Engineering Human Progress
Paul Kelleher
VP Engineering, QT Technologies Ireland Limited, Qualcomm Ireland
Qualcomm aims to build an inclusive environment where everyone feels like they’re part of the team. At Qualcomm Ireland, we place a strong emphasis on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and the positive impacts it has for our site, our culture and our overall wellbeing.
One area of our DEI effort includes a commitment to promoting gender equity in technology. We have placed huge emphasis on developing and empowering our female engineering talent through coaching, mentorship and training. We actively invest in women in STEM initiatives and put a significant focus on developing our female talent.
Qualcomm Women in Engineering, Science and Technology (QWEST), an employee network on our site located in Cork, aims to develop female talent by sharing technical knowledge and providing opportunities to attend conferences, training programmes, and networking events.
We provide external, high-quality, tailored training to the group. This training gives those who partake the best tools to further their careers here in Qualcomm Ireland. We have seen our first female engineering lead here on site this year and hope to see more progress to this level in the future.
In the area of STEM careers, a significant external challenge that we are facing is the limited number of female engineering graduates.
We firmly believe in the principle that visibility fosters ambition—if you can see it, you can be it. Therefore, giving our female engineers the opportunity to represent our site at events is crucial to showing young people that engineering is an inclusive career. These events include FIRST Lego League, I Wish, STEM SW (South West), and University and Research Institute Conferences.
Here at Qualcomm, we pride ourselves on having strong bonds with many universities in Ireland. Through these relationships, we have the privilege to promote STEM careers to all students. We currently sponsor many university events including many engineering societies to support women who have chosen a STEM based career path.
We have had some of our female engineers present as guest speakers both to inspire the next generation of engineers and to build on their own leadership skills by engaging in such events.
We have a successful university internship program, nurturing the young engineers of tomorrow, as well as a Transition Year Internship Program for second-level students. Being able to inspire second level students to consider a career in STEM is something we believe is critical and we endeavor to show the students that engineering is a career accessible to all.
At Qualcomm Ireland, our DEI vision is to ‘promote a culture of equity where everyone belongs and thrives while building a better, intelligently connected world.
Our journey in DEI is perpetual and evolving. We are steadfast in our dedication to learning, growing, and adapting to ensure our values of diversity, equity, and inclusion are consistently mirrored in our workplace.
With a workforce representing over 45 nationalities, our culture of inclusion is paramount, encouraging open communication and fostering a sense of belonging, which are critical to driving innovative solutions.
