EY

National Finalist, Corporate Finance Woman of the Year

Microsoft

Product Manager, Translations4U (2019-2020)

Machine translation/localization

“Meeting Niyathi during their interview for the Product Manager role at Microsoft was a standout moment in my career. They immediately distinguished themselves to all of us on the interview loop with their rare combination of passion, intelligence, creative problem-solving, and mental flexibility. Niyathi is more than just a skilled professional; they’re a dynamic force who leverages their diverse personal interests and professional experiences to drive innovative approaches & major impact. Their endless curiosity and embodiment of a learning mindset are truly inspiring.

In the Global org at Microsoft (2019-2020), Niyathi quickly made their mark. They developed expertise in complex domains like localization and machine translation, effectively driving highly technical projects to fruition. Their ability to navigate the nuances of cross-organizational collaboration with ease established them not just as a colleague, but as a go-to figure within the team. What truly sets Niyathi apart, though, is their genuine energy, enthusiasm, and the heartfelt commitment and care they extend to their teammates. I confidently recommend Niyathi for any team!”
— Joshua Segeren, Senior Product Manager at Microsoft

  • Created, maintained, reduced costs and improved translation quality for Microsoft’s language machine translation (MT) ML models for Windows, Office, Xbox & Gaming, Teams, Exchange, Cloud + AI, and more

  • Saved 20% of our monthly translation costs (highest team cost, 15% of CVP org fiscal year 2020 goal for spend category) by investigating unusually large charges & making subscription changes; clarified pricing 36x higher than price assumed previously for months

  • Drove analysis which revealed that software translations, our main investment up to this point, comprise only 1% of our actual translation volume for at least half of our tenants; planned multi-year work to bring data on the remaining volume of content translations (99%) to our analytics and dashboards

  • Drove upgrade from statistical to neural and human parity MT models; drove support for language specificity (e.g. Portuguese - Portugal vs. Portuguese - Brazil), covering 100% of our M365 Commercial languages (99% of revenue for 2+ years, 99% of MAD for 6+ months) with neural MT models on a language subtype level; newly deployed models show no degradation and up to 35% translation quality improvement

  • D+I initiatives: trained teams and leadership on Disability Etiquette and Language Guidance after customizing CELA Accessibility training with the People in Office with Disabilities group (a new group I help lead) and team focus group; on org D+I and Onboarding v-teams

Search, Knowledge, and Intent (2020-2022)

Enhanced Microsoft Search user experience by driving planning and execution of new accessible, private, and secure features with responsible intelligence and backed by user research, across platforms, partners, and providers

  • Delivered features in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint apps allowing users to view the content of Outlook and Teams messages containing their document, search for Microsoft Templates, and get access to subscription-only features in online versions

  • Delivered design and plan for new Word, Excel, and PowerPoint mobile search experience

  • Delivered replicable process and roadmap to make search box UX improvements

  • Developed a learning UI to teach users about functionality

  • Created prototype for feature to help users efficiently create similar documents

  • Defined experimentation philosophy for team, facilitated hypothesis awareness for efficient, effective experimentation, set up a feature team experiment triage, and increased hypothesis-driven feature experimentation over 50%

  • Created first team onboarding documentation and trained teams on inclusion

Governance: assessed governance structure across various entities, assessed evidence of regulatory compliance, used SQL to pull data on regulatory breaches to assess and manage risks, and reviewed and modified all Contingency Funding Plans* (CFP) across Goldman Sachs and its subsidiaries to ensure adequate liquidity responses in a financial crisis. Upon internship end, my new versions of the CFP, one of the main liquidity documents for Goldman Sachs, had been escalated to senior leadership for review.

