Computing’s Tech Women Celebration 50 has published a profile of Shikha Dahiya, presenting her as a Senior Software Engineer at Bloomberg London who has delivered high‑impact performance and reliability improvements to mission‑critical financial systems — and who pairs that technical work with sustained mentoring and diversity efforts.
Computing’s Tech Women Celebration 50 is a curated list designed to highlight 50 women making an impact across the technology industry at all levels — from early career specialists to senior leaders. The initiative aims to surface relatable role models and to recognise technical achievement, leadership and work that opens doors for others. The central feature page summarising the 2025 list sets that context and explains the selection criteria. Within that framework, Shikha Dahiya’s profile appears as one of the Celebration 50 entries. Computing’s write‑up emphasises two intertwined narratives: measurable engineering impact (especially on Bloomberg’s trading/order systems) and active mentoring / inclusion work in London tech communities and universities. The profile lists particular technical outcomes, mentoring programmes and a personal arc — moving from Microsoft India to Bloomberg London and rebuilding confidence to lead high‑stakes projects.
Source: Computing UK https://www.computing.co.uk/profile/2025/tech-women-celebration-50/shikha-dahiya/
Background / Overview
Computing’s Tech Women Celebration 50 is a curated list designed to highlight 50 women making an impact across the technology industry at all levels — from early career specialists to senior leaders. The initiative aims to surface relatable role models and to recognise technical achievement, leadership and work that opens doors for others. The central feature page summarising the 2025 list sets that context and explains the selection criteria. Within that framework, Shikha Dahiya’s profile appears as one of the Celebration 50 entries. Computing’s write‑up emphasises two intertwined narratives: measurable engineering impact (especially on Bloomberg’s trading/order systems) and active mentoring / inclusion work in London tech communities and universities. The profile lists particular technical outcomes, mentoring programmes and a personal arc — moving from Microsoft India to Bloomberg London and rebuilding confidence to lead high‑stakes projects. Career snapshot: role, path and claims
Professional role and prior experience
According to Computing’s profile, Shikha is a Senior Software Engineer at Bloomberg in London. The same entry notes earlier work on Microsoft Azure’s Cosmos DB team and characterises that prior work as having delivered substantial optimisation to machine resources. The profile explicitly cites an optimisation that "saved $50 million annually" during her time at Cosmos DB — a headline number that Computing uses to illustrate the scale and business impact of the engineering work. That Bloomberg affiliation is supported independently by inclusion in other industry recognition listings: for example, Shikha Dahiya appears as a named nominee in the Women in Tech Excellence Awards 2025 roster with Bloomberg LP listed as her employer, which corroborates the Bloomberg connection outside of the Computing profile.Mission‑critical systems and measurable results (Computing’s account)
Computing’s profile foregrounds a single, portfolio‑style achievement as Shikha’s standout contribution: a comprehensive overhaul of Bloomberg’s Order Management System (OMS) and the related automation of testing and performance tuning. The measurable outcomes assigned in the write‑up are specific:- Automated testing that reduced manual QA reliance from 100% to 5%.
- Increased order processing capacity from 750 to 2,000 (units unspecified in the profile).
- A 50% latency reduction in the trade system.
- A direct link between those improvements and the securing of a $4 million client deal.
Verifying the claims: what can be independently confirmed — and what remains single‑source
Responsible reporting requires separating what is independently verifiable from claims that currently rest on a single published profile.What independent sources corroborate parts of the profile
- Computing’s Tech Women Celebration 50 published the profile summary used throughout this piece; that entry is the primary source for the specific project metrics and mentoring programme names.
- Bloomberg affiliation is independently supported by other industry listings that tie Shikha Dahiya to Bloomberg LP (for example, a Women in Tech awards nominees list). That provides a reliable cross‑check for employer and sector (financial technology).
What cannot be corroborated publicly (flagged)
Several of the profile’s most concrete quantitative claims are not corroborated by additional public sources discovered during verification:- The statement that Shikha’s work on Microsoft Azure’s Cosmos DB team “saved $50 million annually” appears only in the Computing profile and could not be independently confirmed in public records, case studies or press coverage attributable to Microsoft, Bloomberg, or other technical write‑ups. No public Microsoft case study or press release was found that ties that specific savings number to an individual contributor or to an identifiable project. Readers should treat the $50 million savings figure as reported by Computing and mark it as single‑source at present.
