Noor Aftab

Noor Aftab is a data and cloud strategist, artificial intelligence advocate, and social entrepreneur with a career spanning finance, technology, and global women's empowerment. Aftab serves as the global program lead at Amazon Web Services, overseeing the Strategic Customer Program for Amazon S3. In this role, she manages large-scale cloud, data, and analytics workloads, leveraging technical expertise and strategic leadership to help organizations optimize data infrastructure and deploy AI-driven solutions. With a background in software engineering and data science, Aftab has more than a decade of experience building and scaling cloud-native solutions, AI and machine learning systems, and developer-focused programs.

Prior to her work in technology, Aftab established a career in finance, leading business growth across seven industries and managing funds totaling nearly $50 billion. She has advised the Ministry of Labor of the Government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on increasing women's workforce participation and the International Finance Corporation on investing in women-owned businesses at the micro, small, and medium enterprise level. During the Pakistan floods, Aftab founded the Shahina Aftab Foundation, a women-based NGO that provided disaster relief and educational support to affected communities.

Aftab is the founder of the International Women Economic Council, an organization focused on addressing economic disparity and increasing women's workforce participation through partnerships with political, academic, and corporate stakeholders. In collaboration with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization and the Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the council established the Women Business Growth Center.

At the intersection of AI and open-source advocacy, Aftab is recognized for her work promoting inclusion in technology. She is an IBM Champion, leads the IBM Women in AI user group, and serves as co-chair for the NumFOCUS Code of Conduct Working Group, supporting inclusivity in open-source AI and data science communities. As vice president of the Society of Women Engineers Pacific Northwest section, Aftab advances technical leadership and mentoring initiatives across engineering communities. Her research paper, "The Missing 78%," addresses gender disparity in data science and AI roles.

Aftab has spoken at more than 300 events in 14 countries, including PyData Global, Open Source Summit, and IEEE conferences. Her work in business leadership and women's empowerment has been recognized with honors such as the Australia Alumni Excellence Award and the Asia Pacific HRM Congress Award. Her contributions have been featured in media outlets including BBC, Martha Vineyard Times, and Hindustan Times. She has also delivered a TEDx talk on breaking barriers, establishing her as a leading voice at the intersection of technology, leadership, and social change.