Poornima Vijayashanker profile photo 1 on Tal

Poornima Vijayashanker

Engineering & Product Lead | ex-Mint.com | ex-Apple

San Jose

19+ years of work experience

Mar 200719 yrs 4 mosPresent

San Jose, CA

• Founded Femgineer to educate and empower tech professionals in their career growth. • Conduct an annual "Confident Communicator Course" to enhance technical presentation skills. • Authored two books on software product transformation and public speaking for techies. • Host and produce the web show "Build," focusing on product development insights (2016-2019).
Apple
Oct 20241 yr 7 mosApr 2026

Hybrid

• Project lead for burnin-testing (system-level stress test for hardware products) and product integrity programs for iPhone 17 / iOS 26, defining scope, schedules, budgets, and risk mitigation strategies. • Presented monthly briefings to executive leadership, translating complex technical status into strategic insights. • Directed post‑launch quality (EFFA), reduced DPPM through targeted corrective actions; identified 200–300 DPPM issues and led FMEA‑driven mitigations. • Implemented advanced data visualization tools to forecast product performance, informing strategic decisions. • Oversaw collaboration among firmware, electrical, software teams, external vendors, and senior management to ensure on-time delivery. Collaborated with cross-functional software teams to adopt regression testing suite and improve their code quality. • Trained QA teams to support engineering by coding test tools and triaging issues. • Adopted prompt engineering and GenAI tools to improve day-to-day productivity.
Apple
Apr 20196 yrs 4 mosJul 2025

Cupertino, California, United States

• System integrator responsible for automating burnin-testing on new products, which is a system-level test that stresses all the major components in a hardware product. • Burnin lead for the following products: Apple Watch (Series 5, 6, and SE), MacBook Air ('22, ’23), MacBook Pro (’24, ’25), and Mac Mini (’25). • Developed and maintained automation pipelines and test frameworks for hardware validation, accelerating production readiness. • Drove adoption of test-driven development and automation, reducing manual labor and enhancing quality processes. • Mentorship & outreach: taught technical presentation courses based on Present! (2019–present); presented “Getting Your Voice Heard” at HWE Women’s Conference (2023); AWSEM hub leader (Duke) mentoring CS majors (2021–2022); volunteer instructor, Quality Code Initiative (refactoring & testing, 2021–2022).
Jun 20161 yr 7 mosDec 2017

San Francisco Bay Area

• Co-founded OPEAR, the first on-demand mobile app for caregivers in the greater NYC area. • Developed the backend infrastructure to support both parent and caregiver iOS applications. • Automated a comprehensive 5-step vetting process for caregivers, ensuring safety and reliability. • Built and managed a cross-functional remote team across six time zones, enhancing operational efficiency.
BizeeBee Inc
Jan 20107 yrs 1 moJan 2017

Palo Alto, CA

• Founded BizeeBee Inc, a CRM solution tailored for small to medium-sized fitness businesses. • Launched a next-day payment platform, successfully serving hundreds of fitness businesses across the US and Western Europe. • Recruited and led a remote cross-functional team, fostering collaboration and innovation in a startup environment.
Techstars
Jun 20164 mosSep 2016

Greater New York City Area

Led pitch prep for 20 companies in the batch to prepare them for the demo day pitch.

Education

Duke University

BSEE, Computer Science & Electrical Engineering

Duke University

20004 yrs2004

Join Poornima and 10k+ other professionals on

Tal Boss

Tal is the app where bosses meet engineers & builders directly, without middlemen

Download Tal Boss

Poornima Vijayashanker on Tal

Headline

Engineering & Product Lead | ex-Mint.com | ex-Apple

About

Engineering leader with 20+ years building hardware + software products, scaling teams, and driving cross‑functional programs at startups and Fortune 500s. I build reliable production systems from prototype backends that scale to millions (Mint) to factory and burn‑in automation that validate hardware pre‑production at Apple. I hire and grow distributed teams, lead product integrity and post‑launch quality programs, and translate ambiguous problems into measurable roadmaps. I’ve founded startups, advised accelerators, authored two books on presenting and productization, and spoken at 100+ events worldwide. Core strengths: product & program leadership, production quality & reliability, test/factory automation, technical recruiting, and mentoring. Open to executive and senior technical leadership roles where I can scale engineering teams, improve product reliability, and accelerate time‑to‑market.

