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The Women in Digital National Awards is back for 2026!

The Women in Digital Awards were founded in 2018 based on the idea ‘you can’t be what you can’t see.’ The awards are a celebration of incredible women within the digital industries and the organisations that support them. We believe that unless we have more visible role models in digital and technology we won’t change the status quo. By shining a light on industry leaders, we shine a light on the career pathways and possibilities that digital and technology provides to women.

Featured Judges

Bronwyn Fox

Professor Bronwyn Fox AO
Deputy Vice Chancellor (Research and Enterprise) 
UNSW 

Cathie Reid AM-1

Cathie Reid AM 
Co-Founder 
 Epic Pharmacy, Icon Group, Arc31 

Izzy Whitelock (2)

Izzy Whitelock
CEO
AIIA 

kate pounder-1

Kate Pounder
Board Member 
Tech Policy Design Institute 

Kylie Walker AM-1

Kylie Walker AM 
CEO 
Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering 

Melanie Silva (1)

Melanie Silva
 Managing Director and VP 
 Google Aus & NZ 

Niki Strachan

 Niki Strachan
Strategy and Prioritisation
Digital Transformation Agency 

Sam Fariborz-1

Sam Fariborz 
CISO
David Jones 

sarah carney-1

Sarah Carney
CTO 
Microsoft 

Simone Clark-1

Simone Clark
CEO 
UN Women Australia 

Women in Digital National Award Categories

Please note that these categories are subject to change each year.

AI Leader of the Year

This award recognises AI leaders within scaling, large organisations and enterprises who have driven the development and adoption of AI products or initiatives at scale, delivering meaningful and measurable impact.

 

More Information and Apply Now

Allyship in Action (Manbassador)

This award celebrates an impact-driven individual who actively champions gender equity by using their influence to support, advocate for, and elevate others, thus demonstrating true Allyship in Action within the digital industry.

 

 More Information and Apply Now 

Business Support Excellence

This award recognises an individual or team delivering excellence in business support functions that enable and accelerate digital outcomes. Whether through operations, finance, legal, people and culture, project management, or any other enabling function, this award celebrates those who work behind the scenes to make great digital work possible.

 

 More Information and Apply Now 

Champion of Change

This award celebrates an impact-oriented individual who is driving meaningful change within the digital industry, whether through innovation, leadership, advocacy, or transforming the way organisations use technology.

 

   More Information and Apply Now 

Cloud & Infrastructure Excellence

This award recognises an individual or team delivering excellence in cloud and infrastructure engineering that underpins and accelerates digital outcomes. Whether through cloud architecture, DevOps, platform engineering, site reliability, security, or network infrastructure, this award celebrates those who build and maintain the foundations that make great digital products and services possible. 

 

More Information and Apply Now 

Cybersecurity Leader of the Year

This award recognises the importance of cybersecurity and governance to keep us safe online by celebrating a dedicated and innovative cybersecurity professional. This is an individual contributor category recognising Australia’s best female cybersecurity leaders driving innovation, strengthening resiliency, and influencing industry change. 

 

More Information and Apply Now 

Data Leader of the Year

This award recognises a distinctive business leader who has built a revolutionary data-centric program while guiding the project (and associated teams) to outstanding achievement through vision, inspiration, creativity, and commitment.

 

More Information and Apply Now 

Digital Experience Excellence

This award recognises an individual or team delivering excellence in digital experience - spanning user experience, customer experience, service design, and the end-to-end journeys that connect people with products, services, and organisations.

 

More Information and Apply Now 

Digital Transformation Leader of the Year

This award recognises a distinctive business leader driving the transformation of an organisation through digital technology. For this category, we are looking for exceptional change, project and stakeholder management from the Digital Transformation Leader.

 

More Information and Apply Now 

Employer of the Year

This award recognises a distinctive business leader driving the transformation of an organisation through digital technology. For this category, we are looking for exceptional change, project and stakeholder management from the Digital Transformation Leader.

 

More Information and Apply Now 

Executive Leader of the Year

Awarded to Australia’s most outstanding executive leader in the digital sector, this category recognises the importance of leadership in driving digital transformation in Australia and across an organisation and industry.

 

More Information and Apply Now 

Global Impact Excellence

This award celebrates the organisations and teams driving Australia's influence on the global digital stage, from scale-ups expanding into new markets to teams within larger organisations leading cross-border initiatives. 

 

More Information and Apply Now 

Growth Leader of the Year

This award combines what was previously recognised as Digital Marketer of the Year with broader growth disciplines including sales leadership and growth strategy, reflecting the increasingly interconnected nature of these functions in modern organisations. Whether your work is rooted in data-driven marketing, brand building, revenue growth, or customer lifecycle strategy, this award celebrates those who drive meaningful and measurable growth outcomes through digital.

