Keri Stelle: Planning and Delivering Technology Solutions at Target

Keri Stelle is a Senior IT Director at Target where she is responsible for all of the applications and solutions used by business teams at the company that are related to Financials, Marketing Campaigns, and purchasing of Indirect Goods for their stores. Her department tracks over $70+B in sales and oversees the payments necessary for promotional activities such as photo shoots and live activations at Fashion Week in NYC.

Keri spoke about her early career and the particular interests that led her on her journey in technology.

“I started my IT career on the infrastructure side as a Unix administrator. We seem to talk a lot about coding, but I'm a tech geek that cares about the tech stack an application is going to run on and how it will perform. I also got deep into the hardware side of things, and really enjoyed the hands-on tech work. For example, early in my career I did a lot of network architecture and installations.”

Today Keri has achieved success as a Senior IT Director at one of the largest retail companies in the world. She uses that position to further the cause of diversity in tech, and she held a Leadership Role in the Women’s Business Council at Target. There she guided a team of 50 people working to shape programs internally and externally to advance women in their careers and personal development. She also supports an internal tech internship program at the company that is available to high school and college-aged students.

When asked about the role of Women Who Code and other diversity advocacy organizations in tech Keri said, “It's been such a thrill over the past 5 years to see more organizations -- locally and nationally -- working to support women of all ages in developing a career and passion for tech. I love learning about these organizations and the opportunities I've had to work with some of them!”