Merline Saintil is currently the Head of Operations for Product & Technology at Intuit—but she actually just refers to that as her "day job." She also holds positions on the Board of Directors for Watermark—a non-profit empowering women executives—and Banner Bank. Saintil has a knack for striking the ideal balance between self-assured and self-aware—she openly takes credit for her present and past accomplishments without losing sight of the opportunities and support she received to make them happen. But it's her intuition that seems to be the common thread throughout her career. In most of her stories, there's a sense that she trusted her gut when she needed to most—whether that's knowing when to take risks to better herself or to better help others.

When I have a conversation about where I am today, it’s always important to start from where I began—which is very humble beginnings. I came to the US at the age of five and spoke no English, just Creole or French, and I think that set the tone for how, as a kid, you develop character. I had to do that pretty early on when I was ridiculed because I couldn’t speak any English. I think that gave me focus and perspective.

[Those early years of bullying] shaped what I care about today—which is helping advocate and support and advance our technical women. I remember when I thought of what I wanted to be when I grew up, it was a diplomat. I would say even part of my job today is being a diplomat, even though I’m in the tech space.

My first love, though, was math—my father was a professor—so, despite not being exposed to computers early on, I do think having a STEM background helped me when I eventually stumbled onto computer science in college. I happened to be at a career fair—it was freshman year and I was a math major—and I [would end up] getting a co-op (which is a much longer internship) at a software company. That launched my trajectory into computer science.

On Her Early Career

I began my career in the Bay Area at Sun Microsystems, which is no longer here, but it’s where Facebook began, and it’s where I started my career. I was there for a number of years and then moved to Adobe where I really honed my skills.

I’ve worked at companies like PayPal and Joyent—it’s just been opportunity after opportunity to do amazing work at a variety of companies. [At Yahoo], I was leading mobile and emerging products, which is kind of like a startup within Yahoo. It was an exciting time. There was phenomenal growth—we went from like 50 employees to about 500 or 600 within 18 months. It was fun.

On Transitioning to Intuit

For me, it’s always been about doing meaningful work and being able to do that as part of what I do day-to-day. Part of what I love about Intuit is its mission and [its] values of power and prosperity around the world. So when an opportunity to report to the EVP and CTO of the company came along, I was able to bring all the skills that I’d been gathering along the way and combine them in a role that was well-suited. We also shared a passion for supporting tech women. Our CTO's mom taught him computer science, so we instantly bonded over his support and advocacy for women in tech. It’s just been a great, great partnership, the four years I’ve been here.

On Being a Woman—and Woman of Color—in Male-Dominated Fields

Part of what’s shaped me is that I've focused on being there, being excellent, and doing the work and less on being the only person. I happen to be a black female, so that has a nuance to it, but I never really let any of that determine where I belonged. I get my foot in the door and I do the work, and that’s what I try to focus on. Even to this day, when I’m the only black person and only the second woman on a public board, that’s not really how I think about things. I think more about, “Here’s an opportunity in front of me—how can I make the best of it?"

Nothing overt [e.g. bias, sexism, descrimination] has happened to me that I can recall, other than being ridiculed when I was much younger. But one of the things I’ve been reflecting on recently is that one can often be underestimated. For me, it’s about focusing on the opportunities that come to you. It can be a lot harder, being underestimated, but it’s your opportunity to knock it out of the park and prove the naysayers wrong. That’s been more thematic for me than anything specific.

Her Best Advice to Leaders

I became a team leader ultimately at Sun Microsystems, which is how I realized that I love to build products, with a team of people. I started as a team leader. It wasn’t an official manager role, but I got to help my manager manage people. I got “the bug” there.

I would say my best advice is to truly care about people. I think there’s no “secret formula” because everyone is different. Some people need more coaching, more advice, or more technical advice—you’ll encounter different people—but I would say that if you ultimately care about people, you will experiment and people will see that you care. That, to me, is the foundation. Coaching and growing people, doing what you say and saying what you do—all that stuff that we learn about being leaders—will come naturally. But it starts with truly caring about people.

On Building Your Brand

I am a big believer in sending the elevator back down. I have been fortunate enough that many people have invested in me, and I stand on the shoulders of many people today. It’s really important for me to give back and pay it forward. My day job is running operations, but I also have a full-time woman tech leader on my team, and so my support of women in technology and what I do is an extension of my work, naturally. It’s one of those things where I’ve been able to carve out where work and life blend together.

My other tip is to just start. Even if you can just do one night a month getting out there. That’s what I often tell engineers—especially women engineers. It’s good to be excellent, but you’ve got to make sure it’s not a well-guarded secret. Getting out there, getting a brand—whether it’s talking about your work or attending a panel or conference—you have to not stay inside. Eventually, you want to get out there and become a leader, because it is about leadership and having that perspective. Or knowing your perspective on something. 

On Serving on Boards

There’s nothing more powerful than sitting on a board—but that’s not the reason to do it. You get to see an outside perspective—it’s outside-in learning, and it’s something that [Intuit] encourages. 

I often like to tell this story: I gave this as one of the things I wanted to do (joining a public company board) to my boss, and I asked him to pay for me to go to Stanford Directors' College, which would prepare me for that. Not only did he say yes, but he came along with me.

I just think that’s a testament to making sure you ask for what you want. I am a life learner. I am constantly thinking, “How can I be a better version of myself?” and, for me, sitting on a board gets me to do that. I don’t know much about banking, but I do have perspective on technology, which is one of the reasons they were interested in me. I made the connection, and the rest is history.

On How Intuit is Working to Narrow the Gender Divide

One of the things I'm encouraging not only Silicon Valley companies, but all companies to look at (and we believe this at Intuit) is: our workforce should mirror the consumers of our products. So part of what we’re doing [at Intuit] is not just a “feel good” thing—this will be our competitive advantage.

More importantly, I think one of the things that differentiates Intuit specifically is that we have taken this beyond HR. Leading tech women is about experimenting from middle school all the way to the boardroom. We provide programming for girls, and for executives who want to get in the boardroom—female alliances are an example. Don’t limit it to just a function within an organization—have the actual engineering and technology groups embrace it.

On Her Future

I remain bullish on the opportunities not only for me or that I’m able to have as a mentor, a coach, or a leader in the valley. I know there is a lot of conversation about the speed of progress—I firmly believe it’s going to take time, and so my mindset is there for the long haul. But I remain bullish. I believe we will be on the right side of history. I want to continue to invest in talent, in people and their possibilities.