Sonoko Fujiwara, Senior Manager, on The Joy of Seeing Her Work Come to Life

Sonoko Fujiwara, Senior Manager, on The Joy of Seeing Her Work Come to Life

My journey into the technology world was quite spontaneous, starting from an unexpected place: arts. I graduated from an Art University with a major in Scenography. My professional path began at a general electric manufacturer as a designer for exhibition booths and showrooms. Like GlobalLogic and Hitachi today, that company offered a variety of opportunities, so I decided not to set any limitations on my abilities and jumped into new challenges as much as I could.

The gateway to my technology career opened through a deep-seated passion for building, specifically, building experiences that bring science to life. When we won opportunities to produce science museums, it allowed me to perfectly merge my love for the arts with nature science. Constructing an exhibition from the ground up, from zoning and concepts to the educational content, was an incredible joy.

But the real turning point was building the digital layers. I designed and built all the interactive contents and terminals: digital kiosks, movies, games, websites, and databases. That was the moment I realized my love for creation extended far beyond physical spaces and into the limitless world of technology. After leaving that company, I ventured to the United States to study and broaden my scope. Upon returning to Japan, I joined a global creative agency and later a major cloud software company. There, my role as a project manager allowed me to leverage my creative and digital marketing skills for the Japan launch of a well-known global retail brand. After nine years there, I joined GlobalLogic two years ago, excited by the even bigger potential and opportunities as part of the Hitachi group.

Professional Impact & The GlobalLogic Journey

What made me choose GlobalLogic is the belief that this company creates unique solutions everyday. I feel that I live by that spirit strongly in my daily work. I joined as a Senior Product Manager in the summer of 2024, and what excites me most is the incredible variety and diversity of opportunities within this single role. My scope of work is never confined to just one track. I drive SaaS projects to deliver complex solutions, while also collaborating closely with Account Executives to dig into new business opportunities, particularly around digital marketing.

This dynamic environment allows me to constantly wear different hats. For instance, while my focus includes cloud services, I am simultaneously acting as a Business Analyst on a project to build a robust Data Platform featuring a variety of service applications. Regarding the project team structure, most of the members are in Ukraine. Since the clients are based in Japan, we, the Japan members, act as the bridge between the client and our global team. I am responsible for a couple of applications.

Thanks to technology, I never feel distant from my colleagues in other regions. We chat and have calls regularly; it is no different from working with someone sitting right next to me. A unique aspect of our workflow is our quarterly workshops, bringing everyone together for discussions, presentations, and demos to ensure our progress is visible and stable. This approach strengthens our client relationships and keeps the project incredibly dynamic. Ultimately, it is about leveraging our collective strength and diverse expertise across all GlobalLogic regions – to grow together and deliver comprehensive, innovative solutions for our clients.

Achievements & The Drive to Learn

The biggest satisfaction I ever felt was the first time solutions built by me were being put to “real world” use.  An aquarium I worked on was inaugurated and seeing so many families and kids come in with big smiles on their faces, seeing them enjoying themselves took away all my fatigue and made me even forget the days with no sleep. Honestly, it doesn’t really matter to me how big the project is. I made a number of science picture books for children in my other small projects, and I remember being equally happy and couldn’t stop smiling when I saw kids reading my picture book enthusiastically. I am always happy to see someone actually using what I create.

To stay current, I take online courses for specific products. If there are new features launched, I have AI summarize whole webpages for me and ask questions if there is any more information needed. While I don’t want to have any limitations on myself and want to keep being creative, I also would like to cultivate the next generation. There are so many talented members in this company and I’d like to help them bring their skills up more and even shine.

Advice for Future Colleagues

One of the charms of GlobalLogic is that it has the backbone of Hitachi, a large corporation, which greatly expands the fields in which you can challenge yourself and the opportunities you can take. For those of you who want to take on global challenges or create “One and Only Solutions” and  power them with your unique capability, GlobalLogic Japan is sure to be an exciting and rewarding place!