Mounica Veggalam

Mounica Veggalam, Leadership Coach

Most impactful leadership lies at the intersection of:
- Personal growth
- Showing up with strong presence
- Learning to connect and lead other humans

I support leaders to scale their impact and create business results by guiding them through the above areas.

Career and Leadership Coach

Microsoft

I often get asked, “How are you a leadership coach when you haven’t been a manager yourself?”

The leadership I talk about is not strategic or tactical.

It’s self-leadership.

Your career trajectory — whether you reach C-Suite heights, or stay stuck in the middle — it starts with you. With what’s going on inside you.

This is the powerful lesson I realized at Microsoft. 

I observed inadequate leadership, average leadership, and excellent leadership. 

I was in heated design discussion rooms, witnessed managers make technical choices from their insecurities, and noticed the best empathetic leaders lost in overwhelm without any recognition.

I also saw powerful leadership from people who challenged the status quo. And challenged their own beliefs.

They were the people who did the right thing
- even when they’re anxious,
- even when they’re frustrated,
- even when they were at the edge of saying, “screw this sh**”

Your frustrations, disappointments, and resentments are where your growth opportunities lie.

When you understand and transform your inner landscape, your capacity for leadership expands, and you'll see the outside results: the promotion, the better project, and the better titles.

That’s the best way to make an impact in this world.

This is transformational leadership.

If you want to learn to lead your people from the inside-out, reach out and we’ll talk.

I am deeply invested in my personal transformation and leadership. That’s how I’m a leadership coach. That’s how I lead my clients to discover entirely new ways of presenting themselves.

I offer trainings, coaching and deep personal transformation, so you can feel fulfilled in your leadership mission. Send me a private message and we’ll chat.

Software Engineer

Practice Fusion

One of my mentors there asked, “Would you rather teach your kids to be smart or to be kind?”

What if I could do both?

With that question, I realized how starkly I’m drawn to deep philosophical concepts and the nature of the human mind. 

And this realization would set it in years later. But I didn’t know that then.

This internship was my entry into the software engineering world. 

It was incredible, surrounded by brilliant people in the startup culture. This is where I released my first feature into production, had my first exceptional manager, and gave my first talk in front of 200 smart people (I was terrible). 

It paved the way for another incredible role at Microsoft.

I won’t lie— I was arrogant about my IQ and my ability to grasp technical concepts quickly.

But I also had crippling self-doubt and introversion that got in the way of my impact.

Even through all that, a couple of things are common today:
— I value people and human connection. Regardless of my arrogance and self-doubt.
— I’m constantly pushing myself beyond my comfort zone. No matter how scary it is.
— I always look at my side of things. Even when I don’t want to. Especially when I don’t want to.

Today, this helps me serve my clients powerfully, 
— I point to the truth at the risk of them not liking me.
— I can deeply support them in facing the risks and uncertainities.
— I invest time and energy in confronting my beliefs and blindspots, so they don’t have to manage my ego.

It's a deeply rewarding experience.

Software Development Engineer Intern

Life & leadership coach for professionals, leaders and entrepreneurs | Software engineer turned coach & inner-work guide

Hi there! 👋 I’m Mounica. I help visionary tech leaders fast-track their careers so they can create more impact, build stronger teams, and bring their vision to reality, all with joyful life-balance.

I’m a software engineer turned transformational coach. Throughout my career, I was driven and confident on the outside. I achieved accolades, promotions, and patents. On the side, I tried to handle all my dissatisfaction with life through meditation and spiritual studies.

But none of that changed the *experience of life.*

I was always looking into the future for everything to settle down. My conversations lacked joy. I was subtly controlling in my relationships so I didn't break down. I was obsessed with achievement. 

Now I have a general sense of creative joy while taking up big projects. And I'm more present with my family.

It wasn't an overnight transformation (nothing worthwhile ever is). I approach this work from an intersection of developmental psychology (think ontological leadership and Robert Kegan's constructive map) and Eastern non-dual spirituality. 

Here are 3 levels of transformation you can expect through working with me:
1. Embodying your leadership voice & an internal compass, so you show Executive Presence.
2. Holding multiple, often conflicting, perspectives, so you bring a vision you deeply desire to reality.
3. Holding multiple identities, so you find creative joy in every choice you make (and have you ready for non-dual interconnected perception of the world).

