Emerging Leader

Sadaf Qazi

Booz Allen Hamilton

For technical leadership and domain expertise in radar and communications systems; and for sustained commitment to advocacy for girls and women in STEM.

Sadaf Qazi is a senior associate/chief engineer with Booz Allen Hamilton. In this role, she is responsible for program execution and business development efforts focusing on systems engineering and digital transformation efforts in the U.S. Department of Defense aerospace account. She currently runs several large Air Force projects as the technical project/program manager (TPM). One of her recent TPM roles was for a multimillion-dollar Air Force sustainment program managing a multidisciplinary team of 30-plus employees.

Qazi has also recently led a research and development (R&D) project that included junior to seasoned cloud architects, software developers, and engineers on a critical task to modernize legacy Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) Mission Computing Software (MCS). She served as the team’s TPM and “voice,” guiding this prototype through unknown territory and collaborating with the client to ensure the team could execute to objectives. The AWACS modernization effort involved state-of-the-art technologies with many firsts. Under her leadership, AWACS became the first legacy mission system to be migrated to an innovative edge computing device using a modern Kubernetes cloud-based solution to stand up a continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) software pipeline. Developing the CI/CD pipeline reduced the hardware equipment footprint and provided a baseline for using modern software development practices. Achieving these and other milestones enabled the AWACS program office and the 558th Software Engineering Squadron (SWES) to own the software and technical baseline, and most importantly increase the rate and quality of capability deployment to the warfighter.

Prior to joining Booz Allen, Qazi worked as a systems engineer for Raytheon Surveillance Radar Systems, where she provided subject matter expertise for concept development, architectural design, and software requirements for an extensive range of radar system features.

Committed to increasing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) at the corporate and local levels, Qazi has taken on multiple leadership roles. A recent example is her selection as one of four aerospace account representatives for the company’s Global Defense Group’s diversity, equity, and inclusion council. Through this role, Qazi “speaks truth to power” in forums with senior executive leaders on DE&I topics and provides solutions-based feedback from her peers and co-workers in the organization. In addition, Qazi was accepted into and completed Booz Allen’s first-ever aerospace DE&I talent-development cohort.

Currently, Qazi serves as the regional ambassador for the Booz Allen women in science and engineering (WiSE) business resource group, an employee-led organization focused on empowering women and their allies. She is also an active SWE member and tireless outreach advocate, coaching and mentoring students’ connection to technology and engineering. On the Society level, she has served as outreach chair and received a SWE Distinguished New Engineer Award in 2017. She is also a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

Qazi earned a B.S. in computer engineering, summa cum laude, at Wentworth Institute of Technology and an M.S. in electrical engineering, cum laude, from Tufts University. In her free time, she enjoys dancing, photography, and playing with her cat Bella and dog Nutella.