Greater Dublin
Michelle McDaid is the founder of The Leading Place, a purpose-driven startup helping organisations reimagine leadership and build cultures where both people and performance thrive With 25+ years of experience in technology leadership, most recently as Senior Director of Engineering at Workhuman, Michelle brings deep expertise in leading globally distributed teams, scaling organisations, and navigating complex change She combines real-world leadership experience with evidence-based insights from her MSc (Hons) in Work & Organisational Behaviour from DCU, where her research focused on how tech leaders build and maintain trust in remote and hybrid environments. This work informs her distinctive perspective on the future of work, sustainable leadership, and designing flexibility that works for both people and organisations. Michelle is a qualified and accredited coach (Advanced Diploma in Executive Coaching, Kingstown College; EMCC EIA Practitioner accreditation) and is an Associate Member of CIPD. Through The Leading Place, Michelle supports organisations with leadership development, communication, strategy, and culture change. Her approach is grounded in trust, psychological safety, positive psychology, and authentic connection. She is particularly passionate about inclusive and sustainable leadership, with a long-standing focus on gender equity and women in tech Through her senior roles, Michelle has championed ERGs and led initiatives that delivered tangible, measurable impact. She volunteers as a mentor with Growth Guild EU/UK (supporting women and gender-diverse people in tech leadership) and has mentored on the STEM Passport for Inclusion programme (NUI Maynooth) and the TU Dublin Saer Mentorship Programme. She completed 30% Club Ireland/Deloitte Board Ready programme (2023) and serves as a board member of North Dublin Citizens Information Service Michelle was recognised as a finalist in the 2026 Newstalk Changemaker Awards (Inclusive Workplace & Workplace Wellbeing categories), Everywoman in Tech Awards 2022 (Leaders category) and Women in Tech 2019 Awards (Trailblazer category); listed in Diversein's 133 Women Who Change the World (2023); included in CTO Craft 100; and featured in Focus on Diversity's Irish female-founded companies who empower females in Ireland and abroad (IWD 2025 and 2026) Her thought leadership has been featured by CTO Craft, Electronic Specifier, Irish Examiner, Business Post, and Silicon Republic. She is a frequent speaker at conferences, podcasts, and panels Podcasts/articles: https://www.theleadingplace.com/insights
Inspiring progressive leadership practices, illuminating the path to success. It starts with trust. Founder of The Leading Place, a purpose-driven startup helping organisations reimagine leadership and build cultures where both people and performance thrive. With over two decades of experience in tech leadership - most recently as Senior Director of Engineering at Workhuman, I bring broad expertise in leading globally distributed teams, scaling organisations, and navigating complex change. I combine real-world leadership experience with evidence-based insights from my MSc in Work & Organisational Behaviour at DCU, where my research focused on how tech leaders build and maintain trust in remote and hybrid environments. This gives me a distinctive perspective on the future of work, sustainable leadership, and workplace flexibility for all. Creating joyful workplaces, where all employees can work to their strengths to positively impact the success of their customers and business. Supporting organisations to implement successful strategies, with practical actionable steps to create a workplace of high trust and psychological safety, where all talent can do their best work. Coaching individuals to unlock their inner knowing and achieve great outcomes.
Assisting the CTO Craft community with events, content, themes and direction, and acting as a leader within the community providing moderation and support
Co-Founder - led workshop design and delivery; sales and marketing; delivered speaking engagements.
Workhuman Cloud is a secure SaaS platform with more than six million users in 30+ languages, in 180 countries, generating 100 million instances of human connection. Workhuman solutions fuel company culture through recognition, engagement, performance, work-life harmony, inclusion, and belonging. Leading cross-functional Software Engineering teams in delivery of innovative, high-quality products and solutions for Workhuman customers. The group I led comprised of 130 people, across four key areas of Workhuman Product Development, with 4 Engineering Directors reporting in directly. This role involved stakeholder engagement and collaboration with leaders across Product, Design, and other teams to ensure alignment on product vision and roadmap. Key areas of focus included Talent Acquisition, Development & Retention - Recruitment, Onboarding, creating an inclusive Engineering culture with psychological safety and high trust. The teams I led delivered innovative solutions across Recognition & Celebrations, Workhuman's core product offering and across the Workhuman Cloud product suite.
Workhuman Cloud is a secure SaaS platform with more than six million users in 30+ languages, in 180 countries, generating 100 million instances of human connection. Workhuman solutions fuel company culture through recognition, engagement, performance, work-life harmony, inclusion, and belonging. Leading cross-functional Software Engineering teams responsible for delivering innovative, high-quality products and solutions for Workhuman customers. The group l Ied comprised of 65 people, based in multiple locations, across four key areas of Workhuman Product Development, with Engineering Managers and Principal Engineers reporting in directly. My role involved partnering with leaders across Product, Design, and other teams to ensure alignment on product vision and roadmap. The teams I led delivered innovative solutions across the Workhuman Cloud suite. I led many cross cutting initiatives across Technology & Product and had a positive impact across the company.