Phadnis possesses a diverse background in various engineering disciplines, including Biomedical, Electronic, Instrumentation, and Mechanical engineering. This diverse skill set has enabled her to make a global impact in multiple areas. Notable achievements include developing an illumination compensation method using multiple regression models to enhance tuberculosis diagnosis in a collaborative project between hospitals in India and South Africa. She has also published innovative image processing algorithms for cancer diagnosis and contributed to sustainable development through the Knowledge-based Process Development and Engineering of Oil Palm Phenolics as part of her education in the Cambridge MIT-Malaysia Biotechnology Partnership Program.

Transitioning into the industry, Phadnis further enhanced her expertise in Process & Quality Engineering, working in the stringent American Medical Device Manufacturing sector in the Midwest of the USA. She leveraged her background in Image Processing to develop Automated Optical Inspection (AOI) Systems and simultaneously led the Manufacturing Readiness of Medical Device launches. Subsequently, she relocated to Silicon Valley, where she played a key role in the development of consumer electronic devices. She collaborated extensively across different parts of Asia, working with Taiwan/China-owned conglomerates and Japan’s vertically-integrated MNCs, contributing to cutting-edge technology across various industries such as Electronics, Mechanical parts, Sensors, and Cameras.

Phadnis gained hands-on experience in developing new technologies and implemented fully-automated lights-out manufacturing of an electromechanical sensor. She successfully transformed global factories from dysfunctional and disjointed units into operationally excellent ones, streamlining the hardware device’s story-telling for over 600 parts across 300 global suppliers using advanced business systems and data automation. These efforts resulted in a series of 30 consecutive hardware device product launches, generating multi-billion dollar revenues, all within a decade of work experience.

In her free time, Abaya Phadnis leads several initiatives aimed at strengthening the voice of engineers and promoting equitable representation of all gender identities in senior leadership roles.