Sky is the limit for IT graduate Emma Taylor

She runs a Technology department of over 120 people and is responsible for the shared enterprise technology platforms – all things data and integration, automation, digital engineering, architecture, and the burgeoning area of Gen-AI.

After graduating with a Bachelor of IT from Southern Cross University, Emma launched her career as programmer-analyst, then portfolio manager, solution architect, consulting architect, and then as head of technology, across some of Australia’s biggest companies.

She says the advances in AI are mind-blowing.

“Now with the ability to integrate AI into our systems, we are taking a two-fold approach of buying AI enabled software and we also building our own machine learning and AI models. We’re experimenting with how a production capability might look and how we manage and govern this new technology,” Emma says.

“Advances in AI are happening at such a rapid pace. It’s been a passion project for our people who’ve put their hand up to help take it forward. We’re looking forward to building more capability into our teams.

“We’re all learning together and figuring out the different ways it can be used with our own data, for instance what we can and can’t do with large language models, what controls we need to have in place – it’s been a steep learning curve over the past 18 months.

Emma says her team of architects has the broadest touch points across the organisation.

“Our enterprise and solution architects work with every part of the business to develop new solutions for business initiatives, from Airline Operations, Loyalty, Commercial and HR. We are lucky because we get a high-level view of every single project being planned and delivered – it helps us keep all the puzzle pieces in the right spots,” Emma says.

“Integration touches nearly every single part of our organisation and we’re building out our data capability to match. Our passionate Digital engineering teams build highly engaging web and app experiences our customers love.”

When she embarked on her IT journey through a scholarship at Southern Cross University, Emma says it was a new and rapidly emerging field to work in.

“My degree at Southern Cross Uni was well rounded from an IT perspective. We had good exposure to lots of disciplines from accounting to programming. My degree focused on business systems which led into working as a systems analyst and in data. I started working in business intelligence and found that all the coding experience – I loved coding at uni – was relevant for me.

“My lecturers had a positive impact on me. They were personable and knowledgeable. Many had worked in large companies and corporations and having someone share that experience with me was eye-opening.

“The campus had great facilities with state-of-the-art tech and it was a good uni experience. I’ve been out of uni for some time now, but all the different specialities you can do now blows my mind, with User Experience, Software Development – I think I would’ve been torn between Data and AI, and Cyber Security if I had to choose over.

“During my career in IT I moved quite quickly into working with data, which has always been my passion, then specialising in solution design work, but I had the most fun when leading people, so it was a natural progression into leadership roles. I get my energy from being around and working with people – it’s more my strength than the technical side.

“For anyone who is questioning whether to pursue a career in IT, stick with it because once you get out into job land, there are so many opportunities. You can apply your skills anywhere, in any industry really. That’s the unique thing about IT, you can pursue any other passion with it, whether it be sustainability, financial services, travel or academia - anything you like.”