Women in STEM Spotlight: Fatima Kardar
Fatima Kardar is the Corporate Vice President of the AI Infrastructure, Partnerships & Marketplace, Microsoft AI. The AI Infrastructure and Partnership team is building a unified platform to support all copilot offerings across Microsoft’s products. The Marketplace team is creating a services marketplace to connect customers to high-quality services provided from around the world.
Fatima is deeply committed to people and culture and is an enthusiastic advocate for more women in STEM. She supports various industry-wide diversity programs such as Microsoft’s LEAP Apprenticeship Program and Pakistani Women in Computing.
Born and raised in Pakistan, Fatima moved to the US for Microsoft after receiving her college degree from the Lahore University of Management Sciences. She received her MBA from Duke University.
1. When and how did you discover your interest in STEM?
When I was young, I wanted to be either an astronaut or a scientist - I had a Barbie that was an astronaut and I was fascinated with space and science in general. So, I guess, I was always interested in STEM, but I knew nothing about computers.
However, I got into technology by accident. In Pakistan where I grew up, the most sought-after professions are doctors and engineers so most universities have STEM programs. I chose business school at Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) and the school only had two majors at the time: Computer Science and Economics. In the first quarter, they required everyone to take courses in both subjects before we could declare our majors. I took a course in C++ and learned that I was really good at it. In fact, I was better than all the boys. It was love at first byte, and I’ve never looked back.
2. You later joined Microsoft in Seattle. Was it a difficult decision to leave your home country for an opportunity in the United States, and was your family supportive?
When I was still in university, I found out Microsoft would be recruiting in Dubai and conducting job interviews. I signed up, partially as an excuse to visit Dubai.
In the end that didn’t happen because Microsoft decided to interview in Lahore. I was offered a job at their U.S. headquarters in Washington state, which I promptly declined as I didn’t want to move so far away. However, Microsoft’s recruiting team was very persistent. They checked in with me regularly, trying to bring me on board, but I kept saying “no” to them. That, however, didn’t deter my recruiter. At one point, he suggested that I meet with some people who work at the company and connected me with some women in engineering and Pakistani employees. While meeting with them was really great, I still declined. Eventually, my recruiter managed to speak with my mom directly and convinced her that I should take the job. To this day, I am still impressed with his persistence. After all of that, about a year later, I said “yes” and moved to the U.S. to start my career at Microsoft.
It was very difficult to leave home. Before making this move, I had never left Pakistan for more than a week, nor had I ever travelled so far. Lahore is more than 11,000 miles away from Redmond, Washington. For me, the thing that made the biggest difference in my transition was my classmates. A number of them had also accepted job offers in the United States and were making the same move as me. Being in a foreign country with me meant that I had a support system to rely on during those first years.
3. What was your early experience working as an engineer like? Did you notice any gender imbalances or cultural differences?
My first engineering job was in IT at ABN-AMRO bank in Pakistan, working with mainframes and many people in suits and ties. There were definitely some gender imbalances in that environment. In Pakistan at the time, there were a lot of women who attended STEM programs in college – roughly 30% of the people in my classes were women. However, after graduating, the majority of those women never made it into the workforce, choosing instead to marry and start families. So at the bank, there were very few women, especially in the IT department.
When I moved to the U.S., it was more of the same. The funny thing was, at first, I didn’t realize there was a gender imbalance. I was so used to being the only woman in most meetings that it felt normal to me. But what I realized over time was that this wasn’t for the same reason as in Pakistan. Whereas Pakistani women were encouraged to study STEM in school but were less likely to pursue careers in the field, the pipeline stopped much earlier for American women. In the US, young women were much less likely to get into STEM programs in universities to begin with and even fewer got into tech careers.
4. Can you explain your role as Microsoft’s Corporate Vice President (CVP) for AI Infrastructure, Partnerships, and Marketplace?
As a CVP at Microsoft, my role is to shape the company’s future and ensure we succeed. This means setting our strategic vision, fostering innovation, and providing the right leadership and guidance to ensure our execution is successful. However, I would say that the most important part of my job is cultivating an environment where talent thrives, culture flourishes, and every individual is empowered to unleash their potential leading to fulfilling and impactful careers.
Specifically, I’m focused on advancing Microsoft’s AI initiatives within the Microsoft AI division. I’m building a unified platform that supports all of Microsoft Copilot. This platform allows us to innovate quickly and apply our learnings across Microsoft’s products, ensuring they are safe, reliable, and trustworthy. We also make this platform available to our customers so that they can create their own GenAI experiences efficiently and leverage Microsoft’s extensive knowledge.
I also lead a Marketplace team that is on a mission to create a services marketplace for the future by connecting customers to high-quality service providers around the world.
5. What excites you most about today’s AI technology, and what worries you?
I think the most exciting thing about AI is that it has the power to completely change the world. Not just in this little corner here at Microsoft but the entire world. I think that is both the most exciting part and also the most worrisome part. Can we build technology that benefits the entire world rather than some small subset of people? And how do we ensure we are approaching AI from that perspective all the way through our development?
6. You’ve had a very successful corporate career. What would be your advice to young women graduating with a STEM education who are pondering career options in research and science labs, graduate studies, startups, or corporations?
Do it. Be brave. Jump in and try your hand at research, and if that doesn’t feel right for you after some time, jump again and try a startup. The thing is, STEM is more than what the acronym suggests. It’s a way of structured thinking –an approach to solving problems. So my advice is to worry less about what particular field of STEM you pursue. Instead, think more about the skill sets that STEM programs provide you. For example, when you learn math, you are learning critical thinking. At their core, these are the skills that are going to bring you success in your career.
By the time my 5-year-old graduates from college, who knows if software engineering will be ‘the job’ anymore. Maybe it will be something totally new. I expect by then, we will be deep in the AI revolution. So instead of pursuing any specific career path, focus on getting those critical tools that STEM programs provide into your tool chest to make you adaptable to anything.
The other thing I’ll say is that you can’t learn everything you need to know through academia alone, nor can you learn everything only from working. You need to have a mix of both. For some people, it makes sense to do an undergrad, then a master’s and PhD, and then step into the workforce. However, the most successful people I’ve met, have taken a break in the middle of their academic studies to work. They take their education, apply those skills in a work environment, and then take all of those new learnings back with them to school.
The last thing I’ll say is this: No matter what industry or career you choose, make sure you pay it forward. Make sure the women who come after you have the support they need–what you got or wish you had when you first got started. There are many ways that you can do this. You can mentor. You can influence the type of talent your organization hires. You can participate in, lead, or even sponsor diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in your workplace. No matter what you choose, stay engaged. Keep pushing things forward for future generations.
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