This has been quite a year. One full of rich experiences running the range of emotion?—?all of which has reminded me to embrace life truly, fully, and deeply. The latest manifestation of this is one I am incredibly excited to share.
In a few short weeks, I will be leaving charity: water to join Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign as her new Director of Product. I will be working under her exceptionally talented CTO & CPO along with an amazing group of women & men to create digital products around donation, fundraising, volunteering, grassroots engagement, field organization and election analytics, all in pursuit of putting Secretary Clinton into the White House.
I couldn’t be more pumped for this move. For as long as I can remember, civic awareness and respect for governance was a significant part of my social fabric. Government, its leaders and agendas, was a constant discussion around our family dinner table. Politics, back in India and here in America, was a standard debate at any childhood dinner party. One of my earliest memories is going with my dad to vote on election night in 1988, him showing me how to mark the ballot and allowing me to cast his vote. Formative experiences like this meant that when I turned 18, the most exciting thing was not that I could rent a car or buy a pack of cigarettes, it was that I had finally earned the right to vote.
So it was a no-brainer that when my name got thrown into the Hillary for America mix, I was going to jump at this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I cannot wait to synthesize everything I have learned in 12+ years of building engaging digital products to help elect Hillary Clinton as the next President of the United States. If you find this as compelling as I do, know that we are immediately hiring for my team and there are many HFA roles open across social, digital, product, analytics, design and engineering. If you are interested or know someone who would be a great fit, please email me. Added bonus to all this excitement: I’ll be staying in New York, a place that is surprisingly feeling more like home, for the next 17 months as the HFA campaign is based in Brooklyn.
Of course, this change comes with sadness. Bidding farewell to charity: water, an organization I have an immense amount of respect for, is bittersweet. Deciding to say goodbye to Adobe after 10 years and leave the San Francisco Bay Area (which was my home since birth) to move to New York and help run product at this creative, collaborative and charmingly disruptive charity was one of the best decisions of my life. For the last two years, I have stepped out of my teeny-tiny Manhattan apartment on my way to work with a bounce of pride in my step. It is a no-brainer that I will continue to support charity: water forever and always and the first step is to find the perfect replacement for my role. We are hiring immediately for a Director of Product here at charity: water and if you are interested or know anyone who is, please send my way: deepa@charitywater.org
So my little adventure continues, first wrapping up at charity: water, then throw in some international travel to get the blood flowing, and finally onto this crazy campaign which I suspect will alter my life more then I can imagine.
An everlasting thank you goes to Nat Koloc, who changed my life on Easter Sunday with a cryptic email that ended with: “p.s. what are your thoughts on presidential campaigns?” And a special thank you goes to my father and a select few special friends (you know who you are) who encouraged me to tackle this opportunity with courage & gusto.
