How an HR leader aligns business and people strategy to make a difference

Sumo Spotlight highlights Sumo Logic employees from around the globe. This Sumo Spotlight features Supriya Desai, senior director of people, based in Redwood City, CA.

What is your role at Sumo Logic?

I am a people partner to our global product and engineering organization, which is distributed across North America, India, Poland, Italy, and Macedonia. I have been at Sumo Logic since 2021, and my main responsibilities are to ensure Sumo Logic’s business and people strategies are in alignment and that our leaders and people are well supported.

What did you do before coming to Sumo Logic?

Before Sumo Logic, I held similar positions at Walmart Global Tech and Cisco. I have also worked with more than 200 Bay Area startups as a consultant.

What do you like most about your job?

The stage at which Sumo Logic currently is allows me to be creative and impactful in a very fast and agile manner.

What parts of our mission and/or values do you connect with most?

I love the boldness of our mission to be the leading SaaS analytics platform for reliable and secure cloud-native apps combined with the humility of our values.

Supriya and her family

Name a role model or person who inspires you.

I have three:

• Volodymyr Zelensky (President of Ukraine) is top of mind for me. He is the living textbook on leadership in crisis and adversity.

• Satya Nadella (CEO of Microsoft) stands out on multiple levels as someone from whom we can all learn.

• Leena Nair (ex CHRO of Unilever and now CEO of Chanel) for her deep people strategy expertise and transition from CHRO to CEO.

What’s your favorite thing about working at Sumo Logic?

I love having the flexibility to work from home and go to the office. I also really appreciate the quarterly wellness days and Deep Work Wednesdays as they both allow for flexibility and greater productivity.

“I love the boldness of our mission to be the leading SaaS analytics platform for reliable and secure cloud-native apps combined with the humility of our values.”

Is there a particularly thorny HR issue you successfully navigated that you can share?

HR is an area where a lot of discretion and judgment exists and answers are rarely binary. During COVID when county, state, federal and international guidance was rapidly shifting I had to influence and make a lot of tough decisions based on an ever-changing situation. The challenge taught me a lot, but I’m glad we are moving out of that stage!

Are there passions you’re pursuing or things you want to learn more about?

I have a long-term goal to become a board member. It is not as direct a path for an HR person, but I’m working on improving my understanding of business and how a board functions in my day-to-day in a slow and steady manner.

How have you grown professionally during your time at Sumo Logic?

I am building out my skill set as a well-rounded HR professional in addition to being a business partner. At Sumo Logic, I have a much deeper role and impact within specialized HR functions, such as compensation, talent acquisition, diversity equity and inclusion (DEI), and HR operations, than ever before.

What is your proudest accomplishment during your time at Sumo Logic?

At a high level, it’s earning the trust of my team and leaders, bringing clarity in situations of ambiguity, and effective problem-solving. At an operational level, I’ve led two acquisitions and driven innovation in the areas of Future of Work, hiring, talent reviews, employee engagement, retention, and learning.

Want to join our team? Sumo Logic is hiring around the globe! Check out our current openings here https://www.sumologic.com/company/careers/.