She Has Range: Michelle Delves on Culture, Creativity, and Building a Life that Serves You

In this episode, we’re sitting down with Michelle Delves, an AI Operations Engineer at Air New Zealand, a classically trained musician, and someone deeply involved in women-in-tech and wellbeing initiatives. Taiwanese and British, raised in the Middle East, now living in Aotearoa, Michelle’s multicultural upbringing has shaped the way she thinks, builds, and shows up across tech, music, and community.We trace Michelle’s path into engineering and the realities of navigating high‑achievement environments — the pressure that hides behind excellence, the expectations that follow you into every room, and the grounding practices that keep you whole. She opens up about the discipline that connects music and engineering, and why she never felt compelled to shrink herself into a single narrative.Together, we explore what it means to lead early in your career, to advocate from a place of care rather than visibility, and to build community in technical spaces that don’t always make room for softness, culture, or creativity. This conversation is a reminder that growth doesn’t require certainty — only honesty, curiosity, and the willingness to keep becoming.What’s in your TAKEAWAY bag​You don’t need to collapse into one identity, follow your passions​High achievement and pressure often coexist — and that’s human​Creativity isn’t a distraction; it can be an outlet that grounds you​Leadership can begin long before a formal title​Cultural perspective shapes how you move through the world and your work​Community makes hard paths feel possible, have confidence in your advocacies! They are valuable​You’re allowed to be in progress and keep learning, while still inspire othersChapters00:00 – Meet Michelle Delves05:40 – What AI Ops actually looks like day to day10:18 – Growing up multi-cultured!15:32 – Pressure, performance, and engineering culture21:10 – Why music stayed non‑negotiable26:45 – Creativity as grounding, not escape31:08 – Advocacy, community, and noticing what’s missing35:50 – Being early‑career and still becoming39:20 – What Michelle hopes listeners carry forwardlove, mariefinah