Our Lead(H)er series features impressive women leaders in the tech industry. In this Q&A, we are featuring Stefana Muller, SVP Cloud Infrastructure & Operations at OWN.
Where did you grow up and how would you describe yourself as a child?
I’m the oldest of three, raised in New York in a close-knit Italian family steeped in cultural traditions. My parents are from Sicily, and we owned a pizzeria/restaurant that became the heart of our family life. Being very family-oriented, I developed a strong work ethic early on. I spent much of my life in customer service, and that experience eventually led me to tech. My first foray into the field was designing and coding a menu and printing system throughout the restaurant. I even learned the wiring with CAT5 cables to make it all work seamlessly. Instead of writing down an order and then running 3 copies to 3 locations of the store, the system printed them out and correlated. It was simple but so much more efficient.
What did you study in college and what was your first job?
I originally went to college for pre-law, but I ran out of financial resources at 18 and had to pivot. At the time, there weren’t many opportunities for women to take technology courses at my university, so I decided to use my remaining savings to attend a tech boot camp. I earned my A+ certification and networking certifications in Novell and Microsoft NT. With those credentials, I updated my resume, went to interviews, and landed my first tech job at Computer Associates (now CA Technologies/Broadcom), a then billion-dollar company in Long Island. I started in customer service and tech support, but within six months, I was promoted, and my career continued to grow from there. Eventually, I became a Product Manager for Anti-Virus software, focusing on security technologies.
Can you share the details on your career path and what were the critical moments that got you to where you are today?
At CA Technologies (formerly Computer Associates), I expanded our security business beyond anti-virus and played a role in acquiring several startups in the security space. Our security solutions were targeted at infrastructure teams, particularly those working in data centers, so I spent a lot of time understanding their challenges and figuring out how we could automate their pain points. Eventually, I transitioned into infrastructure automation, focusing on the testing/QA space and supporting the 'shift-left' movement in engineering. For many years, I worked to enable engineers to test, deploy, and observe their software in production. In the past six years, I’ve shifted from Product Management to becoming the customer—now using the very products I once helped build.
What is your current role and responsibilities?
As the Senior Vice President of Infrastructure and Operations at Own, I oversee the production environments, focusing on how we deploy, run, secure, monitor, and scale our SaaS products. My organization is divided into three key functions: Cloud Infrastructure, SRE, and Production Engineering. We operate as a global team, available 24x7x365, supporting five products used by over 7,000 businesses worldwide. Running across two clouds (AWS and Azure) in 15 regions, we are committed to maintaining a 99.9% uptime for our customers.
What leadership style do you embrace, and how has it evolved over time?
In the past, I was highly hands-on, often diving deep into the details. As an executive leader, I've been working to step back from that approach, although you may still occasionally find me deploying code or adjusting settings in the AWS console. My leadership style focuses on empowering my leaders and teams. I'm transparent, direct with feedback, and driven by a strong sense of teamwork. One of my top priorities is fostering the growth of my team members' careers—it's something I consider my most important responsibility, even beyond overseeing Production. I dedicate significant time to coaching, mentoring, speaking at events, and freely sharing advice.
Looking back, is this where you thought you’d be professionally? Was it always your goal to be in this position?
I never envisioned this specific role early in my career. I was headed down the CPO or Head of Product route for a while. That said, I’m really happy with where I am today because I’ve achieved several key goals that matter deeply to me:
- I’ve been able to advance significantly in technology, becoming an expert in my field.
- I’ve shared my knowledge with others, fostering a positive and collaborative team environment.
- I’m constantly learning, whether it’s new technologies, different communication styles, or diverse personalities—I thrive on that.
- Travel has always been a personal goal, and my career in tech has enabled me to explore new countries and cultures while working on what I love.
- Leadership has always been something I aspired to. Today, I have the opportunity to lead, make strategic decisions, and guide my team with autonomy, all while contributing to the overall success of the company.
For people who are looking to be in a similar position, what advice would you give to others in terms of helping them achieve their career goals?
- Get used to being the ONLY woman in the room. This is typical in our industry and you have to be comfortable with that to a point where it is no longer something you notice.
- Knowledge is Power - bring receipts. Document your work, bring the data when making a decision. Not everyone is going to believe you because you say so. This is different for men than women/other genders.
- Master in CS, Minor in Humans - my biggest learning curve was learning how to work with different people, how to communicate effectively, how to organize work, how to be a team player. This is a superpower now and is exactly why I can be successful in my position today.
- Create your own Opportunities - don’t wait to be promoted, don’t wait to be asked to speak at a conference, don’t wait for someone to give you permission to be great or to take that leap.
- Don’t be a ‘yes’ woman. Be okay with saying no or giving a contrary opinion. This makes you powerful and the reason why you bring the right level of diversity to decision making.