 

More Information and Apply Now 

Indigenous Leader of the Year

This award acknowledges First Nations voices are imperative in helping to build the technology we all use every day, but they are also uniquely placed to use technology to solve problems that are specific to their community including preserving language and culture for future generations.

 

More Information and Apply Now 

IT Excellence

This award recognises an individual or team delivering excellence across the breadth of information technology — from infrastructure and systems administration, to IT service delivery, security, support, and the operational backbone that keeps organisations running and evolving.

 

More Information and Apply Now 

Product Excellence

This award celebrates the best of Australia's talent in Product Excellence. From Product Analysts, to Product Owners and Product Managers and Product Leaders - this individual or team is delivering exceptional commercial results through product strategy, leadership, stakeholder management and more. 

 

More Information and Apply Now 

Public Sector Excellence

 This award recognises excellence in digital transformation by an individual or team, and the critical importance of effective digital capabilities within our public sector and government organisations. This award recognises the year's most successful transformation of a government organisation or its service delivery through digital technology. 

 

More Information and Apply Now 

Rising Star of the Year

Recognising Australia's Rising Star in digital and technology.  This award recognises an ambitious innovator who has demonstrated an outstanding level of initiative and leadership as a digital specialist early in their career. 

 

More Information and Apply Now 

Software Engineering Excellence

 This award recognises an individual or team who has shown industry leadership in building and developing software. Achievements in software development completed in the Australian market during the 25/26 Financial Year will be assessed for this award. 

 

More Information and Apply Now 

Technical Leader of the Year

This award champions someone that leads the successful delivery of high-performing technology applications (or projects) and as a result, enhances commercial outcomes for an organisation.

 

More Information and Apply Now 

Can't find the right category for you?

Send us a suggestion! We're always looking at new categories to champion more people and organisations in our community. Put your suggestion here and we may just include it in next year’s awards program!

Key Dates

Nominations Open
27 May 2026 at 09:00 AM
Nominations Close
19 Jul 2026 at 11:30 PM
Finalist Judging Day
19 Aug 2026 at 09:00 AM
Finalists Announced
2 Sep 2026 at 09:00 AM
Winners Announced
6 Nov 2026 at 05:30 PM
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Supporting Judges

Adair Robins (1)

Adair Robins
Head of Diversity & Transformation 
Tech Council of Australia 

Alice Tang

 Alice Tang 
 Co-CEO 
 Amplify AI Group 

Amanda Larsen

 Amanda Larsen 
 Director, Change Delivery 
 QTC 

Amanda Pitcher

 Amanda Pitcher 
 Capability Lead - Strategy & Design, and Software Engineering 
 Versent 

Angela Baro (1)

Angela Baro 
 General Manager - Testing 
 Auto & General 

Anna Morgan-2

Anna Morgan
 Lead Experience Designer 
 Jude Digital 

Annabel Zhou

 Annabel Zhou
 Co-founder, Software Engineer 
 Toastie & Google 

Anne-Louise Brown

 Anne-Louise Brown 
Head of Policy, Strategy and Insights  
Akin Agency 

Ariella Heffernan Marks

 Ariella Heffernan-Marks 
 CEO and Founder 
 Ovum 

Ashleigh Nelson (1)

Ashleigh Nelson
 Industry Development Program Coordinator 
 NAIC 

Athena Thompson (1)

 Athena Thompson 
 Director of Marketing & Strategic Partnerships 
 Insight 

Brianna Marlow

 Brianna Marlow
 Head of Alliances 
 Sekuro 

Brittany Shipton

 Brittany Shipton 
 Senior Manager, APJ Revenue Marketing 
 KnowBe4 

brooke powell

Brooke Powell
Account Executive
Salesforce

Carrie Mott

 Carrie Mott 
 Managing Director 
 Flywheel Marketing 

Cassandra Ashworth (1)

 Cassandra Ashworth 
 Head of AI sales 
 Hcltech 

Celeste Lowe

 Celeste Lowe 
 Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) 
 The Lottery Corporation 

Courtney Crethar (1)

