Lauren Ochotnická

About Me Link to heading

I am a senior technology professional with 17 years of software engineering and leadership experience, looking to transition into a career focused on maximizing positive impact.

Five years ago, I took a deliberate career break to gain a different perspective through language study, cultural immersion, and volunteer work. This experience has fundamentally shifted how I evaluate my professional choices and clarified that my next career move must be into a role where I can make a measurable, positive impact. While I am particularly drawn to AI safety as one potential high-impact area, I am actively exploring where my skills and values intersect with the greatest need.

I am currently building new expertise and refreshing my knowledge through coursework in machine learning, AI safety, economics, and public policy while continuing volunteer commitments. What I am looking for most at this stage is structured guidance, accountability, and community support to help me evaluate my options and develop a concrete action plan for transitioning into a high-impact role.

Skills Link to heading

Structured Problem Solving • Strategic Decision-Making • Prioritization Under Constraints • Global Team Leadership • Strategic Planning & Roadmapping • Complex Program Execution • Executive Communication & Briefing • Stakeholder Alignment

Professional Development and Community Engagement Link to heading

Career Transition Preparation | 2025 - Present Link to heading

I am pursuing new expertise in AI safety, economics, and policy while refreshing my technical foundations in software engineering and computer science. I am pursuing this through the following coursework, with the goal of finding where these areas intersect to maximize positive impact.

Completed

Future of AI Course (BlueDot Impact)
AGI Safety Short Course (Google DeepMind)
Neural Networks Foundational Review (3Blue1Brown)

In Progress

Linear Algebra Foundational Review (3Blue1Brown)
Differential Equations Foundational Review (3Blue1Brown)
Python Foundational Review (MIT OpenCourseware)
Principles of Microeconomics (MIT OpenCourseware)
U.S. Public Policy (HarvardX)
Ethics in AI and Data Science (Linux Foundation EdX)

Future

Intro to Machine Learning (MIT Open Learning Library)
AI Safety (Harvard University)
Game Theory I (Stanford EdX)
Game Theory II (Stanford EdX)

English Language Teacher | 2024 - Present Link to heading

Founder - Železné English Club | Jaroměřice Elementary School | BICF Conversation Club

Founded local English conversation club serving 25 community members (adults and children)
Developed curriculum, created teaching materials, and taught classes
Volunteered with regional organizations to support English language learning through native speaker conversation

Czech Language and Cultural Studies | 2019 - Present Link to heading

Masaryk University | Czech Courses Brno | Private Lessons

Engaged in intensive Czech language and cultural studies for over 7 years, dedicating 6-40 hours weekly to coursework and independent study
Achieved B1 certification and passed Czech culture exam for citizenship (both 2024)
Continuing study toward B2 proficiency

Volunteer | 2024 - Present Link to heading

Brno Expat Centre Logo Brno Expat Centre

Supported expat integration through monthly welcome sessions, educating newcomers on Czech healthcare system and hospital processes
Assisted with annual Brno Expat Fair coordination, delivering blood donation awareness programming

Work Experience Link to heading

Red Hat

Program Manager | Remote | 2020 – 2021

Led cross-organizational program to enhance security of internal product pipeline tools, managing a team of 20 across US and Europe
Coordinated 13 interdependent sub-projects, ensuring alignment and preventing system-wide failures
Prioritized development efforts, managed schedules, and facilitated stakeholder communication across global organizations
Delivered security improvements that reduced vulnerabilities while strengthening and updating critical infrastructure

Product Owner | Hybrid: Brno, Czech Republic/Westford, MA, USA | 2018 – 2020

Led team of 8 engineers distributed across US, Australia, China, and Czech Republic; owning internal product release pipeline tool for 2,000+ users
Planned and facilitated international team events to strengthen team dynamics and collaboration
Established stakeholder feedback processes and communication protocols that increased user satisfaction
Prioritized feature development to optimize release pipeline efficiency

Senior Software Engineer | Westford, MA, USA | 2017 – 2018

Developed Product Pipeline, APIs, and supporting infrastructure
Designed and implemented annual user survey to gather feedback, analyzing usage patterns to drive iterative tooling improvements
Triaged customer issues and escalations to maintain responsive support

IBM

Senior Staff Engineer | Littleton, MA, USA | 2015 – 2017

Designed, tested, and implemented a HashiCorp Vault-based secrets management solution with etcd and Consul backends, securing credential storage across Jenkins, Chef, and Ansible workflows
Owned and maintained CI/CD pipeline components and infrastructure
Provided technical guidance to developers and designed training programs for automated builds and internal software tools

Dell

Senior Software Engineer | Nashua, NH, USA | 2010 – 2015

Served as technical lead for Dell/EqualLogic and Dell/Compellent performance teams, coordinating engineers across multiple sites on performance processes, documentation, and training programs
Directed platform performance analysis, identifying and resolving bottlenecks in storage stack and FreeBSD OS
Mentored junior engineers and partnered with external vendors to optimize hardware for Dell Storage systems
Developed automation tools (PowerShell, bash, Perl) to improve engineering efficiency

EMC

Software Engineer | Nashua, NH, USA | 2007 – 2010

Developed enterprise email archival and journaling software (SourceOne and EmailXtender) meeting legal and government compliance requirements
Designed and implemented SDK enabling third-party platform extensions, with working code samples and public APIs across C/C++, C#, and Web Services
Built automated smoke testing framework for EmailXtender, reducing early-stage QA burden and enabling more thorough downstream validation
Developed standalone utilities and tools to extend core software functionality

Intel

Event and Program Manager | Chandler, AZ, USA | 2005 – 2007

Led end-to-end planning and execution of 5-day annual engineering summit, scaling attendance from 500 to 700+ while managing budget growth from $1.6M to $2.1M
Directed 25-person cross-functional team of planners, engineers, and marketing specialists
Implemented structured feedback process that produced measurable year-over-year improvements in attendee satisfaction across scheduling, content, and operations
Managed all logistics including content sessions, vendor trade show, awards banquet, and attendee events

Software Engineer | Chandler, AZ, USA | 2004 – 2007

Evaluated performance of enterprise applications (Microsoft Exchange, IBM-Lotus Domino, SAP) on new Intel platforms, translating findings into actionable recommendations for developers
Performed initial testing and profiling of platform features, with analysis directly influencing Intel processor development and driving performance improvements
Developed automated testing frameworks to minimize human error during data collection
Authored white papers and presented findings at major industry conferences and internal forums
Mentored new team members on performance analysis tools and methodologies