Women in Technology: Alkami Technology’s Sharilyn Bowen

In the latest installment in our “Women in Technology” series, we visited with Alkami Technology’s Senior Director, Technology Chief of Staff Sharilyn Bowen. The Plano, Texas-based finetch is a digital sales and service platform provider for financial institutions located in the U.S.

By W.B. King

After graduating from Columbia University, Sharilyn Bowen undertook an immersive one-year masters of arts program. Her focus was on Caribbean and Latin American studies, centering on literature, history and political science. Eventually, she planned on earning a doctorate degree.

“While I thoroughly enjoyed it, toward the end of my program, it dawned on me that my thesis would do nothing more than sit on the shelves of the Senate House Library collecting dust,” she told Finopotamus. “My excitement about pursuing a Ph.D. began to wane, and I discontinued my applications.”

Sharilyn Bowen

While initially staying in Guyana, she decided to explore the continent. She took a search engine optimization position with a fintech, which afforded her the ability to travel to locales like Argentina, Uruguay, Peru, and Brazil.

“I was ready to return to the USA, but I still had no idea what I wanted to do. A former classmate from Columbia suggested I consider applying for a project management role at EMC (now Dell) after sharing that I desired a role (and industry) where I could see tangible results and outcomes,” she reflected. “At the time, I had no understanding of how this path would ultimately lead me into the digital banking space.”

Creating Tech Spaces for All

From 2013 to 2016, Bowen served as a project manager at Dell Technologies. She next joined Alkami Technologies as senior project manager. For nearly 10 years, she has held several leadership roles there. In 2024, she was named senior director and technology chief of staff. During this time, she observed a cultural shift in ideologies and leadership styles.

“Teams today value collaboration, psychological safety, and diverse perspectives more than the rigid, command-and-control models common earlier in my career. This matters because diversity in thought—shaped by different backgrounds, lived experiences, and problem-solving approaches—directly strengthens our ability to innovate and build technology that serves broad and diverse user bases,” she said. “The progress is real, even if incomplete, and it reinforces why investing in mentorship and advocacy for women in tech remains so critical.”

Since entering the industry, starting in hardware, she added that all of her technical partners were men. “I worked with only one female solutions architect in three years—I’ve seen noticeable progress in how technology and digital banking teams think about representation and leadership,” she continued. “Today, there’s more awareness and intentionality around inclusion, even though the numbers show we still have a long way to go.”

This awareness and embracement of inclusion have resulted in more women working in the fintech, digital banking, and credit-union/financial-tech roles, she said. These advancements, she added, are noticeable internally at Alkami as well as during the company’s annual client conference.

“In more recent years, we’ve hosted ‘Women in Banking’ events and roundtable discussions that bring together women from Alkami, our partners as well as credit unions and banks and the event has seen significant growth,” she told Finopotamus. “It provides an opportunity for us to engage, network and grow whilst on our personal and professional journeys.”

Mentorship is critical to career advancement, she said, sharing that a former chief client officer was an early champion, even though her unconventional resume created some apprehension initially. “She always provided advice, coaching, and answered any and every question I might have had. When my imposter syndrome seeped in, she would remind me that I was capable,” Bowen noted. “She spoke my name in rooms when I didn’t expect it and when my current role as technology chief of staff was created, she encouraged me to consider it after suggesting to the CTO at that time that I would be a great fit in supporting our digital banking company.”

To pay it forward, Bowen champions women at Alkami and actively networks with women leaders in the fields of technology and engineering. “I share what I’ve learned, create space for candid conversations, and look for opportunities to help others navigate their own leadership paths,” she continued. “Investing in their growth is one of the most meaningful ways I can honor the support that helped shape mine.

Anticipatory Banking

When Finopotamus asked what recent technology-related innovations Alkami has undertaken that have benefited the credit union space, Bowen pointed to the company’s digital sales and service platform.

“This is transforming how credit unions onboard, engage, and grow relationships with their members,” she noted. “The platform serves as the gateway to delivering the vision of ‘anticipatory banking,’ meeting members’ financial needs before they are expressed.”

As a doting parent of a toddler, Bowen also pays attention to financial literacy solutions. “I’m excited to see the continued emergence of kid-friendly digital banking apps that make financial services and literacy fun and accessible,” she said. “I am a firm believer that it is imperative to teach useful spending and savings habits early to set children up for success as adults.”

Similar to this parenting approach, she said among the credit union industry’s strengths are its dedication to membership and community as well as being proponents of financial inclusion.

“Credit unions have a long history of serving groups excluded from mainstream banking, including more rural areas as well as low-to-moderate-income communities,” she shared. “It is truly an honor to help credit unions stay ahead of digital banking features and functionality, providing features and seamless integrations with third-party solutions to create a tailored experience for people from all walks of life.”

Alkami, she added, is proud to assist credit unions in furthering the “people helping people” movement. “Partnerships may start with the implementation and innovation of new technology, but at the end of the day, it’s really about amplifying what makes credit unions different in the first place,” Bowen said. “That’s the kind of transformation that’s not only measurable, but meaningful.”