Microchip Technology - Ingrid Tay

2021 Women in Engineering

Ingrid Tay

Technical Training Manager Microchip Technology

Bachelor of Science in Engineering, Arizona State University

Master of Business Administration, Grand Canyon University

Ingrid Tay is based at Microchip’s global headquarters in Chandler, Arizona. She oversees the Technical Training Writing Services team, which supports the company’s engineering and sales functions. She joined Microchip in 2013 after graduating with a Bachelor of Science (BS) degree in engineering from Arizona State University. In 2020, she earned a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Grand Canyon University. She is also active in introducing students of all ages to robotics and engineering, working to support and staff programs including the FIRST Robotics Competition international program for high school students. She is a co-founder of the Building Dreams Robotics organization, which promotes Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) among students in underserved communities.

Talk about the culture at your company. What makes it inclusive or supportive of women in engineering and automation?

I really believe Microchip’s culture is one-of-a-kind. All of my managers have been very supportive of the advocacy for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) that I do outside of work. Microchip has given me the opportunity to volunteer at FIRST Robotics Competition and VEX Robotics events. Many Microchip female employees like myself have participated as judges and mentors at multiple robotics and science fair events. Moreover, Microchip shows its support for engineering by sponsoring multiple robotics teams in Arizona. In addition, I’ve had the opportunity to represent my company as a Women in Computer Science and Engineering panelist at the Arizona Science Tech Festival where we provided advice to women working as engineers and young engineering students. Also, I often speak to minority students at engineering summer programs about my college experience and as a working professional. I encourage them to continue in engineering and talk about how companies such as Microchip support women in engineering fi elds, and how our jobs are very rewarding.

Describe a recent company project (in which you were involved) that went particularly well. How did you and your team go about ensuring success?

We recently moved all our customer-facing training content to a new web platform to improve the user experience and our content management. Looking back, with this large project successfully behind us, what made it such a positive outcome for the company was our strategy execution. At the beginning of the project, the managers from all the teams came together to develop a strategy. We then went back to our individual teams and identifi ed their roles and responsibilities and provided clear direction. As we were executing the strategy, we constantly asked for team feedback. We needed to know what was working and what we needed to improve. It was important to take all the input into consideration and also to keep the team well informed as decisions were being made. Managers made themselves available to answer questions as they arose, and this kept blockers and potential bottlenecks to a minimum while addressing concerns. In the end, this was a terrifi c cross-functional project that brought people together to collaborate and complete a very critical project for the corporation in a timely way.