- Specific OMS metrics listed in the profile (capacity increase from 750 to 2,000; 50% latency reduction; the precise $4 million attribution to a client deal) are likewise present only in the Computing profile. Those precise numbers could not be found in Bloomberg public materials, product documentation, or independent reporting during the fact‑check. Until Bloomberg or another independent party confirms the numbers, they remain unverified beyond the Computing profile.
Why the technical claims — if accurate — matter to financial technology systems
Even where the exact numeric values are unverified, the computing‑industry narrative that improving OMS throughput and latency yields measurable commercial benefits is strongly supported by independent industry evidence. Three technical realities explain why:- Latency directly affects market risk and execution quality. Financial systems that add even fractions of a second of latency can materially alter order execution outcomes and exposure to market movement. The literature on trading infrastructure stresses that added latency increases market risk and can lead to meaningful slippage; patents and industry analysis highlight the sub‑millisecond sensitivity of trading paths.
- Order management capacity and throughput affect an institution’s ability to scale and to serve high‑volume clients reliably. In high‑volume environments, OMS performance determines how many concurrent orders can be processed before queuing or rejection increases, and that in turn influences service level agreements and the ability to win or retain institutional clients. Operational case studies across commerce and trading emphasise that improving throughput reduces lost opportunities and customer friction.
- Automation of testing and QA is a standard route to faster, lower‑risk deployments. Automated regression testing reduces human error, shortens deployment windows, and raises developer confidence — a frequent precursor to faster feature delivery and improved uptime, which clients value in mission‑critical systems. Industry sources confirm that mature test automation programmes can shift the balance away from slow manual QA cycles and materially increase release cadence.
Mentoring, inclusion and community work: profile claims and independent checks
Computing’s profile emphasises Shikha’s role as a mentor and as the London chapter lead for “Women in AIM (WAIM),” listing named initiatives such as “The 90‑Day Growth Challenge” and “Speed Mentorship.” It also reports that she mentors UCL students and volunteers with the London Zoological Society.- The mentoring narrative aligns with common activity by senior engineers in big financial tech organisations: internal chapter leadership, speed‑mentoring events, and university mentoring are typical and credible forms of professional contribution. Independent evidence of her Bloomberg employment and presence on the Women in Tech awards list supports the probability she is active in the professional community, even where independent event pages for the specific programmes named were not located in public searches.
- The specific WAIM chapter leadership title and the precise counts of mentees appear only in the Computing profile and could not be independently validated via a WAIM website or third‑party event pages in the public domain during the verification steps. That does not mean the activity didn’t happen — only that public corroboration was not discoverable in the available sources. These mentoring claims should be treated as credible but currently single‑source in public records.
Technical analysis: what an OMS overhaul typically involves (and what skills it signals)
Whether or not every numeric detail in the profile is independently verifiable, the described scope of work points to a specific set of technical competencies and organisational behaviours. The profile implies that Shikha led or contributed to:- End‑to‑end system diagnosis and performance analysis (profiling hot paths, identifying bottlenecks).
- Targeted code‑level and architectural changes to reduce latency (e.g., optimizing I/O, reducing synchronous blocking, improving queueing strategies).
- Scalability work (sharding, partitioning, concurrency/tuning of thread pools, or resource allocation).
- Test automation and CI/CD pipeline improvements to shift quality assurance from manual to automated validation.
- Cross‑site and cross‑timezone collaboration (London / New York / Princeton coordination).
Strengths highlighted by the profile
- Technical scope and outcomes: The profile attributes high‑impact performance and automation wins to Shikha — outcomes that, if accurate, demonstrate mastery of large‑scale system optimisation and measurable business impact.
- People leadership: The profile emphasises mentoring and inclusion work — leading local chapters, running growth challenges and mentoring students — signalling that technical leadership extends to team and community development. This combination is valuable to organisations that prize both delivery and culture.
