Rising Star Award in the Engineering Category
Passionate for innovative technologies I studied aerospace engineering @RWTH Aachen and @Ecole Central Paris. The speed and dynamics of the automotive environment motivated me to join another Tier1 supplier as my first employer and from the start my main work consisted in bringing people together from different locations to develop passive safety and later active safety systems.
On the way to develop autonomous driving I had the opportunity to create and join a start-up for autonomous driving SW and I enjoyed working with a mindset of abundance and opportunity and always looking beyond limitations.
I joined Continental in October 2019 because I’m amazed by the strong technical skills of the Continental team and think that Continental has both from an economic and a portfolio perspective a pole position in what the future will bring.
Therefore I see my purpose in using the start-up mindset and at the same time leveraging the strength that comes by being a big company.
And my current role at Continental is a perfect fit in that regard. I’m leading a global team of highly engaged developers with the mission to deploy AI technology to our products. I enjoy those little successes when people come together and unlock situations that seemed to be desperate before or when finally after several attempts the system is working in the car.
My team consists of a lot of very skilled people in the area of AI, data and perception. What I truly like about working with my colleagues is their enthusiasm in finding very creative solutions to the obstacles and challenges we face on our way. We have grown together as a global team and also beyond the Business Unit by sharing each other’s achievements, problems and supporting with solutions and ideas. We do not always agree, but we then come together and exchange, discuss and align. And they always give me feedback which is a big help in defining the next steps or finding the direction.
This year I have been nominated as one of the Rising Star Award Winner’s of Automotive News Europe. Of course I feel very honored to be a recognized member of a community of transformational and inspirational leaders. What has touched me most though was the nice and kind words I received from my teams, peers and managers.
This article was written by our employee.
Annika Ratte-Front
