The Filipina Engineer Who Found Success at Netflix
Netflix’s success can be attributed to so many things. The obvious one is, of course, its collection of groundbreaking shows like Stranger Things and Black Mirror, and classic movies and TV shows like The Breakfast Club and Friends. What makes the streaming service truly special, however, is that it provides its audience with excellent viewing experience. And for that, we have unsung heroes like Anne Aaron to be thankful for.
Aaron, a Filipina who studied computer engineering at Ateneo de Manila University before getting into Stanford University, is the Director of Video Algorithms at Netflix. Her role, to put it in layman’s term, is to make sure that whatever you are watching on Netflix will look as good as it possibly can.
“We want to make sure that you’re enjoying the story and not distracted by bad video quality,” said Aaron. “We do this by writing the software that encodes video to the best quality possible, and conducting cutting-edge research to keep getting better.”
Leading the Charge
In a male-dominated field like tech, Aaron serves as an inspiration to female engineers, especially Filipinas. She was able to excel in an industry where finding herself as the only woman in the room occurs more often than not.
She even recounts her story early in her career, “Earlier in my career, an executive told me that I had too much of a balanced life to be successful—‘You have a boyfriend, a family, and friends.’
I told a fellow Pinay and she said, ‘Do you think he said the same thing to your male peers?’” It’s these seemingly small things that eventually get to her over time.
“I’ve had my share of biases and microaggressions, and many times they are subtle but can slowly chip at you.”
Now, Aaron represents Netflix in international standardization groups, allowing her to travel around the world and work with other companies when it comes to video and image coding.
She was also recognized as one of the most powerful female engineers of 2017 by Business Insider. To Anne, however, all of these are just by-products of her passion.
“I don’t normally feel so ‘powerful’—my job is making videos look better. But I appreciate the recognition.”
Filipino Upbringing
According to Aaron, one of the things that helped her along the way was her upbringing in a Filipino family. With so many relatives, she became more social and open-minded when it comes to people’s differences. Such traits, she added, are handy when you are working with different teams and liaising with international companies every day.
As of now, Anne has her dad and brother in Laguna who are social entrepreneurs that help out farmers.
Realizing the unique position she’s in, Aaron plans to encourage not just women, but women from minority groups to get into technology. She’s seeing the wasted potential of women, especially Filipinas, due to lack of opportunities.
“This makes me wonder how much innovation the Philippines and the rest of the world is missing out on because only a few of us Filipinas, and women in general, go into technology and engineering.”
