In this talk, Xia He-Bleinagel, Head of Data & Cloud at NOW GmbH, shares her remarkable journey from studying automotive engineering across Europe to leading modern data, cloud, and engineering teams in Germany.

We dive into her transition from hands-on engineering to leadership, how she balanced family with career growth, and what it really takes to succeed in today’s cloud, data, and AI job market.

TIMECODES:00:00 Studying Automotive Engineering Across Europe08:15 How Andrew Ng Sparked a Machine Learning Journey11:45 Import–Export Work as an Unexpected Career Boost17:05 Balancing Family Life with Data Engineering Studies20:50 From Data Engineer to Head of Data & Cloud27:46 Building Data Teams & Tackling Tech Debt30:56 Learning Leadership Through Coaching & Observation34:17 Management vs. IC: Finding Your Best Fit38:52 Boosting Developer Productivity with AI Tools42:47 Succeeding in Germany’s Competitive Data Job Market46:03 Fast-Track Your Cloud & Data Career50:03 Mentorship & Supporting Working Moms in Tech53:03 Cultural & Economic Factors Shaping Women’s Careers57:13 Top Networking Groups for Women in Data1:00:13 Turning Domain Expertise into a Data Career Advantage

Connect with Xia- Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/xia-he-bleinagel-51773585/- Github - https://github.com/Data-Think-2021- Website - https://datathinker.de/Connect with DataTalks.Club:- Join the community - https://datatalks.club/slack.html- Subscribe to our Google calendar to have all our events in your calendar - https://calendar.google.com/calendar/r?cid=ZjhxaWRqbnEwamhzY3A4ODA5azFlZ2hzNjBAZ3JvdXAuY2FsZW5kYXIuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbQ- Check other upcoming events - https://lu.ma/dtc-events- GitHub: https://github.com/DataTalksClub- LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/datatalks-club/ - Twitter - https://twitter.com/DataTalksClub - Website - https://datatalks.club/