Rising Technical Contributor Award

Desiree Tang

HP Inc.


For high-impact technical contributions in data analytics and automation; for quick learning and effective communication skills; and for paying forward the mentoring she received to other women engineers.

Desiree Tang is a systems software engineer II at HP Inc. In this role, she is responsible for improving the HP Client Management Script Library and maintaining data integrity for HP Connect for Microsoft Endpoint Manager, a new, highly visible endpoint solution for HP’s commercial products. She is working on modifications to the script library’s current functions to better follow Microsoft’s recommended PowerShell coding conventions and best practices and to incorporate product management requirements and customer requests. Her work will improve the library’s loading performance by providing customers with the ability to load specific requests as needed, rather than needing to load the entire library.

In her first two years of working full time for HP, Tang worked on maintaining and improving applications that update firmware on various commercial HP products ranging from monitors to docks to PCs. Tang stands out among software developers for her focus on continuously keeping documentation up to date for future developers and relevant stakeholders. This quality has been recognized by her team multiple times.

Tang has received an HP WOW Award for developing a solution to fix an emergency issue that blocked firmware updates to thousands of units in the field and required an immediate fix. She also submitted an innovation request to HP, which has been accepted as a plausible idea for HP’s future plans. Due to her perseverance, she was promoted from systems software engineer I to systems software engineer II in less than a year.

Tang has benefited from multiple mentors, and she now mentors others despite only being in the field for three years. At HP, she has mentored two interns so far, and she volunteers to recruit and talk to students at university career fairs. Tang is an active member of the Society of Women Engineers. In 2021, she mentored a woman intern in a technical position through the HP Talent Connect Mentoring Program in partnership with SWE, the National Society of Black Engineers, and the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers. Tang shared her experience as a woman in a predominantly male field, talked about personal branding and networking, introduced her mentee to Toastmasters, reviewed the intern’s resume, and provided feedback. Tang was also actively involved in other engineering organizations during her undergraduate years, including Women in Computer and Electrical Engineering.

Tang graduated from The University of Texas at Austin in 2020 with a B.S. in electrical engineering and a technical focus in software engineering. She completed three software engineering internships during her time as an undergraduate. In her free time, she enjoys rock climbing for exercise, bullet journaling to nurture her creative spirit, and playing with her dog and cat.

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