“Our value lies in combining technological capabilities to address problems holistically”, Marielena Márquez, Head of Industry at Gradiant

Industry is moving towards more connected, flexible, efficient and sustainable models, driven by technologies such as applied artificial intelligence, machine learning, IoT and the cloud continuum. At Gradiant, these capabilities are translated into projects and solutions designed to help industrial companies digitalise their processes, improve their competitiveness and advance in the adoption of Industry 4.0 and 5.0 models.

Leading this area is Marielena Márquez, Head of Industry at Gradiant, a Telecommunications Engineer from the Universidade de Vigo with an MBA from Galicia Business School. In her role, she leads innovation and technology transfer projects aimed at bringing advanced technologies closer to the real needs of the industrial sector.

In 2023, when we interviewed you for our “Women Technologists of the 21st Century” series, you told us that you were finishing your Master’s degree and working in the Cloud Native area. Today, you are Head of Industry at Gradiant. What has changed between the Marielena of then and the Marielena of today?

The truth is that a lot has changed, and at the same time, not that much! Back then, I was taking my first steps in the professional world. In fact, as you rightly point out, I was still completing the qualifying Master’s degree in Telecommunications Engineering, as I started working during the summer between the first and second year. I was full of enthusiasm, eager to learn and gradually shape the direction of my professional career.

And, in truth, that has not changed very much. I now find myself taking my first steps again, but in a new position that is very different from the one I had three years ago, while still having the same enthusiasm and desire to learn and grow professionally. The nerves and uncertainty that often accompany major changes are also very similar: I felt them then, when I was starting a new stage, and I feel them now as I settle into my role as Head of Industry.

But I can definitely see a significant evolution. These three years have been very intense and everything has moved quite quickly, which I feel has helped me grow rapidly in many areas, both professionally and personally. In particular, over the past two years, as I have progressively taken on responsibility for the Industry area, I have constantly faced new challenges. I have taken on responsibilities that are very different from those I had in 2023 and have developed both technical and interpersonal skills.

I still have a great deal to learn, and I continue learning every day. Compared with 2023, the experience I have gained makes me feel much more confident in myself when facing new challenges as they arise.

Gradiant’s environment has played a major role in this, and its essence has not changed since I first joined as a student in 2022. Being surrounded by the great professionals and people who work here, who have supported me, helped me grow over the years and placed their trust in me, is the main reason behind the development I feel I have undergone.

Your profile has evolved from a highly technical role towards one that also involves strategy, business and relationships with companies. How have you experienced this change? What has been your biggest challenge in this respect?

The truth is that the change happened very quickly for me, and I have barely had time to reflect on how I experienced it. Particularly during the first few months, there were nerves and moments when I questioned whether I was ready for it. But I think my enthusiasm and ambition to do the best possible job with the opportunity I had been given pushed me to navigate and overcome the challenges day by day. The support of the people around me at Gradiant has been fundamental in this process and has enabled me to experience the transition with a sense of calm and confidence.

As I mentioned, I have faced many challenges because everything was new to me during this transition. In terms of the focus of the role, I was quite clear that I wanted to move towards a position centred on business, people and strategy. However, moving away from a purely technical focus has been more difficult than I expected.

Although this role still allows me to remain in direct contact with technology, I admit that there are times when I miss being able to devote time to solving technical problems directly. As someone who is very proactive and perfectionistic, I think my biggest challenge has been learning to manage the fact that I cannot personally do everything that falls under my responsibility, and resisting the temptation to get involved at a low level in technical developments so that I can focus my time on the tasks that genuinely add value to the area in my role as its head.

You now also have to lead and support other people. What kind of manager do you want to be, and what do you try to bring to your team?

Above all, I would say that I want to be someone my team can trust. I like to build that trust reciprocally and through transparency. I want the people on my team to feel that they can tell me things as they are, including when something is not working or when they disagree with me, and I want to be able to do the same with them. I believe this kind of open communication is essential for improving as a team and also for helping me continue to learn in a role that is, after all, still very new to me.

I also think it is very important to know the people I work with well, to understand their strengths, what motivates them and where they may need more support. I do not believe that supporting a team means expecting the same from everyone, but rather finding the right balance to help each person build on what they do best and manage or improve their weaker areas, while at the same time looking at what is best for the team as a whole.

In this respect, I also have quite a lot of personal work ahead of me. I am very perfectionistic and tend to want to keep everything under control. So one of the things I am learning is precisely to give people more space and independence, to trust that I do not need to be involved in every detail and to allow each person to take ownership of their responsibilities. At the same time, of course, I do not want to lose the closeness that I believe characterises me, so that people feel they can rely on me when they need to and I can provide them with that sense of reassurance.

