Breaking Barriers: How Nadzeya Stalbouskaya is Redefining Enterprise Architecture Through Human-Centered Leadership
In a field traditionally dominated by technical complexity and rigid frameworks, Nadzeya Stalbouskaya is charting a different course. As Technology Architect at IAG Transform, she's transforming not just systems, but the very definition of what enterprise architecture can be—shifting from gatekeeping to empowerment, from complexity to clarity, and from technical silos to human-centered design.
Nadzeya's journey from a rural village to leading technology transformation at one of the world's largest airline groups is anything but conventional. Starting with programming at 15, she's evolved from debugging backend code to architecting enterprise-wide transformations that serve millions of customers across multiple business domains. But her true innovation lies not in the technical solutions she designs, but in how she approaches the human element of technology leadership.
Since joining IAG Transform as both Technology Lead and Enterprise Architect in November 2023, Nadzeya has established comprehensive architectural frameworks and governance models that have delivered measurable operational improvements. More importantly, she's positioned architecture as a core function in strategic decision-making—proving that the best technical leaders are those who can translate complexity into clarity and turn potential blockers into advocates.
In this candid conversation, Nadzeya shares the pivotal moments that shaped her unlikely path, reveals how her philosophy of "designing clarity" solved complex business challenges during major cloud migrations, and discusses her vision for breaking down the barriers that still limit women's advancement in enterprise architecture. Her insights offer both practical wisdom for current leaders and inspiration for the next generation of women who refuse to wait for permission to transform technology.
Your Journey: You've written about your "unlikely path" from a rural village to leading technology transformation at IAG Transform. What were the pivotal moments that shaped your career trajectory, and what advice would you give to other women who don't see traditional pathways into technology leadership?
I often say that my career didn’t begin with a job title, it began with a belief. Growing up in a rural village, far from the resources and networks that many young people in technology take for granted, I learned early on that curiosity and persistence were my only real tools. At 15, while most of my classmates were still figuring out what they wanted to study, I made a bold decision to enroll in a programming college. It was a leap into the unknown, but one that changed the trajectory of my life.
My first steps were humble: lines of backend code, long nights debugging, and the thrill of finally making something work. At that stage, technology was a puzzle something to be solved if I worked hard enough. But as I progressed, I realized it wasn’t just about code. It was about systems, scale, and, eventually, about people. That shift was pivotal.
One of the most defining moments in my career came when I transitioned from engineering into enterprise architecture. I had worked on a technically advanced system that was elegant on paper but almost impossible for business users to adopt. Watching the frustration of colleagues who were supposed to benefit from it made me stop and rethink: What is technology truly for, if not to serve people? That realization reshaped my entire approach. From then on, clarity (not complexity) became my guiding principle.
The statistics confirm this lesson. A study by McKinsey shows that nearly 70% of digital transformations fail, not because the technology is inadequate, but because of poor alignment between business and IT. I saw that truth firsthand. My success came not from building the most complex solution, but from asking the simplest questions: Does this serve the business? Does it reduce friction? Does it empower people?
To women who don’t see a traditional path into technology leadership, my advice is simple: don’t wait for permission. You don’t need a straight line from elite universities to executive roles to succeed. What you need is resilience, curiosity, and the courage to show up again and again, even when the room wasn’t built for you. The truth is every setback is part of your foundation. And sometimes, the “unlikely path” is exactly the one that prepares you best for leadership.
Leadership Philosophy: You describe architecture as "designing clarity" and bring a human-centerer approach to enterprise architecture. Can you share a specific example of how this philosophy solved a complex business challenge at IAG Transform?
When I describe architecture as “designing clarity,” I mean that our job is not just to create frameworks or diagrams, but to make sense of complexity in a way that empowers people. It’s easy to mistake architecture for control: governance boards, standards, compliance checklists. But the best architecture is invisible. It doesn’t slow people down, it accelerates them.
A concrete example came during one of the most ambitious projects at IAG Transform: the migration of our systems to AWS. On the surface, it was a technical initiative: moving workloads to the cloud, modernizing infrastructure, reducing costs. But I realized early on that if we framed it purely as a technical project, it would fail. Finance leaders, procurement specialists, and HR teams didn’t care about cloud architecture; they cared about whether their systems would work on Monday morning, whether processes would be interrupted, and whether compliance risks would increase.
So, I reframed the architecture around business continuity. Instead of presenting diagrams of servers and integrations, I created a simple visualization showing how employee tasks would flow more smoothly after the migration: faster reporting, reduced downtime, fewer manual handovers. By translating technology into impact, we gained trust. That trust turned potential blockers into advocates.
This philosophy is not just intuition, it’s supported by data. Gartner reports that 87% of executives see digitalization as a top priority, yet only about 40% say their digital initiatives deliver measurable value. The gap isn’t technology it’s translation. Architects who can bridge that gap by designing clarity are the ones who unlock real business value.
For me, leadership means creating environments where people can thrive without drowning in complexity. I ask sharper questions, listen before deciding, and ensure that governance frameworks are supportive, not suffocating. Elegant design, in this context, isn’t about doing less, it’s about doing the right things with purpose. And the outcome isn’t just a successful project, but a culture where clarity becomes a shared language.
Advocacy & Vision: As someone passionate about mentoring women in tech, what specific barriers do you see women facing in enterprise architecture, and what's your vision for the next generation of women leaders in technology?
When I began working in enterprise architecture, I quickly realized that I was often the only woman in the room. Sometimes my expertise was questioned before I even spoke; sometimes I was mistaken for someone’s assistant. In those moments, I understood how powerful and how necessary, it is to challenge assumptions.
The barriers women face in enterprise architecture are both structural and cultural. Structurally, architecture is still seen as a highly technical discipline, requiring decades of coding or engineering experience. That perception excludes talented women coming from business or hybrid roles, even though their perspectives are often exactly what architecture needs. Culturally, there is still unconscious bias: women’s voices being interrupted, contributions overlooked, or leadership styles judged against male norms. A Harvard Business Review study found that women are interrupted 33% more often than men in professional settings. I’ve lived that statistic.
Yet I’ve also learned that being underestimated can be a strength. It forced me to lead with integrity, to ask the uncomfortable questions, and to design solutions not for ego, but for impact. My leadership style is less about commanding the room and more about aligning it. Instead of competing for attention, I create frameworks where everyone can do their best work. That, I believe, is the true power of inclusive leadership.
My vision for the next generation of women leaders in technology is a world where architecture is no longer seen as abstract or gatekeeping, but as strategic, human-centered design. I want women to see that they don’t have to conform to outdated molds to succeed. Empathy, system-level awareness, and collaborative design are not weaknesses, they are competitive advantages in an era of constant change.
Practically, this means building mentorship pipelines, creating visible role models, and ensuring that women are part of high-stakes transformation programs, not just peripheral projects. It means measuring diversity not as a nice-to-have, but as a metric of resilience. Because resilient organizations are diverse organizations.
When women lead architectural transformations, they don’t just design better systems, they design cultures of trust, clarity, and adaptability. And in a world where transformation is the new normal, that kind of leadership is not optional. It’s essential.
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