Witad Awards 2019 Write-Ups: Engineer/Programmer of the Year—Maureen Buotte, Eagle Investment Systems

Maureen Buotte, head of site reliability engineering at Eagle Investment Systems, a BNY Mellon company, takes home the coveted title of engineer/programmer of the year at the 2019 Women in Technology & Data Awards. Buotte joined Eagle through the acquisition of ITS Associates back in 2001. 

Site reliability engineering is part of Eagle’s private cloud, Eagle Access, the firm’s core platform and its primary software delivery channel. Buotte says the automation and orchestration she and her team have developed have allowed Eagle to grow as a company, further fueling her love of technology. 

Learning to code in multiple programming languages is no easy feat, but Buotte has managed to learn about 25 languages. Of those, C is her favorite because the first useful software products she worked on were written in C. “I also used a lot of Perl for early products and have worked with Java, Python, and Node.js more recently,” she says. “Similar to technology, knowing the language is one thing, but knowing when to use it effectively is the important part. All of the languages have their own advantages and certain situations where they would be the optimal choice,” she adds.

Working in an age when current information will be outdated in the next two to five years, Buotte says that it pays to be curious and interested in the latest developments in the field. “That’s why I’m always interested in learning new languages, and I continuously take online courses throughout the year to keep my knowledge up to date,” she says. 

When Buotte first started her career with ITS Associates (which later morphed into Eagle Access), she was the only female engineer. Sometimes, people were surprised that she was the lead engineer in the room. “As one of the only women in my engineering school, I was accustomed to feeling outnumbered, but recognized the need to change the status quo,” she says. Buotte explains that she has come to realize how important mentorship and diversity are for both the growth and transformation of Eagle’s software. She was able to turn her challenge into an opportunity, which has led to much of her success. One of the challenges many engineers face is when projects fall into a “black hole” and they never get to see the results. She owes her success to learning how to add value and deliver solutions quickly. “By doing that, I’ve been able to keep projects alive and make sure they don’t fall through the cracks,” she says. “I’ve found success by keeping a clear view of where we’re going and measuring and showing progress.”