Location

San Jose

Work experience

Founder at Femgineer, Mar 2007 - Present · 19 yrs 4 mos, San Jose, CA, • Founded Femgineer to educate and empower tech professionals in their career growth. • Conduct an annual "Confident Communicator Course" to enhance technical presentation skills. • Authored two books on software product transformation and public speaking for techies. • Host and produce the web show "Build," focusing on product development insights (2016-2019).

Senior Software Engineering Project Lead at Apple, Oct 2024 - Apr 2026 · 1 yr 7 mos, Hybrid, • Project lead for burnin-testing (system-level stress test for hardware products) and product integrity programs for iPhone 17 / iOS 26, defining scope, schedules, budgets, and risk mitigation strategies. • Presented monthly briefings to executive leadership, translating complex technical status into strategic insights. • Directed post‑launch quality (EFFA), reduced DPPM through targeted corrective actions; identified 200–300 DPPM issues and led FMEA‑driven mitigations. • Implemented advanced data visualization tools to forecast product performance, informing strategic decisions. • Oversaw collaboration among firmware, electrical, software teams, external vendors, and senior management to ensure on-time delivery. Collaborated with cross-functional software teams to adopt regression testing suite and improve their code quality. • Trained QA teams to support engineering by coding test tools and triaging issues. • Adopted prompt engineering and GenAI tools to improve day-to-day productivity.

Senior Software Engineer at Apple, Apr 2019 - Jul 2025 · 6 yrs 4 mos, Cupertino, California, United States, • System integrator responsible for automating burnin-testing on new products, which is a system-level test that stresses all the major components in a hardware product. • Burnin lead for the following products: Apple Watch (Series 5, 6, and SE), MacBook Air ('22, ’23), MacBook Pro (’24, ’25), and Mac Mini (’25). • Developed and maintained automation pipelines and test frameworks for hardware validation, accelerating production readiness. • Drove adoption of test-driven development and automation, reducing manual labor and enhancing quality processes. • Mentorship & outreach: taught technical presentation courses based on Present! (2019–present); presented “Getting Your Voice Heard” at HWE Women’s Conference (2023); AWSEM hub leader (Duke) mentoring CS majors (2021–2022); volunteer instructor, Quality Code Initiative (refactoring & testing, 2021–2022).

Co-Founder and CTO at OPEAR, Jun 2016 - Dec 2017 · 1 yr 7 mos, San Francisco Bay Area, • Co-founded OPEAR, the first on-demand mobile app for caregivers in the greater NYC area. • Developed the backend infrastructure to support both parent and caregiver iOS applications. • Automated a comprehensive 5-step vetting process for caregivers, ensuring safety and reliability. • Built and managed a cross-functional remote team across six time zones, enhancing operational efficiency.

CEO & Founder at BizeeBee Inc, Jan 2010 - Jan 2017 · 7 yrs 1 mo, Palo Alto, CA, • Founded BizeeBee Inc, a CRM solution tailored for small to medium-sized fitness businesses. • Launched a next-day payment platform, successfully serving hundreds of fitness businesses across the US and Western Europe. • Recruited and led a remote cross-functional team, fostering collaboration and innovation in a startup environment.

Lead Mentor in Residence at Techstars, Jun 2016 - Sep 2016 · 4 mos, Greater New York City Area, Led pitch prep for 20 companies in the batch to prepare them for the demo day pitch.

Education

BSEE, Computer Science & Electrical Engineering, Duke University