- Build your network. NOW. Don’t wait to be in the job or right place. Your network can be built in every step of your career. In college, at events, at work. Keep in touch with these folks like you would your friends. Stay aware of their career moves as well. Your next job is likely going to be through your network.
- Be brave, confident, resilient and learn to fail. Learning to fail was my biggest weakness. To say I didn’t achieve something was so important to learn how to do effectively both for my leadership team and for myself and my own team. Every failure was an opportunity that has led me to where I am today.
- Be a sponsor, mentor & advocate. Once you’re in the industry, keep the momentum going and help someone else get here. I founded LI Women in Tech to do just that. We volunteer our time to mentor folks entering into their careers in the tech industry. My favorite part is I learn something new from these folks every time I mentor someone.
- Stay for You, Not Them – I wish I learned this early in my career. I stayed at a company for 16 years thinking I didn’t have the ‘chops’ to make it outside and that the team couldn’t do it without me. I didn’t realize that I was severely holding myself back as well as my team. Sometimes it’s best to know when to leave.
- You have every right to pursue a career in tech. The tech industry will be better because of people like you joining in and being part of its leadership.
What trends or changes in the tech industry are you most excited about?
I’m thrilled to dive back into AI in today’s landscape. Previously, I worked with machine learning algorithms to predict transactions over REST and other protocols, which was an incredibly eye-opening experience. Moving forward, I’m eager to leverage AI in key operational areas such as streamlining documentation, automating fault resolution, and enhancing the predictability of production issues.
The rise of Platform Engineering is really exciting—it feels like the next evolution of DevOps. I've seen it successfully implemented at a few companies in the past, and I'm eager to bring this approach to Own.
At Own, I'm genuinely excited about the potential our Discover product offers to customers. After years of helping them backup and archive their data, we now have a tool that empowers them to analyze, predict, and make smarter decisions using that time-series data through Discover.
What are the most important skills that you need to do your job well?
An SVP of Infrastructure needs a blend of technical, strategic, and leadership skills to manage large-scale infrastructure operations and ensure an organization's systems are reliable, scalable, and secure. A few of those include:
- Technical Expertise in Cloud Platforms, automation, cybersecurity, networking and connectivity while staying ahead of emerging technologies.
- Strategic thinking and vision along with being able to manage the day to day budgeting, resource management, vendor management, and DR/BC plans.
- Leadership skills centered around people and providing inspiration, collaboration and a substantial amount of change advocacy and problem solving.
What do you find most interesting/rewarding about your work? What’s the most challenging?
Interesting: New tech every day. I learn new things each day about the technology I’m working with, get to evaluate new software and optimize how we do our work.
Rewarding: Seeing my team members succeed. It’s exciting to see them reach their goals as individuals on the team. I’m happy to be a part of their journey.
Challenging: Communications. Keeping everyone from various perspectives, time zones and teams on the same page has been the biggest challenge at Own. We have a lot of balls in the air. I’m excited to continue to tackle this challenge as we grow.
What is your proudest professional accomplishment?
This is a tough one because I’ve had so many rewarding experiences throughout my career. What stands out the most, though, is when I see my team's work showcased to a larger audience and witness the positive reactions it receives. Knowing that what we believed in resonates with others is incredibly fulfilling. I also take great pride in seeing my current and former employees succeed. When they reach out to share their successes or seek advice, it reassures me that I’m focusing on what truly matters.
Are you involved with any professional organizations outside of the company? Volunteer work?
I am the President and Founder of a non-profit organization called Long Island Women in Tech. We are a supportive community of over 800 technologists providing mentorship, career development, and education to women and girls on Long Island. Membership is free and open to people of all genders. This organization has been running for 9 years and has brought me a ton of learning, connections, and the most rewarding experiences in my career.
I’m a conference organizer (and recently the emcee) at DevOpsDays NYC
Q&A
What do you enjoy doing in your free time?
I’ve been married to my husband Jay for the past 19 years, and we support each other's growing careers while parenting our 16 and 12 year old daughters, our beloved dog Winston and a mysterious turtle named Sausage. We love to ski in the winter, paddle board and surf in the summers, play soccer year-round, and travel wherever we can go.
How do you manage stress?
Stress? What’s that? I will say it’s probably my #1 weakness. But I’m focused on tackling this. I have a health coach that works with me on tactics to reduce stress like, walks during the business day, breathing exercises and remembering to center myself in difficult conversations. I love to work-out (light weights) and hike to get away from work and de-stress.
Any book or podcast recommendations? (professional or fun)
Book - ROAR by Stacy T. Sims, PhD - totally great book for women in their 20’s and up that love to train their bodies but want to know how to fuel for success.
Book - Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men - great eye opening experience helping me see how I can influence the future of data by helping fill the data desert of data about women.
PodCast - Staff Eng hosted by David Noel-Romas and Alex Kessinger. Helps me learn about trends in the industry especially coupling “roles/responsibilities” with “technology shifts”.