This work is not about adding knowledge or skills but creating a *fundamentally different kind of mind* that takes the largest perspective, is more complex, and can handle more uncertainty.

My clients report:
- Influence without losing their ethics or empathy
- Command respect in a room full of brilliant (or skeptical) people
- Have ease, joy, and fun creating the results they want

If you’re curious, send me a DM!

Helping tech managers fast-track their careers with personalized 1:1 coaching.

I help with -
- Making tough career decisions
- Landing the next big role and making a vertical moves
- Transforming into a leader who delivers, impacts, and inspires.

Management skills and Relationships come easy to people managers. But what sets you apart is the Leadership mindset. I help managers become leaders and achieve their career goals along the way. 

The typical titles of my clients include:
- Engineering Manager
- Director of Engineering/Program/Product Management
- PM Manager
- Senior/Principal Engineers/PM

Cruise

• Directed a team of 5 FTEs and managed over 1,500 offshore employees across three vendors to support autonomous vehicle machine learning model development.
• Owned the roadmap and development of advanced labeling tools for autonomous vehicle machine learning models, directly improving model performance.
• Led a cross-functional team of engineers, designers, and vendors to deliver scalable solutions that labeled billions of data points.
• Established and optimized a New Product Introduction (NPI) framework, accelerating time-to-market for labeling data products.
• Conducted user research and stakeholder alignment sessions to define product requirements and prioritize features.
• Reduced operational costs by $1M through streamlined workflows and capacity planning.
• Awarded the Operations Visionary Award for groundbreaking contributions to AV data labeling operations.

Staff Product Manager - Machine Learning Data Labeling / Ground Truth

Brunk Industries

• Transformed organizational culture by defining and implementing data analytics dashboards (Power BI, SQL), enabling informed decision-making across the organization.
• Partnered with cross functional product teams to optimize internal tools, reducing inefficiencies by 20%.
• Developed strategies to improve product reliability/uptime saving >1,000 hours annually.

Director of Operational Excellence

Amcor

• Managed operations at a $100M revenue medical packaging facility with ~200 employees.
• Directed end-to-end product lifecycle management by commercializing new products and programs and implementing operational roadmaps to ensure profitability. 
• Spearheaded $4MM in new product launches by collaborating with R&D, sales, and engineering teams to ensure on-time delivery and market success.
• Restructured operations to optimize talents, improve teamwork and communication, and increase throughput
• Identified and implemented cost-saving initiatives with customer feedback that reduced expenses by 10% for core products.

Sr. Operations Manager

• Oversaw engineering and EHS functions, managing a $4M budget and 20 direct reports.
• Introduced automation technologies, saving $500K annually.
• Established the facility’s first preventive maintenance program, defining requirements to enhance product quality and reliability.
• Led a team of customers, sales, product management, R&D for new product development

Technical Engineering Manager

Tier 1 Automotive Supplier
• Established first capacity model to better improve manpower and quote new business
• Led engineering and maintenance teams, managing a $1.5M annual expense budget.
• Managed a portfolio of capital projects totaling $1M, enhancing plant capacity by 12%.
• Designed and implemented a new plant layout, achieving improved efficiency and reduced overhead.

Engineering Manager

The Dow Chemical Company

Lead mechanical engineer for commissioning and startup of a world-scale polyethylene plant ($500MM + project), Lead engineer for Salt Mining and Hydrocarbon Distribution Plant
• Commissioned and started up a $500M+ polyethylene facility, collaborated with product teams to optimize operations and reduce costs.
• Leveraged advanced and predictive analytics to identify improvement opportunities and enhance product output and profitability.

Lead Manufacturing Engineer

Caterpillar Inc.

• Completed Leadership and Technical Development Program (LTDP) which included stints in software development, Cat Proving Grounds, and manufacturing engineer at the Cat I6 Engine plant.
• Home group in Mechatronics where I spent my time developing, modifying, and validating control strategies for CAT engines at the global tech center in Mossville IL.

Systems Engineer - Mechatronics

Engineering Leader Sharing Stories | Loves Complexity and Chaos | Real Estate Investor | Technical Program Manager | Addicted to Diet Coke

In my day job I lead amazing individuals building AI products for Machine Learning Engineers in the Autonomous Vehicle space. 

On the side, here on Linkydoink I love talking about Airbnb investing. I love helping others on their investing journey. 

Send me a DM if you ever have any questions I can help answer.

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Mounica Veggalam

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