How Atlassian Boosted Female Technical Hires by 80% — Here’s How

Recommendation: Launch a bias-aware recruitment blueprint that expands outreach to diverse backgrounds, preserves balance across teams, and uses a study-driven process to know the target position and career trajectory.

From recent evidence, stereotypes in hiring were uncovered. The voices of people from different backgrounds power change; love for the work grows when diverse perspectives are heard, and this makes a difference in team outcomes and long-term career paths.

To convert insight into action, programs provide structured sponsorship, mentorship, and real-world assignments that fit the capacity of rising talent. Knowing the gaps means setting a clear target and providing an expert-led plan that supports internal mobility and career progression; miss opportunities less often when recruitment aligns with broader workforce goals.

Administration acts as a guardian of inclusive culture. It provides transparent feedback, ensures decision-making is free from biased behaviors, and structures interviews with diverse panels. These steps uncover practical insights and challenge stereotypes, yielding something tangible: a pipeline that welcomes different voices and backgrounds.

Impact hinges on ongoing measurement: track representation by position and career stage, monitor the power of inclusive practices, and continuously adjust programs to balance love for the work with rigorous results. The difference is not accidental; it is powered by deliberate actions that respect each background and metric-driven evidence.

Atlassian Hiring Transformation: Women in Tech

Recommendation: implement a dedicated sponsorship and promotions engine that ties meritocracy to explicit, bias-aware criteria. Define three positions bands (associate, mid, senior) with clear milestones, stretch assignments, and inclusive feedback loops. Build a values-driven process that is helpful for judging impact, collaboration, and accountability, while ensuring promotions reflect true contribution.

Data shows tangible progress: the share of feminine technologists in core product squads rose from 24% to 32% over the last year, while promotions for this group increased from 12% to 28% in targeted lanes. Relevant channels such as internal mobility, partnerships with universities, and inclusive job postings contributed to these gains, and the numbers give confidence that deliberate actions are getting results. Examples from three teams illustrate the trend.

Examples include rachel leading a cross-functional project where a sponsor channel ensured visibility to leadership, enabling timely feedback and a faster promotion track. The case demonstrates how feminine talent can unlock impact when the ideal criteria are transparent and the evaluation panel avoids fake signals. This helps someone on the team grow into the next position.

To prevent bias, replace hype metrics with tangible behaviors. Track progress on critical goals, collaboration quality, and customer outcomes. These metrics are truly relevant and reduce political influences within teams. Avoid fake signals; rely on demonstrated results. This approach gives managers a reliable channel for judging merit.

Three-step plan: 1) audit hiring and onboarding panels to remove biases, 2) redesign job postings to attract diverse candidates and avoid masculine-coded language, 3) establish a development program with mentorship, stretch assignments, and quarterly reviews that reinforce meritocracy. Include sponsorship and structured feedback to create a clear path to higher positions.

Long-term impact: a more inclusive labor pool elevates product quality, customer satisfaction, and retention. By focusing on actual progress rather than appearances, the organization can maintain an ideal balance between feminine perspectives and strong business outcomes. The aim is to include diverse voices across teams, ensuring someone with consistent contribution can advance to leadership roles while staying true to core values.

Set explicit female hiring targets and quarterly milestones at scale

Take a concrete stance: set a target for hiring women and publish quarterly milestones that rise by 3–5 percentage points until a defined scale is reached, with clear owner and a published cadence.

Use a robust data flow and track the funnel from application to hired, capturing gender and stage outcomes. theyve built dashboards that show bottlenecks in situations where interviewers or agencies influence decisions. In this general approach, the track itself reveals uncovered knowledge and the finding that bias can creep in unless interventions are in place; otherwise, progress stalls.

Design quarterly milestones by unit and channel: for example, engineering targets 30% share of hires from women in Q2, 35% in Q3, and 40% in Q4, with adjustments based on pipeline richness. The means to measure progress should be clear, and the plan itself must be auditable. Track hired counts and the rate of referrals from external agencies to ensure decisions are attributable to data, not guesswork.

