Meet Samantha Ziegel, Solutions Architect, Salesforce
With Perficient’s Growth for Everyone initiative, we’re enabling colleague career development while celebrating the individual and collective success of our people. As a strong leader in the Salesforce Business Unit (BU) Samantha Ziegel is paving the way for exponential growth in Perficient’s Salesforce Data Cloud and Einstein AI offerings in her role as a solutions architect. 
She embraces the study and adoption of AI tools within the Salesforce ecosystem, while also serving as a platform lead for Perficient’s Salesforce data cloud and Einstein AI solution sets. Samantha is an active member of Perficient’s Women in Technology Employee Resource Group (ERG) and Generative AI Lab, an advocate for working moms, and a collaborative team player who drives positive change throughout Perficient and beyond.
Most recently, she was honored as a CEO Selection award winner for the 2024 Excellence Awards – Perficient’s most prestigious awards recognizing distinguished colleagues who make a difference and embrace our core values.
Continue reading to learn more about Samantha’s unique career path, her thought leadership in the Salesforce BU and Generative AI space, and how she is paving the way for future women leaders in technology.
Samantha’s Career Journey: A Passion for Healthcare and Technology
As a solutions architect, Samantha plays a pivotal role in bridging the gap between business needs and technical solutions. She wears many hats with her experience spanning industries and technologies. While her career journey is anything but traditional, Samantha’s unique blend of professional expertise provides the versatility and insight to effectively propel her career forward.
Samantha began her journey in healthcare when she worked in patient care across hospitals, rehabilitation clinics, and long-term care facilities. “I have not had a straight-line career path by any means,” said Samantha. “I was exploring going into nursing, but I switched because I wanted to focus more on the business side of healthcare once I discovered that was a really exciting and challenging space to be in.”
Driven by a strong desire to make a broad impact, Samantha pursued an undergraduate degree in public health. This enabled her to understand the intersection of healthcare, business processes, communication, and policy, gaining valuable insights into the challenges and opportunities faced by communities and healthcare organizations.
Transitioning From Healthcare Operations to IT Consulting
After working in healthcare operations, sales, and marketing for several years, in 2012, Samantha made the leap to technology. With the prevalence of technology, the ever-changing landscape intrigued her. She saw it as an opportunity to consistently challenge herself by learning new concepts.
Recognizing the growing importance of technology, she attended Emory University in 2019 and graduated with a master’s degree in informatics. Her continued educational growth better equipped her with the technical and business process skills necessary to be the epitome “translator” between business and technology.
With a decade of experience in healthcare IT, Samantha’s deep understanding of the clinical and business aspects of healthcare, combined with her technical expertise, makes her an asset in the IT consulting industry.
Building Future Leaders Through Women in Technology
Samantha’s drive to build relationships and discover more about technology led her to join Women in Technology (WiT), a large organization in Atlanta, Georgia with great support programs for networking with like-minded professionals.
She challenged herself to understand three key questions:
- What does it take to be successful?
- What does success look like?
- What are the different options for career pathing?
“I started volunteering with Women in Technology to help build programs for grade school, high school, and college students, specifically for young women considering getting into STEM,” said Samantha. “I helped lead some efforts there, including hosting and planning events and sitting on panels. Through that process, I started developing a network of women in tech, and I saw women in leadership roles that were not always previously visible.”
In 2019, in relocating from Georgia to Illinois, Samantha joined Perficient as a Senior Business Consultant working remotely for Adobe out of the Ohio BU. She began volunteering with Perficient’s Women in Technology ERG and saw a unique space to contribute to a topic that she is passionate about, supporting working moms.
“There are different needs at every stage of parenthood, whether it’s physical or emotional support or career advice.” said Samantha. “You’re going to need to be present as a working parent in different ways, and it’s nice to have leaders who can empathize with the unknown and trust that you understand what’s expected of you at work. Sometimes that is not clear at every organization, but at Perficient, it’s very clear.”
READ MORE: Hear More from Samantha by Checking Out Her Recent Perficient Blogs
Exploring Life at Perficient and the Salesforce BU
Through her involvement in Perficient’s Women in Technology ERG, and desire to continue learning, Samantha made connections and started exploring additional opportunities at Perficient. After working on a Salesforce project, she saw an opportunity to grow and made the transition from the Ohio BU working with the Adobe platform to the Salesforce BU in January 2022.
