Open Book: Hema Nagarajan, Sr. Engineering Manager

Open Book is a series of interviews for you to get to know the incredible people of Opendoor. Meet Hema, whose passion for learning and disrupting the broken real estate industry brought her to Opendoor.

Hi Hema! We understand your personal homeselling story inspired you to join Opendoor — we’d love to hear it.

My family had such a painful experience selling our home when we relocated from New Jersey to India in 2017. That journey inspired me to learn more about how companies like Opendoor are changing real estate for buyers and sellers in the U.S. Later, Sudhir Kumar, a Director of Talent Acquisition at Opendoor, reached out to me on LinkedIn, and I was in awe of the company’s vision. Hearing Raji Subramanian, Opendoor’s CTO, explain how homeowners can buy and sell with certainty at the click of a button — without anxiety — caught my attention as someone who had the opposite experience.

The reviews from Opendoor customers also won me over. In one story, a customer received a final offer within two days of their external assessment. I was amazed Opendoor could move that fast in an antiquated industry — especially coming from commercial real estate myself.

I knew the company was doing something right, and I wanted to be a part of disrupting the industry.

Your enthusiasm for Opendoor’s mission is clear! What excited you most when you first joined the company?

I love having the opportunity to bring my past experience to new problems. Prior to joining Opendoor, I led the construction lending platform team for commercial real estate at a large US bank based in Bangalore— which meant I got to work closely with U.S. stakeholders on complex business transactions that directly relate to Opendoor customers’ experiences. Now, I get to bring this engineering experience to Opendoor use cases that fascinate me. Our team is finding new ways to solve problems, recognize patterns and anticipate future use cases.

I love knowing the projects my team does directly contribute to operators’ experiences and will be used across various domains within Opendoor.

You’ve been with Opendoor for almost three months now. How would you describe your experience so far?

It has been incredible. Learning new things at Opendoor, such as our operating principles, engineering practices and internal tools, motivates me to do my best work.

I love waking up, coming into work and discovering something new every day, from my team members, product managers and design team.

I’ve also been amazed by the transparency of the senior leadership here. Having worked at many different organizations, Opendoor leaders’ direct and honest communication is unique. They’re open about past learnings, which helps us keep improving our business and technology. As a team, we get 1% better every day.

We’re so glad to hear that! Can you tell us a bit more about your team and what you do at Opendoor?

I lead the tooling platform team based in India, which focuses on developing reusable components and foundational capabilities for internal tooling applications. In other words, we build things that empower our operations, sales and support teams to be more efficient and productive. It feels good knowing our work helps build the best experience for home buyers, sellers and agents as quickly as possible.

We’re currently working on several exciting initiatives. For instance, we’re building a tool that helps internal operators create prioritized to-do lists, serving as a single source of truth for business needs. We’re also building a generic framework to help teams automatically allocate work assignments based on team members’ eligibility, presence, market and capacity. We love working on projects that help make our teammates’ lives easier.

As someone who cares deeply about empowering team members, what does innovation mean to you?

On my team, innovation is all about enabling productivity and automating the laborious work that internal operators do, so they’re empowered to think bigger and do more. We’re always asking how new technologies, like AI, can help power projects at Opendoor.

Opendoor also approaches core frameworks differently than other companies. Many of our use cases are unique, so they’re not supported by off-the-shelf software. Building them in house means we can customize our solutions and cater them to different applications and teams’ needs.

As you tackle these innovative projects, what skills help a person thrive on your team?

Our team embraces two things: aptitude and attitude. Problem solving, technical experience and attention to detail go a long way when building software. Our team is full of quick learners — people are curious about business domains and use strong communication skills to share new ideas.

How do you inspire your team to do their best work?

As a leader, I like to roll up my sleeves alongside my team and do everything — coding, testing, deploying software — at least once before I start delegating. I like to combine democratic coaching and analytic leadership to help our team continuously improve. I always remember what it was like to have managers coach, inspire and believe in my ability to lead — I’ve been very blessed throughout my career.

I’m inspired by people who make transformational changes, bold decisions and who empower others with autonomy — that’s what I want to do for my team at Opendoor.

What inspires you? What are you excited about?

I find inspiration in the world around me. I love taking long walks, cycling and using public transportation to reduce my carbon footprint. I also have two kids — ages 13 and 16 — so I enjoy spending time with them and catching up on their lives. Whether I’m bonding with family or brainstorming with my team, I love using open communication to connect with others.

Interested in joining our team? Opendoor is hiring! Check out our current open positions!

Want to learn more about working at Opendoor? Check out our Design and Business blogs.