Redesign interview panels to include at least two interviewers from different backgrounds, and create standardized guides so every candidate experiences consistent questions. This helps ensure the process itself stays fair and aligned with values, and that the hiring outcome reflects the best knowledge and experiences from a broad talent pool. If you don’t talk about the rationale with stakeholders, otherwise you risk bias creeping in.

case study: blanche demonstrates the impact of a structured cadence. They introduced a quarterly tracking ritual, with velocity reviews by leadership and a data-informed influence on decisions. The science, statistically grounded, shows that disciplined measurement and knowledge sharing can influence outcomes. The approach feels practical and scalable across atlassians teams.

Operational tips: appoint an analytics expert to own the track, ensure data quality, and introduce governance cadence that is lightweight. Within the plan, assign a cross-functional sponsor, create a general playbook, and talk with managers about the values and benefits. blanche demonstrates that knowledge sharing and continuous feedback loops matter; the findings can be captured in a living document. The goal is to influence decisions through data, not rhetoric, and to keep hiring on a steady, scalable path. theyve also leaned on agency partners to broaden the talent pool and improve the sourcing of candidates with relevant experiences.

Rewrite job postings with inclusive language and clear skill requirements

Begin by rewriting postings with inclusive language and clear skill blocks; describe responsibilities and requirements using neutral terms, and separate must-have capabilities from nice-to-have experiences. For each role, start with a growing, value-driven statement that reflects the personal and team needs. Look for individual candidates who can contribute to computing teams and thrive in collaborative environments. The descriptions should spell out tasks in concrete terms and emphasize measurable skills that assess fit at the beginning.

Replace vague adjectives with precise, verifiable skills by using descriptions of tasks and tools. Use action verbs and evidence-based proficiency levels: Experience with X, Proficient in Y, Familiar with Z, and mainly focusing on observable outcomes. Include numbers when possible (years, volumes, milestones) and specify the context (projects, platforms, environments). Avoid implying a dominant culture; instead highlight that diverse backgrounds strengthen problem solving and product quality.

Explicitly separate ‘must have’ from ‘nice to have’ and avoid ambiguous phrases. Use plain language to define needs, not personality judgments, and describe the personal attributes relevant to success (learning ability, collaboration, communication) in neutral terms. Ensure the role descriptions look welcoming to individual candidates among applicants from varied backgrounds, and avoid profiling only from the dominant team profile.

Evidence from federal agency reports shows that inclusive descriptions widen the look for candidates and improve how interviewers evaluate fit. Build the posting to support the recruitment process from beginning to end, not just the first screen.

Backlash should be anticipated and addressed with facts. Provide a short, transparent note in every posting about the belief that diverse teams outperform homogeneous groups. Successful outcomes come from consistent messaging and evidence-based selection. Link to a brief internal policy or style guide so teams can align on language.

Needs-based screening: set clear must-have criteria that directly relate to job tasks and computed outcomes. Track average conversion from application to interview to offer, and report changes over time. Use audits to ensure language remains inclusive across departments, and adjust accordingly.

Beginning the overhaul requires a simple, repeatable process: audit existing postings, rewrite with neutral terms, publish, and monitor. Create a short checklist for hiring teams that covers descriptions, framing, and skill blocks; share results via a concise report to an agency or leadership. This approach keeps interviews focused on relevant capabilities and supports growing teams with diverse, individual contributors.

Implement blind CV screening and standardized interview rubrics

Adopt blind CV screening across all hiring streams to reduce dominant biases and improve predictability of candidate fit. This initiative should be codified in your initiatives portfolio and visible on the website to explain the process to applicants. Remove identifiers including names, photos, street details, locations, and school names from CVs before review. This helps ensure decisions are based on skills and experience rather than background. This change feels fair to applicants and reduces criticism about unseen preferences. Additionally, set a policy to collect only essential data and store anonymized CVs in a secure repository that is accessible to the interviewing panel. This aligns with society’s expectations around race equity and demonstrates to employers that the process is data-driven and transparent.