- Cross‑sector experience: A background that spans a hyperscale cloud database team (Cosmos DB) and financial systems (Bloomberg) indicates an ability to apply cloud‑scale systems thinking to low‑latency, mission‑critical domains. The transferability of those skills is a strength in today’s job market.
Risks, caveats and the need for transparency
- Single‑source numeric claims: Some of the profile’s most striking numbers — the $50 million Cosmos DB savings, the precise capacity and latency improvements, and the $4 million deal linkage — are currently reported by one outlet (Computing). For journalistic accuracy and responsible celebration, those claims should be corroborated by employer confirmation, internal case studies, or published metrics where possible. Until then, present them as reported by Computing and flag them as unverified.
- Attribution vs. team effort: Large system optimisations are often the result of team work rather than the work of a single individual. Profiles that quote single contributors’ names alongside large‑scale savings should clarify the scope of individual responsibility. The profile frames Shikha as a lead and a driving force; readers should understand this is not inconsistent with significant team involvement, but the distinction matters for precise attribution.
- Quantitative context needed: Metrics such as “increased capacity from 750 to 2,000” require units and baseline context to be meaningful. Are those orders per second, per minute, per hour? Are they measured under synthetic test conditions or in production traffic? The profile does not specify units, so the numbers should be treated as directional rather than absolute until clarified.
Best practices for validating profile claims (recommended follow‑up steps)
- Request a formal statement from Bloomberg or the engineering team that managed the OMS project confirming the project scope and outcomes, including units and measurement context.
- Ask Microsoft (or the Cosmos DB team) for any published case studies or internal whitepapers that document resource optimisation and savings; large cost‑savings at the platform level are typically accompanied by internal technical write‑ups or customer stories.
- Seek direct quotes or public presentations by the engineer named (conference talks, blog posts, GitHub contributions, recorded meetups) that explain the specific technical changes and their measured impact.
- Encourage technologists and awards organisers to include clarifying notes around team size and measurement conditions when publishing performance and financial impact numbers.
What the inclusion in Tech Women Celebration 50 signifies
Computing’s selection adds Shikha to a curated peer group meant to surface role models and visible leaders in tech. Even with the caveats around single‑source metrics, the profile performs an important cultural function: it recognises engineers who combine technical delivery with mentorship and community building, and highlights the kinds of career moves (cloud to finance, technical to mentor) that are instructive for rising engineers. The profile contributes to broadening the definition of technical leadership to include advocacy and people development — an emphasis that industry observers increasingly regard as a positive trend.Short primer: why OMS optimisation is strategically valuable for firms like Bloomberg
- Speed and reliability attract and retain high‑value institutional clients. Faster, more deterministic execution reduces market exposure and improves client confidence.
- Throughput increases let systems handle larger client volumes without scaling costs linearly; this improves margins and supports product growth.
- Test automation reduces release risk and enables iterative feature delivery — important in fast‑moving product teams that serve demanding clients.
Conclusion
Computing’s Tech Women Celebration 50 entry paints a clear, compelling picture of Shikha Dahiya as a technically capable, people‑focused engineer whose work on Bloomberg’s trading systems and prior cloud‑database projects illustrates a rare blend of systems engineering and mentorship. The Bloomberg affiliation is independently supported by industry award listings, and the technical profile maps cleanly onto known high‑value engineering practices for OMS and low‑latency systems. At the same time, several of the profile’s most striking numerical claims (the $50 million Cosmos DB savings, the exact capacity and latency figures, and the specific $4 million deal attribution) are reported only by Computing in public searches conducted for this piece. Those numbers should be treated as reported by Computing rather than independently verified fact until Bloomberg, Microsoft, or other primary sources provide corroboration. Proper follow‑up (employer confirmation, case studies, or technical presentations) would convert a strong narrative into a robust, verifiable case study useful to the broader engineering community. In short: the profile is a worthy spotlight on an engineer who exemplifies technical leadership and mentorship; readers should celebrate the narrative and the person while also testing headline numbers against primary documentation before treating them as definitive metrics.Source: Computing UK https://www.computing.co.uk/profile/2025/tech-women-celebration-50/shikha-dahiya/
