Driving innovation: How Dover cultivates an inclusive culture and supports female engineers

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At Dover, one of our core values ​​is “Respects and Values ​​​​People”. We believe that cultivating an inclusive culture where employees feel valued for their contributions and diversity is important to our continued success. Our engineers are best in class and we encourage them to continuously learn and grow, which fuels our innovation.

Dover is proud to partner with and support the Society of Women Engineers (SWE), and we are aligned with SWE’s mission to empower women to reach their full potential in careers as engineers and leaders. This commitment to fostering an inclusive and supportive environment is exemplified by the experiences of our work company employees, such as Sara Venkatachalam And Emma Miller.

Sara has been with Dover Fueling Solutions (DFS) for over 13 years. She began her career as an automation testing engineer and has worked her way up to director of solutions engineering and software engineering lead. Sara believes one of the most important aspects of her career has been her willingness to adapt.

“In the different roles I have held, I look for learning opportunities and what lessons can be learned… Obviously we cannot avoid mistakes, so when they happen, we can always learn from them,” Sara explains.

Sara also emphasized the importance of a diverse team supporting each other in the workplace. “That diverse mindset and different approaches to working together helps make the problem quite easy sometimes,” Sara said.

Emma has been an engineer at Colder Products Company (CPC) for seven years. She started in design engineering, but recently explored a new role within application engineering. She currently works in the thermal management business unit.

While studying at university, Emma noticed that less than 10% of her classmates were women. For her, it is refreshing to be surrounded by diverse teams at CPC.

“Diversity is crucial for success in teams. I have seen firsthand that if we did not have diverse backgrounds and thoughts, we would not achieve the same innovative solutions as we do today,” says Emma.

Like Sara, Emma emphasizes the importance of continually acquiring new forms of wisdom to foster professional growth. “It’s a good habit to develop early in your career. Keep learning and remember that there’s so much you don’t know,” Emma suggested.

Both women say their companies’ growth, diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, as well as their leadership structure, have helped them become who they are professionally.

Sara mentioned several ways DFS promotes learning and career growth for all employees. These include the DFS Women’s Network, which hosts external speakers to share their experiences, and access to third-party professional mentoring. She also emphasized DFS’s commitment to talent development, with new roles and opportunities available to all employees equally.

Emma shared that being represented in leadership roles at CPC has encouraged her personal growth.

“There are mentors that I go to for career advice, and they are usually women in leadership roles. It’s important for me to have that kind of support system… It’s refreshing to have them in a leadership role, inspiring women,” Emma explained.

Throughout their careers, Emma and Sara have gained insights that they share with current and future women in technology.

Emma suggested, “Keep doing it if it’s something you’re passionate about, and see where your career takes you.”

Sara advised that women in the field should “take every opportunity, even if it doesn’t exactly fit into what you had in mind as your career or career path. There is always a learning opportunity that will take us to the next level and prepare us for future roles.”

For more information about Dover and available career opportunities, please visit our website or our LinkedIn page.