Speaker

Darva Satcher

Darva Satcher has worked in the Software Development Industry for 25 years. During her undergraduate years, Mrs. Satcher was a Dual Degree Engineering student. She obtained a General Engineering Degree from Spelman College and a Computer Engineering Degree from Georgia Institute of Technology.

Mrs. Satcher began her career working in a fast-paced start-up company, Acumen Solutions. While at Acumen, she worked in all phases of the Software Development Life Cycle providing consulting to several Telecommunications companies. Mrs. Satcher gathered and analyzed requirements, authored design documentation, implemented code in several languages, and tested software quality. Through this experience, she had a solid technical foundation enabling her to deliver high-quality software solutions laying the foundation for her career in Software Development.

After a decade of developing and managing software, Mrs. Satcher was ready for a more significant challenge, managing people. To facilitate her transition from Software Development to Software Management, she enrolled in a Masters Program at the University of Maryland University College. After obtaining her MS in Software Engineering, Mrs. Satcher went to work for the Federal Government as a Software Development Manager. During the 11 years she worked for the government, she built a Software Development team from the ground up. Midway through her tenure, her position transitioned into a 100% remote Software Development Management position. Mrs. Satcher delivered many software solutions for both the Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory (MSEL) and the Office of Safety Health and Environment at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

Mrs. Satcher’s experience managing a distributed team led her to the position she currently holds, Director of Engineering at GitLab. GitLab is a company breaking barriers in the open-source community, rapidly growing and is a trailblazing 100% remote company. She is now managing Fullstack, Frontend and Backend Engineering Managers, who support the GitLab product. In her current position, she is responsible for hiring a high-caliber engineering team, owning the delivery of product commitments, and coordinating across departments to accomplish collective goals.