 Courtney Crethar 
 Head of People and Culture 
 Subco 

Daniel Evans

 Daniel Evans 
 Chief Information Officer 
 Rio Tinto 

Deb Manning

 Deb Manning 
 Marketing Director 
 Sophos 

Deepak Singh

 Deepak Singh 
 Founder + Chief Culture Officer 
 Mission and Rhythm 

Donna Benjamin

 Donna Benjamin 
 Managing Director 
 Peak Coaching and Advisory Group 

Dunja Lewis

 Dunja Lewis 
 Co-Founder and Chief Innovation Officer 
 AIUC Global 

Eva Knutsson

 Eva Knutsson 
 Senior Director, Marketing Operations 
 Megaport 

Hayley Saddington

 Hayley Saddington 
 Founder/CEO 
 Peak Medical 

Inano Knowles

 Inano Knowles 
 Founder and President 
 QUT The Emerging Coders Hub 

Jessica Davies (1)

 Jessica Davies 
 Head of Analytics & Insights 
 Defence Bank 

Jessica King (1)

 Jessica King 
 National Manager - Workforce Solutions 
 Integral 

Jing Shen

 Jing Shen 
 Assistant Director | Digital Service Designer 
 Australian Government - IP Australia 

Kathryn Collier

 Kathryn Collier 
 Head of AI & Machine Learning Engineering 
 Mantel Group 

Katie Velissariou-Abel (1)

 Katie Velissariou-Abel 
 Director  
 Queensland Government 

Katrina Edgar

 Katrina Edgar 
 Service Delivery Lead 
 Cisco 

Kim McDonnell

 Kim McDonnell 
 Co Founder & CEO 
 Saveful Worldwide 

Kristina Bennett

 Kristina Bennett 
 Head of Strategy and Business Performance 
 Westpac Group 

Kristina Craig (1)

 Kristina Craig 
 Head of Technology Strategy 
 The Lottery Corporation 

Linda Chrysoglou

 Linda Chrysoglou 
 Senior Global Talent Partner 
 Cisco 

Louise Mercer

 Louise Mercer 
 Chief Operating Officer 
 Honey Insurance 

Mani Sahihi

 Mani Sahihi 
 CEO 
 Foxo Technology 

Michelle Erdosi (1)

 Michelle Erdosi 
 Product and Operations Director 
 RFI Global 

Mikaela Jade

Mikaela Jade 
 Indigital 
 CEO and Founder 

Mike Morgan

 Mike Morgan
 Vice President & Managing Director 
 Insight 

Naina DSouza (1)

 Naina D'Souza 
 Head of Digital 
 MUFG Pension & Market Services 

Natalie Kradolfer

 Natalie Kradolfer 
 Co-Founder & Managing Director 
 Amplify Music Education 

Natalie Miller

 Natalie Miller 
 General Manager - Group Marketing 
 ReadyTech 

Nisha Amanulla

 Nisha Amanulla 
 Engineering Manager 
 Australian Broadcasting Corporation 

Patricia Droguett (3)

 Patricia Droguett 
 Founder 
 Software at Scale 

Rebecca Manly

 Rebecca Manly 
 Personalisation Senior Product Lead 
 Australian Broadcasting Corporation 

Rucha Sawant

 Rucha Sawant 
 Managing Director 
 Avanade Australia

Sam Fariborz-1

 Sam Fariborz 
 CISO 
 David Jones 

Sammi Ghafari

 Sammi Ghafari 
 Solutions Engineering Manager 
 HealthShare NSW 

Sanja Marais

 Sanja Marais 
 CTSO 
 Aspen Medical 

Shaikha Desiderio

 Shaikha Desiderio 
 Digital Advisory Lead 
 Veris 

Shanique Busby

 Shanique Busby 
 General Manager, AI Product 
 Lendi Group 

Sian Howatson (1)

 Sian Howatson 
 Head of Customer Insights & Automation 
 Swyftx 

Simon Dubois (1)

 Simon Dubois 
 Partner and KPMG ASPAC & Australia Sector Lead - Tech & Media 
 KPMG 

Tania Hyde

 Tania Hyde 
 Senior Product Manager 
 Greencross Pet Wellness Company 

Tarra van Amerongen

 Tarra van Amerongen 
 VP of Product and Design 
 Thoughtworks 

Vida Asrina (1)

 Vida Asrina 
 Head of Design 
 Zurich 

Yas Grigaliunas (1)

 Yas Grigaliunas 
 Chief Experience Officer 
 VideoPro 

Join us at the National Gala

The awards gala is where the community comes together – providing a great opportunity to network with industry leaders. 

We’ll be bringing back our signature awards gala experience in 2026. With a black-tie dress code, this is your chance to frock up and get fancy with some incredible industry leaders and colleagues as we champion some of the best in the business.

Date: 6th November 2026
Time: 5:30pm – 11:00pm (AEST)
Location: Brisbane

Our Award Partners

 Interested in partnering with Women in Digital? Contact us via email to discuss partnership opportunities.

Champion Partners

Category Partners