Hanen Alkhafaji, a senior software engineering manager at PNC Bank, supervises a cross-functional team of developers.
Her work at the $554 billion-asset bank's Dayton, Ohio, offices was recently punctuated by a major internal restructuring of the advisor portal team. She guided them through the transition with confidence and reassurance, according to her superiors, and kept the team on track with its current projects.
"The advisor portal team built a fully functional application for internal customers within just three months as a standout achievement for us in early 2024," she said. "Despite the challenges of a newly reorganized team, they delivered a high-quality product with the leadership of a dedicated product owner."
This kind of accomplishment is a far cry from where Alkhafaji thought she would be as a young college premed at Ohio's Wright State University.
"After about a year in premed, I realized that biology wasn't my strength compared to others in my classes," she said. "However, I had been taking computer science courses out of interest, and they felt intuitive and enjoyable to me."
Alkhafaji credits one of her professors for helping her decide to properly pursue computer science and change majors, mentoring her through the decision. A junior-year software engineering internship at PQ Systems, a statistical process control company, became a full-time role upon graduation that lasted nearly a decade.
"I joined PNC in December 2017 and was quickly given opportunities that accelerated my growth," she said. "Early on, when a senior developer went on vacation, I volunteered to take on his work items despite being fairly new. This pushed me to learn quickly, and I ended up contributing to the successful development of a self-service loan origination application."
A defining moment in Alkhafaji's career at PNC came in 2021 when she was nominated for an internal nine-month leadership program.
"Initially I didn't consider applying due to my busy schedule, but a manager I barely worked with took the time to forward the email to me with a simple note encouraging me to nominate myself," she said. "I'm grateful for that nudge. After the program, one of the leaders connected me with a technology director who recognized my desire for both technical growth and people leadership."
Alkhafaji became a mentor herself through PNC's PartnerUp program, which offers high school seniors career development opportunities and prepares them for entry-level roles upon graduation. She's since onboarded five young engineers from the program.
"Hanen has demonstrated a passion for developing early career talent," said Charaka Kithulegoda, executive chief information officer of enterprise technology for PNC. "She helped develop these individuals by creating a learning model through training, mentoring, computer science concepts and basic coding techniques, and has been able to successfully grow her team through this work."
She is also the vice president for GemCity TECH, a community nonprofit in the Dayton area for technology user groups to cultivate a local ecosystem.
Throughout her different leadership experiences, Alkhafaji has made sure to recognize her team's technical successes.
"As a former developer, I understand the importance of celebrating technical wins," she said. "I remember the immense satisfaction I felt when solving a complex problem that took significant effort, only for others to overlook the effort involved. Now, I make a point to pause and celebrate those technical wins with my team, ensuring they know their hard work is recognized."
