Mums in Tech ft. Caroline Kirkhope
As part of our ‘Mums in Tech’ series, we caught up with Caroline Kirkhope, Lead Engineer at SystemCt.
The purpose of our 'MotherBoard’ content series is to highlight incredible working mums within tech, as well as individuals and businesses that are supportive and progressive within their approach to creating more inclusive tech teams for women.
Firstly, can you please introduce yourself and tell us a bit about your current role?
Hi, I'm Caroline, a mum, engineer and technical leader. I've always been interested in tech since getting my first Commodore 64 when I was 7 (showing my age I know!). I'm really interested in the human side of tech, building products that actually make people's lives and jobs easier. My current role is Engineering Lead for the Paediatrics side of BadgerNet, where I lead a team of engineers who develop and maintain software used in neonatal units across the UK & New Zealand. The software allows clinicians to keep digital records of babies' details and integrates with hospital systems and devices. Parents can also receive updates and information on their baby's care via an app.
If you could sum up what it’s like being a working mum in tech in one sentence, what would it be?
It's both rewarding and challenging and at times incredibly lonely.
How do you find the balance between your career and motherhood?
I work part-time and mostly remote, which means I'm still able to do my most important job of being a mum. Flexible working makes such a difference to us as a family, my husband also works mainly remote. Instead of commuting, I can spend quality time with my daughter on the daily little things: reading together, getting ready for school, eating breakfast. My husband takes her to school on the days I work, so I start early and finish earlier to pick her up from school or after-school club. It's all the extra little moments, like the big hug after school or fitting in a story before work that make a huge difference.
Being closer to home and having flexibility also means I can do things like take a later lunch to attend school events, like recently having a tour of her classroom, meeting the teacher and seeing her work. She was so proud to show me what she'd been working on, and I feel really privileged that I don't have to miss out on these moments.
This setup lets me be fully present both at home and at work, I'm not compromising on either.
What has been your greatest challenge as a working mother in tech?
Working and building a career part-time.
Being a woman in a very male-dominated space has always been challenging, but the attitude change when working part-time has been especially difficult. Looking for part-time jobs was a real eye-opener for me. I had company recruiters chasing me until they realised I wanted to work 2-3 days a week, I had companies tell me 'sorry, we can't support part-timers due to out-of-hours support' or 'oh, we've never heard of anyone working part-time before.' The rejection and feeling of not fitting in hit home more than it ever did in my whole career.
Now that my daughter is a bit older, I've been thinking about my career growth. I really want to stay part-time but I'm finding it so difficult to find inspiration. I don't know anyone in my company who has grown a technical career part-time and there seem to be no visible role models or conversations about this path anywhere. But I'm determined to figure it out, and I hope by sharing this struggle, others won't feel so alone in theirs. Groups like MotherBoard matter so much, we need to make these paths visible for each other.
“Being a woman in a very male-dominated space has always been challenging, but the attitude change when working part-time has been especially difficult.”
What skills have you developed as a mother that have helped your work life?
I think most of the skills I have developed as a mother directly benefit my work life.
Organisation, Planning and Decision making (have always been my super skills) but managing the complexities of family life has made me even better at these. Building technically challenging products, creating roadmaps, coordinating across the team, and keeping multiple workstreams aligned requires the same strategic thinking and detailed coordination I use daily as a parent. As a parent you are making thousands of decisions a day and anyone who has got everything packed up to take a baby out of the day or a bigger one off to nursery/school in the morning whilst juggling work schedules knows how much organisation is involved!
Resilience and adaptability, parenting is constant change and unpredictable which has made me better at navigating technical challenges, shifting priorities, and supporting my team through uncertainty.
These skills help me make engineering decisions that are grounded in real human needs, delivery focused on impact to users, and my day to day collaboration and management is done with more empathy than ever.
When you were returning to work, what one thing helped you / would have helped you the most?
Any kind of support, really. I had a pretty horrible experience.
I returned part-time, 2 days a week, after having a flexible working request approved. You come out of this bubble where your life has totally changed, and I remember before going on maternity leave our HR person saying she would be there with tissues when I got back, but unfortunately she had left before I returned.
Most of my colleagues were fab and really supportive, and the first 3 months back went ok. I was delivering more than what was asked in the 2 days a week and starting to feel settled. Then I got called into a last-minute meeting with no agenda, with two senior leaders. A meeting that when I asked what it was about, I wasn’t told. So I was totally unprepared for being told I needed to increase my days to 4 and I had a week to let them know. I was assured it was nothing to do with my performance but they needed someone full-time, though they would ‘allow’ me to do 4 days.
I can’t really put into words what that was like. My daughter’s nursery place had been booked 7 months before my little one started. I lived a couple of hours away from family. There was no way I could increase my hours at such short notice. My boss, who had been helpful to me up until this point, totally disengaged, provided no help or support at all, and did nothing to advocate for me.
I feel eternally grateful to the wonderful charity Pregnant Then Screwed, who provided me advice and support which got me through. But the process with my work was long and dragged out, caused so much stress and anxiety, and totally destroyed my confidence. Without Pregnant Then Screwed’s and my husband’s support, I would have left the tech industry.
What do you feel should be the top priority for employers who want to support working mothers better?
Normalise flexibly working and treat people like human beings (for mums, dads and anyone who needs it). Some practical things that can really make a difference
Have support in place for mum’s returning from Maternity leave (peer support, coaching)
Increased paid paternity leave (allow Dads to also thrive as professionals and parents and help reduce the Motherhood penalty)
Promote & support flexible working requests
Advertise all jobs as being flexible and part-time (if for some reason they can’t be part-time look at job sharing options)
Encourage parenting out loud at work
Paid carer’s leave
Reach out to organisations like Working Families or Growth Spurt for learning/training/policy advice etc.
Everyone’s motherhood looks different and everyone whether they are a mum or not are individuals and need different things to thrive.
Any final words of advice for other mothers in the Tech Industry?
Keep going, we need you and you do belong! Especially today with AI and the potential harms from systems built without diverse perspectives, tech teams desperately need mothers at the table. Your lived experience, your perspective on care and consequences, your understanding of real human needs, these aren't nice-to-haves, they're essential to building technology that serves everyone safely. Don't underestimate what you bring.
Keep questioning and challenging outdated views. Join groups like MotherBoard and find other mums working in tech who can support and inspire you (I'm so lucky to now be working in a team with a couple of other part-time mums who inspire me every day!)
“Especially today with AI and the potential harms from systems built without diverse perspectives, tech teams desperately need mothers at the table. Your lived experience, your perspective on care and consequences, your understanding of real human needs, these aren't nice-to-haves, they're essential to building technology that serves everyone safely.”
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