Uber offered this tech leader growth and balance

Interviewed by Harshi Sharma, University Recruiter

In February of 2016, Megha Yethadka, our Senior Director of Tech Program Management leading Global Scaled Solutions, joined Uber in Hyderabad, India during her third trimester ready to make an impact. The flexibility she found allowed her to balance both her growing family and career. Now with Uber’s hybrid work options, where employees target spending just half their time in the office, she sees that autonomy only increasing and “putting the power in my hands to get things done—both at work and on the personal front.”

“I started at Uber as the Senior Site Leader for Map Production, having no clue about Maps or Global Information Services at the time. It was a year of learning and building. I was chartered to build out the team from scratch and drive one of our key priorities. In the process, my team and I built muscle to run scaled programs, and make processes faster, better, and more cost-efficient while at the same time connecting the dots across lines of businesses and capabilities. Over time, we extended this muscle to various horizontal capabilities—from machine learning operations to data services, to globalization, adding value to tech and teams across Uber. Together, these capabilities help form my organization, now called Global Scaled Solutions. As the team grew, so did my role and impact.”

Early days during floor buildout in India.

“I joined Uber both for the opportunity to create an impact and for its culture and people. Those reasons continue to be why I am here today too. 

Uber literally created an industry when it started, but even today we continue to redefine for people what it means to go anywhere and get anything. The opportunity to be part of driving that mission forward while also knowing the company is enabling earners, convenience, and redefining an industry is something parallel to very few opportunities out there. 

Uber has grown as a company but is a startup at heart. Our culture has evolved, yet has its core intact. People that I work with continue to challenge me, and help me learn and grow. I know I am doing something meaningful every day, creating impact and enabling careers. What more can one look for?”

“I joined the tech industry as an engineer after my graduation at the National Institute of Technology, Jamshedpur, and spent the first couple of years in IT services and products. These initial years taught me to understand the customer perspective, expand my boundaries, and be a constant learner. 

After a few years, I went to the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad for my post-graduation in management, but chose to continue in Tech. In fact, I didn’t even apply to roles in consulting or investment banking that tend to be fancy in business schools. In the next decade, I joined consumer tech, where my journey as a tech leader began. My roles had a nice blend of tech and operations, allowing me to drive business goals with a mix of tech and human intelligence. More importantly, the tech industry taught me to be mission-driven, move fast, and make big bold bets in my role and with my team.”

“Flexibility has been core to Uber’s work culture from the day I started. I joined Uber in my third trimester and the flexibility my team and leadership gave right from the beginning helped me integrate my work-life priorities and grow both as a professional and as a mother. 

In the new hybrid environment, I hope for many to experience that and unleash the power of and versus being forced to make an or decision. For me, I prioritize what’s important on a weekly basis and adjust my routine accordingly. I only see the hybrid work environment allowing more of that and putting the power in my hands to get things done—both at work and on the personal front.”

“One of my favorite Uber values is One Uber. For me, it means your focus transcends yourself, your team, and doing something bigger for Uber and our community, collaboratively. For a team that works across organizations at Uber, this value is important. We apply it in our day-to-day by working across organizations as an extended arm of our partner teams. We set shared objectives and results with them and work closely with an aim to make the customer experience of our products and services better. When we make decisions, we are thinking of what’s right for Uber and not for our team or any individual.”

Part of the team during a lunch pre-pandemic.

“Uber is a dynamic company operating in a dynamic industry. That means change is constant. Embrace change and see opportunity in it. Focus on the how and not what alone. More importantly, you are on for a great ride. Enjoy it!”

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