Written by Spencer Hulse

Women make up around 25% of the tech workforce, but less than 10% hold architecture or leadership roles, according to McKinsey. Companies with diverse decision-making teams outperform others by 25%. The data is clear: plenty of women work in tech, but only a handful get to make the calls that matter.

Mariana Tataryn breaks that pattern. She designs financial systems for some of the largest institutions in North America. Currently, a manager at Deloitte, she leads transformation projects for universities with $1.5 billion budgets, global corporations, and the public sector. Over the years, she’s helped reduce financial close cycles by 30%, improved data accuracy to 99%, and implemented systems that have become benchmarks for future projects.

“Architecture sets the rules of the game. It defines processes, risk, security, and opportunity,” says Mariana. “If women aren’t at that level, the decisions being made are one-sided.”

Participation vs. Influence

In tech, women usually work as developers, analysts, and project managers. Important jobs, but they don’t decide how the system works. Architecture is where the real power sits.

Those who design solutions define how a company makes decisions, manages risk, and scales. They choose which data to collect, how to secure it, and which processes to automate. This is a strategic layer that directly impacts profitability and sustainability.

“Participation is presence. Architecture is influence,” Mariana sums it up.

The path to these roles is filled with obstacles, and she encountered them right after moving from Ukraine to Canada.

Barriers and the Cost of Proving Yourself

After earning a master’s degree from Ternopil National Economic University, Mariana began her career in operational finance — accounts payable, receivable, and assistant controller roles. It was the traditional accounting path. She quickly realized she needed North American certifications, obtained her CPA and Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE) credentials, and started climbing.

But at every step, she had to prove herself more than her male peers.

“Being underestimated is real. Age, appearance, clothing — all of it influenced how my expertise was perceived. I had to prove my knowledge deeper and faster than everyone else.”

Negotiating with all-male technical teams required a different playbook. Emotions didn’t work. Facts, data, and transparent control models did.

“I took on the hardest projects — the ones everyone else turned down. High risk brings high recognition, if you deliver.”

It worked. A project at PwC, which began as a $500K one-off contract, grew into a $50 million program over four years. Her team expanded from 3 to 30 people. That opened the door to Deloitte, one of the largest consulting firms in the world.

Crisis Coordinator

At Deloitte, the projects got bigger, much bigger.

One of the most complex projects Mariana worked on — modernizing financial systems in a highly regulated sector — involved an organization with decades of outdated data, multiple disconnected systems, and significant compliance risks.

In a lead solution team, Mariana designed a unified governance framework: data quality controls, decision transparency, and audit checkpoints. She built trust with leadership and external auditors. She introduced predictive analytics and automation to reduce manual error.

But her most pivotal role emerged during crises — when audits and incidents struck. She became the coordinator between IT, finance, legal, and audit teams — four groups that typically operate in silos and speak entirely different languages.

“In government and regulated industries, these groups work in vacuums. IT thinks tech, finance thinks numbers, legal thinks risk. No one sees the whole picture. My job was to connect it into a system that actually works.”

Why Diverse Teams Build Better Systems

For Mariana, having women in leading technical roles isn’t a fairness issue — it’s about building better systems.

“Women often excel at systems thinking, risk management, and understanding user logic. That’s critical for AI, finance, and ERP systems.”

When only men design systems, those systems reflect one kind of experience. Nobody means harm — they just can’t see what they don’t know. The result: solutions tailored to one user type, overlooking the rest.

In one project, the expense management system was designed under the assumption that all employees frequently traveled and had corporate cards. But when piloted, it turned out that many used personal cards and waited months for reimbursement. It placed a financial strain on part-time workers.

“If women who had lived through these situations were on the design team, it would’ve been built differently from the start.”

Teams with different backgrounds build more practical, less risky solutions. You can measure it: fewer mistakes, people actually use the system, and less time fixing things later.

Mentorship as a Business Strategy

Mariana doesn’t stop at her own projects. She actively mentors women in consulting, AI, and ERP implementation teams, and Ukrainian startups entering global markets.

“My goal is to help women move from execution roles to positions of architecture and change leadership.”

She helps them build career strategies, strengthen technical depth, and gain confidence in decision-making. She shares hands-on experience in regulated industries, crisis projects, and AI compliance — knowledge that rarely comes from formal training.

This is especially vital for Ukrainian startups. Many have strong technical teams but lack understanding of the North American market, from cultural nuances to investor expectations and hiring processes.

“I help translate that. I connect Ukrainian talent with opportunities here, advise startups on go-to-market strategies, and explain what investors are really looking for.”

A Call to the Industry

The financial sector is being reshaped in real time. AI, automation, and predictive analytics are rewriting how finance functions. Those designing these systems today are deciding what the industry will look like tomorrow.

Without diversity in these teams, we’ll get systems that serve a narrow set of users and carry old biases into new technologies.

“This has nothing to do with quotas. It’s about results: better solutions, fewer risks, more innovation,” Mariana says.

From Ternopil to leading nine-figure projects at Deloitte — it took less than a decade. The barriers are real, but they can be overcome. The question is whether the industry wants to invest in making more stories like hers happen.

Because when women move from participation to influence, it’s not just gender equality that wins. Business does.