Priya Rajendran has the exciting role of leading product and design teams to work together on ideas to bring interesting, engaging and useful content services into the vehicle. Rajendran and her team try to understand and anticipate the way people will interact with their cars now and in the near future.
Software engineer by education, consumer product by passion, Rajendran has over 20 years in technology roles spanning engineer, portfolio manager, product lead, and entrepreneur.
Before joining Ford Motor Company, Rajendran was with Target leading a subsidiary company called ‘Project Goldish’ and led the efforts of growing out a team of 28 people within a year. Prior to Target, she was with PayPal for more than 6 years as the product lead for PayPal Wallet and led the external OEM Partnerships team for 2 years.
In addition, when Rajendran is not spearheading endeavors on user experiences in the car, she runs a startup she founded called S’moresUp along with her partner, which help parents tackle everyday parenting challenges through simple tools, community, and mindful parenting techniques.
For Rajendran, it is not all work; she does make time for play as well. During her free time, she loves to spend time with her 13-year-old daughter and learning the ropes of being a mom to a teenager. In addition, like many Californians, she is a weekend warrior and is bound to be found running and hiking the trails around the San Francisco Bay Area.