A big congrats are in order as Ning Ning Yu, VP of R&D at Taboola, has been named the Best Tech Manager in North America by Tech in Motion (Timmy Awards)! Taboola was also awarded the 2024 community choice award for “Best Tech Workplace For Diversity.” As this year’s Best Tech Manager winner, Ning Ning was selected as someone who personifies leadership, innovation, and positive influence throughout her team and across Taboola. This award celebrates Ning Ning as a leader in technology and a visionary who goes beyond “the job description” to empower, inspire, and encourage growth in her team.
Promoting Career Growth
Several members of Ning Ning’s R&D team, including Tracy Tan, Jun Xu, and Allen Wu, generously shared their sentiments about Ning Ning’s leadership and how her approach made her a deserving Timmy’s award winner. They emphasized, “As a leader, she believes in her team’s abilities even before they do. She provides constant support and encouragement, and her faith in their abilities boosts confidence and pushes them to achieve more than they thought possible.”
By balancing impactful business solutions with sustainable technology development, Ning Ning helps her team understand their roles within Taboola’s broader mission. She emphasizes the importance of continuous learning and rapid adaptation, pushing her team to acquire new skills and challenging them with complex tasks as they advance. She identifies key employees for promotions, ensuring people are recognized for their talent and performance. She also promotes career growth by providing constructive feedback and enforcing that everyone’s contributions matter.
Cultivating a Collaborative Team Culture
“Ning Ning fosters an understanding of cultural differences and encourages collaboration across regions, a vital component of our cross-functional team across the US, Tel Aviv, and Taiwan, driving our culture where people feel motivated, empowered, and valued to do their best work.” By clearly outlining Taboola’s vision and goals, her team can understand how their work contributes to the bigger picture, fostering a sense of purpose and collective drive. Most importantly, Ning Ning ensures her team has a safe space where they can feel comfortable taking risks, sharing ideas freely, and admitting mistakes without fear of repercussions (a notable common experience throughout Taboola.)
A large part of her leadership approach and cultivating collaboration is actively promoting diversity of thought, background, experience, and people throughout her team. Embracing different perspectives and ideas is a crucial element in fostering innovation, another reason Ning Ning implements Scrum processes, which encourages collaboration and breaks down silos. With this in mind, people can present their work, learn from each other, and spark new ideas.
Inspiring Innovation and High Performance
“Ning Ning is a visionary with a great sense of product development. She inspires innovation and problem-solving by clearly articulating her vision for long-term strategic solutions on major initiatives. She always focuses on user needs, challenges the status quo, and embraces risk-taking.”
At the core of Ning Ning’s leadership is a strong commitment to innovation. Her vision has driven significant projects, including the Taboola Newsroom product and cutting-edge GenAI products. She often talks with publishers, advertisers, and agencies to understand what users need, and she has a hands-on approach with her team to align efforts with overarching business goals. And, of course, Ning Ning has supported several internal hackathons over the past year to boost creativity, which helps the team pivot ideas into actual products.
Congrats again, Ning Ning!
With over two dozen “best tech manager” finalists, Ning Ning was selected as this year’s Tech in Motion winner by a panel of industry-leading judges from various tech sectors and companies like AWS, Etsy, Oracle, and Meta. Ning Ning’s award as the Best Tech Manager in North America is a testament to her leadership, a reflection of her talented team, and a great reminder of the significant influence impactful leaders can have on their teams and organizations. Congrats, Ning Ning, on your exciting recognition, and cheers to continued innovation and success at Taboola!
About Ning Ning Yu
Ning Ning leads Taboola’s product and R&D efforts in Los Angeles, California. Ning Ning held executive positions at numerous California technology companies and contributed to the sale of four of those firms to Taboola, Salesforce.com, MEI, and Ask.com (IAC).
Prior to the merger with Taboola, Ning Ning ran Product/R&D/Operations at Perfect Market, Inc., an Idealab company. Ning Ning previously delivered the next-generation platform to manage physical resources at the market leader, Accruent. Before Accruent, Ning Ning was VP of Engineering at Sendia, a leader in the wireless enterprise application until the successful sale of Sendia to Salesforce.com.
Ning Ning also held senior management positions at Vertel (VRTL) and Retix (RETX) and developed one of the first Wireless Data Switches in the US. Ning Ning holds an MSc. in Computer Science from UCLA and now serves on the UCLA Computer Science AAB board.
To learn more about why we are consistently ranked as a great place to work, check out the Taboola Life blog. Visit our careers page and discover your moment. #TaboolaLife