how to move from engineering into project management.

What Their Career Journeys Have in Common

Marilyn, Deirdre and Colleen began in different places, but their experiences share several themes. None of their careers developed through technical knowledge alone. Communication, resilience and adaptability became more important as their responsibilities grew. Each person also continued learning after entering the workplace. Professional development was not confined to a qualification completed at the beginning of the career.

Their journeys involved movement between roles and disciplines. Marilyn moved into an unfamiliar industry. Deirdre progressed through engineering and product development. Colleen combined experience from IT, education and project delivery. This matters because professionals sometimes assess career progression too narrowly. A sideways move, project assignment or change of function may build experience that becomes essential later. The most useful question is not always, “Will this give me an immediate promotion?” It may be, “What will this allow me to learn, demonstrate or understand?”

Women in Leadership at TE Connectivity

TE Connectivity reported that women represented 41% of its global workforce and 32% of its leadership population in 2025. Women also held 31% of positions on its board of directors. These are global company figures and should not be interpreted as representation data for TE’s Galway site or for the teams featured in HERO’s interview.

That distinction is important. A global leadership figure cannot be used to describe the gender composition of a local department, graduate programme or engineering intake. Local statistics need their own reporting period, geography and underlying numbers.

About TE Connectivity in Galway

TE Connectivity identifies its Parkmore West site in Galway as the headquarters of its Medical business. TE’s wider Medical manufacturing network supports R&D fabrication and testing, product prototyping and the progression from pilot production to volume manufacturing. The company’s facilities contribute to the development and manufacture of technologies and components for medical-device programmes.

Galway’s MedTech environment creates career opportunities across R&D, product development, manufacturing engineering, project management, quality, operations and related disciplines. The company context is relevant, but the central value of Marilyn, Deirdre and Colleen’s stories is how their capabilities developed over time. One career began in the performing arts. Another developed through mechanical engineering and product development. The third moved through IT, education and project management.

Together, they demonstrate that STEM organisations benefit from people who bring different professional experiences as well as different technical disciplines.