Asio’s passion for engineering  landed her job at global firm 


Sarah Asio is a data science lead at Johnson & Johnson, the iconic multinational pharmaceutical company that manufactures the baby powder that your mum used on you as a baby to protect you from nappy rash. It is the same company that makes most of the pain killers and medicines in your Cabinet today.

Asio’s main role is to lead the data science team, understanding and identifying business opportunities both within and beyond individual franchises, providing thought leadership by researching on best practices and collaborating with external organisations and partners, working with technology partners to integrate information and solutions in a seamless and consistent way and to deliver digital innovative solutions.

It is a big position that demands an above-average intellect, an above-average education, and the tenacity and industriousness of a lioness. The job comes with an enviable salary to say the least. According to an internet search, she earns well above $100,000 (Shs370 million) per year, minus bonuses. 

The 37-year-old Ugandan moved to the US in 2009 after failing to find a job as an industrial engineer. 

She had been one of five females in a class of 25 that pioneered industrial engineering studies across East Africa after Kyambogo University introduced the course in 2002. 

“Upon graduating [in 2006], I realised that most companies in Uganda did not understand the role of an Industrial Engineer and hence did not offer jobs suited for industrial engineers. This lack of an avenue to practice my profession pushed me to seek for opportunities to further my education. Since at the time no one offered graduate studies in industrial engineering, my only option was to travel abroad,” she says. 

Asio received an International Masters’ Fellowship Award by the American Association of University Women (AAUW) and left in July 2009. 

She studied Master’s in Industrial and Management Systems Engineering at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln. 

The scholarship required that she returns to Uganda after graduating so that she could bring change and development by utilising the skills she had acquired. 

However, soon after graduating, Texas Tech University awarded her a PhD fellowship. Her plan to come back home was henceforth postponed because she is not the type to pass up an opportunity, or a challenge. Asio would spend the period between 2011 and 2015 studying for her PhD in Industrial Engineering, focusing on engineering management, information systems and quantitative sciences. 

Finally, it was time for her to come home, where her parents, six siblings and her friends were earnestly waiting. She missed them too. However, when she tried to find a suitable market for her skill-set in Uganda, she realised soon enough that the search would not yield much. 

“I proceeded to pursue opportunities in the US in order to gain the much-needed practical skills and training from the best companies in the world,” she says. 
And so Asio, armed with her enviable mind and sophisticated qualifications, started looking for work in the US. 

She found her first job in 2015, the same year she graduated from her PhD course. It was a placement at Mississippi State University, as a visiting assistant professor in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering.

In 2016, less than a year later, Asio found a better job, away from academia. She was 32 at the time and she had lived in the world of academia since childhood (if lower education can be called that too) and a move away from it was a very welcome development. A breath of fresh air. 

She found a job at the Climate Corporation, Bayer AG, in Saint Louis, Missouri, as a senior applied statistician. Here, Asio’s mind had finally arrived home. It’s like she had gone through all that reading and hard work for such a time as this.

 She successfully executed six disruptive, new and high throughput digital agricultural product concepts that were so cutting edge that when she was done, two years later, her full body of work at Bayer was valued at more than $4 billion.

In 2019, only 10 years after she had arrived in the US, Asio got her current job as data science lead in the medical devices division at Johnson & Johnson.

Tracing the engineering passion
When she was nine, and a pupil at North Road Primary School, Mbale, Asio realised that her curiosity was particularly piqued by electrical and electronic devices. She felt a strong urge to learn how things worked and operated. 

“I had a desire to become an engineer so that I could one day build my own car,” she says. Asio was born in Bukedea District. 

When primary school ended and she joined Mt St Mary’s College Namagunga in 1996, she really leaned into the scientific fields with all her heart. Maths, Physics and all.

 She had been particularly inspired by her father when she was about nine years old. John Ogwang, her father, had left the country for the UK, to pursue his Master’s of Science at University of Manchester. This event would become a great source of inspiration for years to come. 

Her father was an employee of Ministry of Agriculture in Mbale. When her father left for Manchester to pursue graduate studies, her mother, Elizabeth Ogwang, a primary school teacher at the time, had to find side businesses to support and educate Asio and her siblings. Luckily, the absence was only one and a half years. 

A few years after his return from the UK, Ogwang was promoted and transferred to the ministry headquarters in Entebbe. Asio, her four sisters and two brothers migrated with their parents to the capital. 

Changing course 
When time for university came, in keeping with her childhood dream of building gadgets, Asio was determined to study electrical engineering. She later changed her mind when she discovered the endless possibilities that an industrial engineering degree presented. 

“I had a desire to industrialise Uganda, especially regions in the country that have little to no industrial capabilities. This inspired me to pursue education in industrial engineering,” she says. 

Her training in industrial engineering paved her way to a world of data science, which paved her way to Johnson & Johnson. 

Asio’s work in Uganda
While she is insanely busy, Asio goes out of her way to apply her skills in Uganda at any opportunity she gets. 

“I’ve been working with the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries together with researchers and developmental consultants at Eastland Services Uganda to embark on a journey to digitise agriculture across the country. I am so excited about the potential Uganda holds for innovations in this field,” she says.  


Potential innovation hubs
“I am so excited about the future. I see so much potential to advance meaningful change and development. Aside from advancing in my career to lead teams of scientists and technologists to continue innovating solutions for organisations and agencies; I will give back to Uganda. In collaboration with local talent in Uganda, I plan to set up innovation hubs to nurture new ideas and help develop inquisitive perspective in the youth of today.