Jessica Lattif

Founder, Recovering Big-Tech Leader, Champion of the Underdog, Fierce Advocate of Taking Your Fucking Leave, and Mom of 2 kids growing up in Oakland, California

Not Working in Tech started after a particularly rough departure from my last tech job as a Senior Engineering Manager at a Very Large Software Company. Prior to taking leave, I found myself battling a series of illnesses from which I couldn’t seem to recover, for months. Work conditions were tumultuous even in the best of times; as a manager, I felt constantly squeezed between the endless onslaught of corporate demands and protecting the wellbeing of my team members with clear boundaries.

The last straw was returning to work — still sick — after planning, organizing and attending a last-minute department offsite across the country, only to be met with an unexpected “performance conversation” from a formerly-trusted peer who had recently become my manager. On the brink of a physical breakdown, I took my fucking leave. Little did I know, it was a quiet but powerful act of resistance.

Jessica Lattif is the founder of Not Working in Tech, a platform and community challenging toxic workplace culture and the myth that burnout is just part of success in the tech industry.

Her background and education is in nutrition, farming and food policy. After a stint running her own food business, she moved into tech and spent more than a decade in leadership roles at Meta, Salesforce, and Stripe. She built crisis response tools, led infrastructure teams, and launched products at scale…and was quite good at it, pushing the boundaries of what tech can do. But the longer she stayed, the more it cost her—her boundaries first, then her health, her peace, her time, and her sense of self.

So she did something most people don’t feel “allowed” to do: she walked away. No neat plan. No tidy exit. Just a growing clarity that staying meant slowly disappearing, ultimately being replaced by the shell of the human she was becoming. Walking away made room for what was next — Not Working in Tech.

Now, Jessica helps others get what she needed most: the chance to pause, reflect, and reclaim their way forward, personally and professionally. She works with individuals and organizations to pinpoint and resolve what’s not working, and to reimagine healthier, more human ways to show up at work in technology. Through speaking, writing, retreats, and consulting, she’s building a culture of care—one centered on rest, reflection, and resistance.

Her approach is deeply personal. As a half-Jewish, half-Lebanese-American woman with ADHD and a hypersensitive nervous system, she’s spent her life as a perpetual outsider. She’s always deeply observing, thinking, analyzing, questioning, and pattern-matching. She’s been on the margins of every community she’s in, even the ones that claim inclusivity. Now it’s time to share the wisdom she’s gained from her unique vantage points. The outsider's lens helps her empathize quickly and cut through the noise to what really matters: how people feel and what they need to thrive.

Jessica is a divorced mom raising two boys in Oakland, California, where she finds peace and connection in Redwood hikes, Bikram yoga, lifting weights, seasonal cooking and eating, playing music, and wandering her neighborhood admiring people’s gardens. She’s passionate about real self-care; not as an indulgence, but as a necessary part of achieving balance to lead others effectively.

Her mission is simple: your job should never cost you your health.

If you feel like it is, she’s here to help you find another way by identifying and overcoming what’s Not Working in Tech.

Who We Are

Jessica Lattif

Alexandra Frost

Sarah Alexander

Farida Mazlan

You belong here. ♡