Member Highlight: Maria Verbitskaya

There’s no single path into tech and that’s exactly what makes it so exciting. In this member spotlight, we meet Maria, a leader who proves that you don’t need a traditional technical background to thrive in the industry. With a foundation in linguistics and a deep interest in people, culture, and team dynamics, she has built a career in engineering management by focusing on what truly drives progress: collaboration, clarity, and creating environments where teams can do their best work.

Published:

Apr 2, 2026

5 min read

What do you do as a Woman in Tech?

To set the right tone, my background is not technical. I didn’t study engineering, and I don’t code. My primary education is not in tech, but a Master’s in linguistics and translation. What I’ve always been interested in is people, group dynamics, how teams form, how people work together, and how you organise processes so that they actually help rather than get in the way.

At some point I combined all of that with a more technical environment, took additional education in Technical Project Management, and started my first job in Sweden as a Project Manager. Then I moved into a Team Lead role, and later into Engineering Management, which is what I do now.
I try to remember the path I took to get to where I am today, although this is probably not the final point. We’ll see how my interests and my life evolve going forward 😉

And one thing I always keep in mind is to be the kind of senior I needed when I was a junior. That really matters to me.
A big part of my role today is creating clarity and helping teams move forward without unnecessary complexity. A lot of the work is not very visible: aligning people, removing friction, and making sure we focus on what actually matters.

For me, the working environment, the atmosphere, the culture, the team climate, are almost defining when it comes to how people work. It affects how well they collaborate, what they deliver, whether they feel proud of their work, whether they celebrate it, and how satisfied they feel overall.
I don’t see “people skills” as soft skills at all. I think they are some of the hardest and most valuable skills there are. And working with teams and team dynamics is still one of the most interesting and engaging parts of my job.

What does the Women in Tech community mean to you?

For me, being in tech is also about expanding what feels possible.
It has historically been a more male-dominated field, and I think it’s important that more women feel that they can grow here, show their talents, build careers, find interesting roles, create new ones, and contribute to both business and science.
I’m lucky to be surrounded by incredible women: working in labs, developing new technologies, working with green tech, mechanics, heavy industry, neuropsychology, designing exoskeletons.
Watching what they create and bring into the world gives me hope and makes me feel proud. We should all look around more, notice more, support each other, and compete less.

If you could give one advice to an aspiring woman in tech, what would that be?

Pay attention to the environment you are in.
The culture, expectations, and the way people work together have a huge impact on how you grow, how you perform, and how you feel about your work.
Not everything needs to be pushed through. Sometimes changing the context is more important than pushing yourself harder.
And, however standard it may sound, dare to try things. Take that step, reach out, ask that question, write that email, go to that event or meet-up, sign up for that course. Sometimes small things and interactions with people lead to big steps and changes.
And please, in that endless trail run of achieving and learning new things, don’t forget to cheer yourself on. Look back and see how far you’ve already come, how much you’ve done. The 16-year-old you would probably be proud of you already and think that you are really cool.

What’s a hobby or interest you’re passionate about outside of work?

Wow, hobbies is a tough subject, to be honest.
For a while now, my free time has looked a lot like work, just in a different form. I’ve been very involved in volunteering over the past years, especially after the war started.
And also, being far away from my family, it always felt important for me to stay present in their lives, as well as in the lives of my friends and close ones here in Stockholm, my “bonus family,” as I call them. I’ve also been studying and taking care of many other things.
But I’ve realised that this is not sustainable.
Recently I’ve been trying to create more space for myself again and come back to things that are just mine.
I read a lot, and I’m part of a small book club. We meet every month, choose a new book to read and discuss, and we’ve been doing this for 6 years now.
This year I came back to knitting. I almost finished a project, with breaks and redoing parts, but I really enjoy the process.
Not sure it counts as a hobby, but since I live near Nacka reservatet, I try to go there often for the forest walks and say hi to the deer I meet 😉
And swimming! From May to September I try to swim as much as I can, and I pack a towel and swimsuit in my work bag 😉