Employee Spotlight: Dan Witman Takes Risks Without Fear of Failure

My Internship Experience

I had a phenomenal intern experience here. I learned so much about commercial software development beyond the coding skills I had learned in my classes. I was immediately integrated into a real development team where I started contributing to our products right off the bat.

How I’d Explain My Job to a Kindergartener

If my team were on a backpacking trip in the wilderness, I would be holding the compass and the map. I’d navigate us in the right direction, identify and avoid upcoming obstacles like streams or cliffs, and plot out where we would camp each night.

I work in a variety of coding languages like Java, JavaScript, Groovy, and Bash, as well as build and deployment tools such as Gradle, QuickBuild, and Docker.

In my scrum master role, I help communicate priorities from our product owner, remove obstacles from our workflows, and facilitate coordination with other teams such as: IT services, quality assurance, documentation, and build teams.

In my role as global co-lead of the Pride Alliance, I advance our mission to create a safe space and active network for the LGBTQ+ community at Ansys. I do this by working with our executive sponsor, Renee DeMay, to achieve our ERG’s goals, as well as help the Pride Alliance leadership team drive our ERG’s DEI&B efforts . Some major efforts of ours include allyship training, partnerships with external LGBTQ+ organizations, educational events, external speaker presentations, socials, and recruitment of underrepresented talent.

Our global presence is a really unique aspect of our culture. We have thought leaders around the world, offering diverse perspectives on unique problems.

ONE Ansys Culture

I think our ONE Ansys values are strong and demanding — especially “Be Courageous” and “Be You.” At Ansys, our culture reflects the people we employ. Our values set high expectations on us because we know we can rise to the occasion to meet them. My favorite Ansys value is “Be You.” If you are not bringing your full self to work, I would argue it is impossible to do your best work. Only when we are free to be our authentic selves can we focus our energy on powering innovation that drives human advancement.

Fulfilling Our Mission

We provide a state-of-the-art solution for hosting and serving high-resolution terrain, imagery, and other heterogeneous 3D data sets for visualization and analysis. Our services enable land, sea, air, and space simulations to accurately model a mission before the mission is executed. This could be anything from launching a satellite into a constellation to facilitating communications between ground vehicles and aircrafts. High resolution terrain data ensures these simulations account for real geospatial environments in their analysis.

Sense of Belonging

I attribute my sense of belonging to two things. First, my immediate teammates are a critical source of belonging to me. My colleagues truly feel like family. They have been friends, mentors, and champions of mine for seven years (since my internship). Without their constant support, I would not have felt like I found a family at Ansys. Secondly, I attribute a huge sense of belonging to the ERGs at Ansys, specifically the Pride Alliance. To have a workplace that not only recognizes you, but celebrates you for exactly who you are, is so critical to my happiness as an employee.

My Best Advice

Nothing will fall into your lap. You need to branch out. Meet new people, ask different questions, take risks without fear of failure. Be uncomfortable. Ansys has so many opportunities for you. It will give back what you put into it.

What You Might Not Know

I love to do art — painting, sketching, and digital art.

I studied abroad in New Zealand (yes, I am an aspiring hobbit).

I am an avid rock climber. Bouldering is my favorite!