Leading with Impact Through Continuous Reinvention

“A career is never a straight line. It is a journey of continuous learning, purposeful reinvention, and creating impact at every turn.”

Chitra Sukumar has been recognised at the Top 10 Women Tech Leaders India Awards 2026, presented by REVA Academy for Corporate Excellence (RACE), REVA University. The awards honour women who lead with impact in technology and actively create opportunities for other women.

Chitra Sukumar is a transformational technology leader with more than three decades of experience across software engineering, global R&D leadership and enterprise-wide digital transformation. As Senior Vice President of Digital Engineering & Technical Debt at Schneider Electric, she leads a global agenda to accelerate innovation through digital engineering, standardised platforms and engineering transformation.

Chitra spent more than 23 years at Philips, progressing from software engineer to Global Head of R&D for Mobile Surgery. During this period, she contributed to the India centre becoming a globally recognised innovation hub by building high-performing engineering organisations and enabling end-to-end ownership of products, platforms and technologies.

As Global Head of R&D for Philips Mobile Surgery, she led multidisciplinary global teams and advanced platform-based product strategies that improved quality, reuse and efficiency in the heavily regulated healthcare sector. During her tenure, Philips launched the Zenition series, one of the most successful platforms in the mobile surgery imaging segment.

In 2021, Chitra joined Schneider Electric as Vice President of R&D India, where she led the R&D Council and established Centres of Excellence for Materials and Digital Twins, with global leadership based in India.

Today, she leads Schneider Electric’s global engineering digitisation agenda, driving platform standardisation, application rationalisation, AI adoption, cybersecurity integration and digital continuity across a complex global engineering landscape.

Chitra has consistently championed women in technology through diversity and inclusion initiatives, mentoring programmes such as Guiding Stars, and internal networking forums. These efforts have helped women build confidence, expand their professional networks and pursue leadership opportunities.

Looking ahead, she aims to address the “leaky leadership pipeline” in Indian technology, where strong entry-level representation of women declines sharply at each career stage. Her focus is on inspiring and mentoring potential leaders to remain on the leadership track through every life stage.

Chitra’s social impact work centres on education and capability building through technology outreach, university partnerships, mentoring and scholarship-related activities. She takes a particular interest in supporting talented students from economically weaker backgrounds, viewing education as one of the most powerful enablers of social mobility.

• More than 30 years in software engineering, global R&D and transformation
• 23 years at Philips, from software engineer to Global Head of R&D, Mobile Surgery
• 2021: Vice President of R&D India, Schneider Electric
• Present: Senior Vice President, Digital Engineering & Technical Debt