In short, I would like to build a dynamic based on approachability and empathy, combined with commitment, responsibility and professionalism as key values within the team.

Looking at the area you have taken over in recent months, what lessons have been key in helping you shape your work as Head of Industry at Gradiant?

I think a great deal of that learning came from completing my MBA at exactly the time when I began progressively taking on these responsibilities. Until then, my education had been entirely technical, with a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Telecommunications Engineering, so many areas related to strategy and business were new to me.

The MBA enabled me to gain a much broader perspective and some fundamental tools in areas such as marketing, finance, operations, human resources, and sales and business development. That perspective now helps me considerably in understanding the different dimensions involved in managing an area such as Industry.

However, the part I have probably been able to apply most directly in my day-to-day work is everything related to people management and leadership, along with broader skills such as communication, negotiation and decision-making.

Ultimately, a large part of my role consists of acting as a bridge between technological capabilities and business needs. To do that, understanding the technology is not enough; being able to listen, understand what a company really needs, manage expectations and translate our capabilities into a value proposition that makes sense for that client is even more important.

Then there is everything you learn simply by doing. Over the past few years, I have encountered many different situations: project management, conflict resolution, client meetings, preparing and presenting proposals, public speaking… and each of them gives you tools that are difficult to acquire through formal training alone.

Even on a more personal level, I have had to learn a great deal about how to prioritise, manage my time better and delegate. I believe it is precisely the combination of this more structured training and everything I learn through experience that helps me most in shaping the way I perform this role.

For any companies in the industrial sector reading this interview, tell us how you work with organisations that approach Gradiant to identify where technology can generate real and measurable impact.

As a technology centre, our mission is precisely to ensure that technology transfer has a real impact on companies. It is not about innovating for innovation’s sake or applying the most complex technology possible, but about finding the solution that genuinely delivers value. As we have seen in previous projects, a relatively simple solution can often solve a very significant problem.

To achieve this, from the outset we invest a great deal of effort in understanding each company’s business, processes, tools and existing data. We rely on their expert knowledge because nobody understands their reality better than they do, and we complement that with our technological expertise.

From there, we work together to design bespoke solutions tailored to their context and focused on addressing a specific need in a useful and measurable way.

There is clearly a major difference between developing a technology and successfully implementing it in a factory or production process. What needs to happen for technology transfer to work?

I believe there are two particularly important factors: data and people. In the Industry area, the vast majority of the solutions we develop are based on data and Artificial Intelligence. One of the main barriers we encounter is often having access to data in sufficient quantity and quality.

Before automating or digitalising an industrial process, we need to make sure that the process itself is well defined and optimised, and that the foundation we are going to build on is appropriate. Otherwise, we run the risk of digitalising inefficiencies.

Then there is the human side, which for me is equally important. Sometimes the people driving the implementation of a solution are not the people who will actually use it in their day-to-day work, and that can make adoption much more difficult.

Involving users from the very beginning, understanding their needs and designing the solution with them not only makes it easier for the technology to be accepted, but also helps ensure that the solution is genuinely useful to them and delivers real value.

AI, IoT, cloud continuum, edge… Gradiant combines a wide range of capabilities. Where do you think our greatest value lies for an industrial company embarking on a technological transformation process?

I believe our greatest value lies precisely in our ability to combine very different technological capabilities and address problems holistically. A company does not normally need “AI” or “edge” in isolation; it needs to solve a specific problem. Doing so often requires integrating several technologies and adapting them to the company’s particular circumstances.

At Gradiant, we can support that process from data capture and management through to processing, analysis and exploitation, combining IoT, cloud-edge, AI and cybersecurity depending on what makes sense in each case.

This cross-cutting approach, together with our ability to develop bespoke solutions without being tied to a specific product, enables us to propose the technology that genuinely fits each company’s needs and level of maturity.

Looking ahead to the next few years, where would you like to take the Industry area, and what role would you like Gradiant to play within the industrial innovation ecosystem?

I would like Gradiant to consolidate its position as a leading technology partner for the industrial sector, particularly in Galicia and Spain, while also building an increasingly strong presence at European level.

Not only as a provider of knowledge or cutting-edge technology, but as a partner capable of supporting companies throughout their transformation processes and helping them turn innovation into tangible results.

More broadly, I would also like the Industry area to contribute to strengthening Galicia’s innovation ecosystem. We work to foster new collaborations between companies, technology centres, universities and other stakeholders. We want technology to translate into greater competitiveness, new opportunities and economic growth for our industry.