Ishleen Kaur on making an impact in tech

Ishleen Kaur was always interested in the mechanisms behind how things worked and wanted to solve problems that impacted people’s day-to-day lives. Originally, she was torn between pursuing medicine and engineering, but the latter won out. 

When she was growing up, Ishleen’s older brother worked in tech, which further fueled her interest in computer science — so much so that she went on to pursue a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in the subject. 

However, it wasn’t until Ishleen started her first job in the networking domain that she truly understood the impact of her work.

“You don’t realize the impact your code can have,” she says. “But over time, you see how one change in GitHub can shape a customer’s entire technology landscape — for better or worse.”

Now, as a principal engineer at Elastic, Ishleen works in observability — something that caught her interest because of its intersection of development and operations. Her work on the Observability Integrations team involves building integrations, working on LLM Observability, embedding OpenTelemetry (OTel) into observability solutions, and collaborating across multiple teams to deliver products end to end.

“I help shape the future of observability, ensuring that our solutions provide deep insights into complex systems,” Ishleen says. “I work on challenging problems that have a direct impact on system reliability and performance.”

Day to day, Ishleen works on a mix of designing scalable architectures, reviewing code, and problem solving — whether it’s optimizing performance or finding innovative ways to enhance observability solutions.

Beyond her technical responsibilities, Ishleen plays a key leadership role, mentoring junior engineers and guiding projects from start to finish. 

“Leadership skills are crucial,” she says. “It’s not just about coding — it's about guiding the team toward a common goal. At a senior level, technical decisions carry weight, and you need the confidence to say, ‘This is the path we’ll take.’ Balancing strategic direction with hands-on coding is key to driving successful outcomes.”

Ishleen was promoted to principal engineer recently, which has only fueled her ambition to continue growing and contributing. She attributes much of her drive to her parents, who have been a constant source of encouragement and confidence.

“I think I get this push from my parents,” she says. “Especially my dad — he’s always been passionate about my growth, and that belief has given me a lot of confidence.”

But Ishleen’s confidence also comes from within — and has grown over time. She believes in the work she’s doing and has found the confidence to advocate for herself and her work. 

“If you’ve done good work, you owe it to yourself to speak up,” she says. “Especially for a woman in tech, making your visibility known is essential.”

Ishleen encourages other women to speak up, too. 

“Don’t be afraid to take up space. Speaking up builds confidence over time. Remember that your perspective is valuable, and bringing your unique experiences to the table can lead to innovative solutions.”

She also recommends continuing self-improvement and learning from your peers. 

“Always keep learning and stay curious — tech is a constantly evolving field, and there’s always something new to explore. One of the best things about working at Elastic is the collaborative culture — there’s so much to learn from your peers, and it helps you grow as an engineer.”

Ishleen’s biggest motivation is seeing other women in leadership roles. It pushes her forward and fuels her confidence and drive to go for higher leadership roles and take on more responsibility.

“There’s something incredibly powerful about seeing women in leadership positions. It fuels my passion to become one of them.”

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