Biography:
Erica Joy Baker (born 1980) is an engineer in the San Francisco Bay Area, Chief Technology Officer for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and known for her outspoken support of diversity and inclusion. She has worked at companies including GitHub, Google, Slack, Patreon, and Microsoft. She gained prominence in 2015 for starting an internal spreadsheet where Google employees reported their salary data to better understand pay disparities within the company.
Baker’s interest in technology dates back to her high school years when she took a calculator programming class and learned how to code in BASIC on Texas Instruments graphing calculators. She also delved into coding websites and hosted her own on GeoCities. Continuing her education, Baker attended the University of Miami where she majored in Computer Science. She encountered a lack of diversity in her classes, being one of the only two Black students, which later influenced her commitment to promoting diversity in tech.
Starting her career as a Windows Domain Administrator for the University of Alaska Statewide Systems, Baker quickly gained experience in network operations and mobile desktop support at Home Depot and Scientific Games. However, her work at Google from 2006 to May 2015 marked a significant milestone in her career. She held various roles at Google, culminating in the position of Site Reliability Engineer (SRE). It was during her time at Google that she initiated a groundbreaking internal spreadsheet, enabling employees to disclose their salary information. The spreadsheet shed light on pay disparities, transparency issues, and potential gender and ethnicity differentials in compensation.
In July 2015, Baker made headlines after leaving Google to join the messaging platform Slack as a build and release engineer. She leveraged her platform to advocate for diversity and inclusion, becoming a prominent figure in the tech industry. In 2016, she accepted TechCrunch’s Crunchies award on behalf of Slack for the Fastest Rising Startup, highlighting the company’s growth and success. In mid-2017, Baker made a career move to Kickstarter, assuming the role of director of engineering in Brooklyn. While her job did not primarily focus on diversity and inclusion, she made it clear that promoting a diverse and inclusive environment would be an integral part of her responsibilities.
Erica Joy Baker’s contributions to the tech industry go beyond her engineering expertise. Her advocacy for diversity and inclusion has had a resounding impact, not only within the companies she has worked for but also on a broader scale. Her commitment to fostering a more equitable and inclusive tech industry has made her a woman to watch and an inspiration for future generations of technologists.
Awards:
– Crunchies award for Fastest Rising Startup on behalf of Slack (2016)