“Over the course of a few months, I was able to transition to the Salesforce BU just before welcoming our second child,” said Samantha. “I chose to move to the Salesforce BU primarily because of the leaders and the team members. I’ve always been interested in learning the Salesforce technology. My varied background in working with different technical stacks, I was confident in transitioning to learn a new platform and talk with our developers about realistic solutions.”
She was promoted from Senior Business Consultant to Lead Business Consultant in 2023. Soon, she also raised her hand to spearhead the development of go-to-market materials for the sales and delivery teams supporting and selling Salesforce products, specifically Data Cloud and Einstein AI. As a Platform Lead for Perficient’s Data Cloud and Einstein AI team, Samantha collaborates closely with teams across the company to develop effective go-to-market sales materials and ensure that Perficient is consistently utilizing best practices for Salesforce’s innovative data and AI products.
In April 2024, she formally transitioned into her current role as a Solutions Architect (SA), where she guides clients through designing and implementing tailored technology solutions that align with their specific business needs. As an SA, she translates business requirements to technical speak, and then into terms that resonate with a broader audience. Whether it is an end user, a product owner on the client side, or an executive stakeholder, Samantha ensures that all business goals and organizational requirements are met.
“What keeps me at Perficient is the people and the leadership,” said Samantha. “Specifically in our Salesforce practice, we have many female leaders who are visible, which is outstanding. Many of our leaders are working parents, enabling me to feel fully supported as a working mom. I have the autonomy to get my work done while balancing work and life accordingly.”
Read More: Discover The Latest News from Our Salesforce Business Unit
Taking Charge: Innovation in AI and Cyber Security
With a keen interest in AI dating back to her master’s program at Emory University, Samantha has been at the forefront of AI innovation since the emergence of generative AI tools. “When ChatGPT opened up Generative AI to the masses in 2022, it really caught my attention,” said Samantha. “I am what you would call an insatiable learner. I always find myself diving into the next big technology by really understanding, “How do these cogwheels work, and how was this machine built? How are we going to implement it?”’
Her interest in AI has led her to join Perficient’s Generative AI Innovation Group, where she collaborated with other team members to understand more about AI and Perficient’s strategic position on this technology. Samantha plays a crucial role in spearheading and writing our corporate AI policy, developing new processes, and supporting the Generative AI Innovation Lab.
Additionally, she serves as an AI Steering Committee Representative, ensuring that all AI projects align with Perficient’s standards and ethical guidelines. “I feel like Perficient is positioning the company really well to play responsibly with an innovative approach in the AI space,” said Samantha. “We’re starting to put these guardrails, policies, and workflows into play, and I’m excited to be a part of it.”
Samantha’s Career Advice
Check out Samantha’s advice on growing your career, being a working mom, and taking the initiative.
It takes a village. Whether it’s AI, being a parent, or being a working parent, you shouldn’t have to do it alone. There’s no way you’re going to know everything, and you need to surround yourself with people who support and believe in you.
Raise your hand early and often. When you do this and an opportunity comes up, your name is already on the roster. Don’t wait for somebody to take your hand and move you to the next level or give you the next cool thing to work on. You need to say clearly and consistently what it is you want to do, and why, to the right people and not just one time.
Break down societal norms and change your mentality. Traditionally, women often have to prove themselves more than men. There’s still a bit of this mentality where women feel that they must prove themselves before asking for or expecting something. It’s partially in your own head. You’ve told yourself you have to prove yourself, or society has set these norms. But now is the time that these stereotypes and self-limiting beliefs are starting to break down, and we can start to change our mindset. This can apply both at home and at work. Feeling like your duties as a working mom are unbalanced with your partner’s? Let’s start breaking down those norms together, making way for a more balanced future for our children.
Setting An Example for Aspiring Technologists
Samantha’s career journey is a testament to her exceptional technical skills, unwavering passion for technology, and her commitment to driving innovation around the world. Her leadership and dedication to using new technology to solve real-world problems make her an incredible asset to Perficient, valuable and trusted team player for her colleagues, and role model for aspiring technologists globally.
Samantha’s expertise and passion for innovation continues to shine, and her contributions will enable Perficient to forge the future ahead as a reliable digital partner. Her dedication to using strategy to streamline our processes makes a difference and serves as an inspiration to leaders around the world.
Perficient continually looks for ways to champion and challenge our workforce, encourage personal and professional growth, and celebrate the unique culture created by the ambitious, brilliant, people-oriented team we have cultivated. These are their stories.
Learn more about what it’s like to work at Perficient on our Careers page. Connect with us on LinkedIn here.
