Afrah Ahmed

For alumna Afrah Ahmed, curiosity has always been the starting point. Since graduating from the University of Wollongong in Dubai with a Bachelor of Computer Science in 2018, and later a Master of IT Management, Afrah has built a career defined by hands-on learning and a willingness to step into the unknown. It was during her final-year project at UOWD, she says, that programming turned from a subject she was good at into something she was genuinely passionate about, a shift that would go on to define her career.

Today, Afrah works as a full-time consultant with NTT Data Business Solutions Türkiye, part of the Japan-based NTT DATA group, one of the world's largest IT and business consulting firms. In her client assignment with BSH Hausgeräte GmbH, she serves as Global Product Owner for the Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Center of Excellence, helping lead the company's global automation strategy across more than 25 countries. Under her leadership, the program has driven major efficiency gains across departments, equivalent to more than 600 full-time roles' worth of work each year. That output now moves faster, more accurately, and more consistently, freeing people to focus on the strategic, judgment-driven work that automation can't do.

Her path there began far from the executive level. After graduating, Afrah started as a Lab Tutor at UOWD, mentoring students in programming, an early role that sharpened both her technical grounding and her ability to explain complex ideas clearly, a skill she still relies on today. She then joined Etisalat in Dubai, where she taught herself Robotic Process Automation from scratch, at a time when the technology was still new to the organisation. It was the same structured, analytical problem-solving she'd built at UOWD, she says, that let her break the unfamiliar technology down and teach it to herself. From knowing nothing about RPA to onboarding the platform and eventually leading Etisalat's RPA Center of Excellence as Team Lead, her early career was shaped by that same independent, hands-on approach to learning.

She went on to work in consulting and business analysis, contributing to automation initiatives across industries, including the first-ever RPA implementation for a bank in Kyrgyzstan.

The path was not without difficulty. Early in her career, Afrah was often asked to work with unfamiliar technology without a clear roadmap, all while completing her Master of IT Management at UOWD part-time. “I was expected to deliver results while still learning, which was both exciting and intimidating, and at times quite stressful,” she recalls. She pushed through by researching independently, experimenting, and learning through trial and error, the same structured decision-making her Master's degree was building in her at the time, a period that shaped her belief in continuous learning as an ongoing discipline rather than a one-time effort.

Looking ahead, Afrah is focused on stepping further into strategic leadership, shaping how organisations embed AI and agentic automation into long-term business strategy and governance. She is also committed to mentoring others and helping build digital workforces that balance technology with human judgment.

Much of that growth, she says, traces back to her time at UOWD. “My education equipped me with a strong foundation in problem-solving, analytical thinking, and structured decision-making, skills that have been essential throughout my career,” she explains. Her Master's program marked a particular turning point: “It helped me move beyond execution and start thinking more strategically, enabling me to see the bigger picture and connect technology to business outcomes.” That same shift, from hands-on specialist to global strategist, is the one she made in her own career. She also points to UOWD's multicultural environment as formative, the same ability to communicate and adapt across cultures that now underpins her work leading a program spanning more than 25 countries.

Beyond her professional achievements, Afrah remembers UOWD's vibrant campus life fondly, from multicultural festivals to celebrations like Australia Day. “It felt like a space where different cultures, ideas, and people came together, which really shaped my worldview,” she says. Outside of work, she enjoys cooking and baking, travelling, and spending time with her family.