Linda Chen’s finance education leads to 25-year technology career

[rachelduran]

Since the beginning, HPE has advanced the way people live and work by creating innovative technology at the heart of successful organizations and communities all over the world. We invite you inside our careers and culture through stories of the people who power HPE—our team members.  
 
Linda Chen, Pricing Strategy Manager, has worked at our Houston headquarters for 25 years and her career has taken her up – and across – various positions by continually learning about our business while expanding her finance skills and capabilities.  

Linda’s HPE career journey 

Linda moved from China to the United States to pursue an MBA at Texas A&M. She came to HPE as a contractor and moved through various Finance roles within different parts of our company. While many of her positions leveraged her background as a Certified Public Accountant (CPA), her jobs were mostly focused on building solutions to support the operations of the business. Examples include supply chain cost forecast automations, Enterprise software business controller, trading structure, and now pricing strategy.  

As a Pricing Strategy Manager, Linda has daily interactions with Sales and our Alliance Partner account managers globally to execute pricing strategies that are competitive in the market. It’s her job to analyze costs and industry pricing trends and provide competitive pricing guidance to win strategic deals.  Her goal is also to execute pricing strategies in a timely manner to drive profitable growth. 

Linda believes in the power of continuous learning, networking, and taking occasional risks to make a career change. To date, she’s held eight unique positions within HPE.  

Team member straight talk 

Q: What is the most important aspect of your work? 
A: The company and OEM business keeps growing with the ever-changing market which requires us to adapt our solutions to deliver best-in-class product at a competitive price. I work with cross functional teams which helps me to understand customers’ needs and I readily see how quickly technology is evolving the way we live and work. In my job, I must be adaptable and keep learning so I can help us keep up with the competition. In a global technology company, change is constant so it’s also important to be comfortable with ambiguity.  

Q: How do you redefine what’s next in your career?   
A: When I can’t move up, I will look for ways to move horizontally. I went from business finance to technical legal and tax accounting so I could enhance my capabilities and keep my career advancing. This strategy has enriched my career experiences, made me more competitive, and I’m able to shine in different roles all while enjoying the work.  

Q: What has helped you to find success? 
A: Finding a mentor is important to enable professional growth and development. I recommend team members to actively participate in site activities to build a personal network, learn about different roles around the company, and find people willing to share their experiences so one can learn from them.  

Ready to redefine what’s next for you? With industry-leading training, development, and cross-functional learning opportunities, you could potentially explore multiple careers without ever leaving the impactful, mission-driven work and people at HPE. Explore our careers site and apply at careers.hpe.com. 

Rachel Duran
Hewlett Packard Enterprise

linkedin.com/company/hewlett-packard-enterprise
careers.hpe.com