In addition to my internship in Governance, I also took on the following projects due to interest and need:

“[Niyathi’s] detail-oriented approach as well as the quality of her work enabled the program to move smoothly across multiple sectors and divisions. One thing which impressed me most was her way of connecting the complex scientific notions into a simple process-oriented view - which made it particularly easy to build a process upon in a complex company of >1000 people. She was instrumental building a scoring mechanism across multiple ideas to cross-compare and validate them - which made it phenomenally easy for the exec team to prioritize one against the other.”
— Burak Over, former VP of Operations & Head of Engineering, Intrexon

*A Contingency Funding Plan is an FDIC-mandated document which includes policies, procedures, projection reports, and action plans designed to ensure a bank's sources of liquidity are sufficient to fund normal operating requirements under contingent liquidity events. According to the FDIC, “all financial institutions, regardless of size and complexity, should have a formal CFP that clearly sets out the strategies for addressing liquidity shortfalls in emergency situations. A CFP should delineate policies to manage a range of stress environments, establish clear lines of responsibility, and articulate clear implementation and escalation procedures. It should be regularly tested and updated to ensure that it is operationally sound.”

“Niyathi is a creative problem solver whose contributions extend beyond their job requirements. They are as passionate about UX as they are about providing beautiful UI to our users.

With ease, Niyathi works cross–departmentally to ensure that product goals are being met. They actively work towards long term and short term improvements with a sense of eagerness and urgency.”
— Sam Trovato, Vice President of Product & Design

ConsumerDirect

Lead Product Manager & Privacy Lead

  • Developed long-term roadmap and developed cost-saving partnerships for flagship and new products across web, mobile, and desktop, B2B, B2B2C, and DTC/B2C SaaS, and privacy and financial wellness industries, increasing annual recurring revenue 24%

  • Launched mobile app on iOS and Android which acquired 10,000 users in 4 months and 4.8 stars on the Apple Store

  • Increased product revenue 300% in 4 months by increasing conversion rate and number of revenue streams

  • Led negotiation with major credit bureau Experian which saved millions of dollars in annual recurring costs

  • Built and managed team of entry-level and senior product managers, UI/UX designers, researchers, and product marketing managers with 90% team satisfaction rate, educating the team on product and working with Talent Acquisition on hiring

  • Developed sales targets and billing automation which led to millions of dollars in new revenue and 20% cost savings respectively

Cornell S.C. Johnson School of Business

Winner, Women in Investing Stock Pitch Competition

K Squared

Private Equity Analyst Intern

  • Screened investment opportunities and evaluated investment criteria

  • Performed due diligence including financial modeling, valuations and drafting deal memos

  • Presented multiple deals and analyses to General Partners

Intrexon (Now Precigen)

Summer Financial Analyst

“[Niyathi’s] approach was very methodical and her ability to bridge financial considerations with the scientific merits of each target based upon very little input was exceptional. I was very impressed with her ability to navigate the limitations of financial projections for early stage biotherapeutics and present actionable recommendations that were sound from both a economic and technical point of view. I would recommend Niyathi for any team requiring a strategic thinker who can operate efficiently and independently and act decisively given limited resources.”
— Ryan Kum, Assoc. Director, Intrexon

  • Built discounted cash flow models in Excel and gave recommendations for biotechnology & pharmaceuticals mergers & acquisitions, new projects, and current subsidiary management

  • Built mechanism to score all potential future projects and decide which to pursue based on a number of quantitative variables including: resources needed, fit with corporate strategy, market potential and regulatory hurdles

  • Worked with subsidiaries to analyze cost structures and pricing models

  • Built financial models for technological, pharmaceutical, animal sciences, consumer goods, agricultural and biochemical industries

The Ohio State University

Study Coordinator & Laboratory Operations Research Technician

Coordinate an NIH-funded mindfulness trial working with stakeholders (study team, instructional designers, videographers, participants).

  • Recruit(ed 24) participants

  • Conduct neuropsychological and neuroimaging assessments

  • Data management, data record-keeping, and analysis

  • Administrative duties

  • Set project timelines

  • Schedule, maintain, and update Institutional Review Board protocols

  • Provide support to Principal Investigator

  • Make recommendations on major purchases