Structure a standardized interview rubric that applies to every stage, used by all interviewers, and automated where possible. leader from HR ensures alignment across teams. nick leads the cross-functional team; anthea and sarah coordinate with leaders to ensure training and calibration sessions. Video interviews are conducted using the rubric, and recordings are retained for audit and continuous improvement. The process collects data from email invites and feedback forms, and ensures consent and privacy. This approach makes it easier to compare candidates objectively within the recruiting process and helps predict job performance across goals set by the company. This framework can give interviewers a consistent frame and provides a useful, transparent experience for candidates and employers alike.

Engage with women-in-tech communities and Atlassian ERGs for outreach

Partner with women-in-tech communities and ERGs to open opportunities, share roles publicly, applying a simple outreach plan to diversify the candidate funnel.

1. Partnerships and reach: Since launch, identify 6–8 target groups (local chapters, online communities, and university circles); co-create 4 events per quarter in key areas, balancing schedules against competing priorities; track percent of attendees who advance to applications and interviews.
2. Open formats and accessibility: Host 60–90 minute sessions, often with mentors available; provide rapid sign-up, a clear call to action for candidates looking to enter roles, and an easy path to applying; ensure recordings and materials are accessible to those who could not attend.
3. Role descriptions that invite applying: Write postings in simple language describing daily tasks, impact, and growth; remove jargon; include a direct path to apply and a concise phrase that invites interest.
4. Story-led content: Collect and publish stories from engineers describing real projects; bringing these experiences to life with concrete outcomes; mainly highlight projects where inclusive collaboration drove results; include feminine perspectives to broaden appeal.
5. Measurement and business case: Track percent changes in applications and interview offers from these channels; use subtle signals about market response to guide changes and tie outreach to profitability and long-term value; publish quarterly dashboards and share findings with the team to guide changes.
6. Screening and bias prevention: Ensure interview panels include diverse voices; implement structured scoring and objective criteria; train recruiters to prevent bias and to look for potential across backgrounds; ensure the process applies equally to all candidates.
7. Governance and rollback risk: Document policy changes, secure executive sponsorship, and run pilots before scaling; avoid making abrupt shifts; set triggers for adjustments and a rollback plan if outcomes fail; keep changes transparent to maintain trust and momentum.

Build visible career ladders, sponsorship, and retention programs

Publish transparent, role-based ladders for every track and publicly commit to explicit timelines for advancement within 90 days of performance cycles. This structuring, written into HR policy, reduces biases by making criteria visible to interviewers, managers, and candidates. A study shows that branding and clear criteria correlate with faster, fairer promotions, especially for underrepresented groups.

Launch a sponsorship framework that pairs high-potential employees with executive sponsors who advocate for them on stretch assignments and high-impact missions. Track progress with a shared dashboard and quarterly reviews, with written guidelines and regular adverts that celebrate mentor-mentee wins. Ensure funding is federal-compliant and accessible to all, including teams in chicago, despite geographic constraints, and explicitly remove barriers that would otherwise limit access, either in-person or virtually.

Key metrics to track include time-to-promotion by demographic, retention after promotion, sponsor participation rates, completion of development missions, and the share of promotions among those who might otherwise be marginalized. Run a 12-month pilot across fortune-branded teams to measure impact, and publish cadence data to build trust while protecting privacy. A well-designed program reduces marginalizes and distributes power more evenly among teams, ensuring even male and female employees are truly able to grow because the path is visible and equitable.

In interview design, interviewers should treat sponsorship potential as a concrete criterion, asking about networks and written development plans rather than relying on gut instinct. allison in chicago notes that explicit questions about sponsorship help reveal real readiness and guard against cultural biases, thereby supporting shared power and a broader talent pool.

Retention and progression hinge on branding-driven storytelling. Heres a repeatable cycle: announce new sponsors, share documented success cases through internal adverts, and schedule quarterly check-ins that refresh development missions. Times when sponsorship wanes should be addressed with refreshed pairings and new missions, ensuring that employees feel truly valued because their career paths are visible, accessible, and economic opportunities are distributed widely among teams.