Noor Aftab
Noor Aftab is the Global Program Lead at Amazon Web Services (AWS), where she drives strategic programs for Amazon S3, supporting some of the world’s most complex data, AI, and analytics workloads. With a foundation in software engineering and data science, she brings over a decade of experience building and scaling cloud-native solutions, AI/ML systems, and developer-focused programs.
She serves as Vice President of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) Pacific Northwest section, championing technical leadership and mentoring initiatives across engineering communities. Noor is also Chair of the NumFOCUS Code of Conduct Working Group and User Group Leader for IBM Women in AI, where she fosters inclusive, resilient communities across 300+ open-source projects.
A frequent keynote speaker, Noor has presented at PyData Global, SciPy, ODSC, TEDx, IEEE, and 13+ global venues, delivering talks that connect technical depth with real-world adoption of AI and cloud. She has authored and led initiatives such as the IEEE Hour of Power AI training program, empowering engineers and professionals with practical AI skills.
Her contributions to technology and leadership have been recognized with awards, including the Australia Alumni Excellence Award and Asia Pacific HRM Congress Award, with media features in the BBC, Martha’s Vineyard Times, and Hindustan Times.
GitHub: aftabn81
| Website: www.nooraftab.com
Session
Python is the number one language on GitHub, yet a git log of our shared future reveals a critical system failure. While Python adoption is exponential, women author only 2–3% of core-repository commits and comprise just 22% of the global AI talent pool. This talk moves beyond rhetoric to present a 5-Step Engineering Framework based on quantitative research from 24 global tech communities. We will introduce the VIM Model (Visibility, Invitation, Mechanism)—a proven architecture that drove 179% membership growth and 99% retention in pilot programs.