Meet Our Team: 5 Minutes with Sanjukta Saha

A Day in the Life of Sanjukta Saha at AIR Lab

Sanjukta Saha is part of the RCP Squad at AIR Lab — a joint initiative between Thales and CAAS. The lab focuses on innovative solutions in:

• Trajectory Based Operations (TBO)
• Green Aviation
• Open Secure Platform

All of these initiatives aim to improve efficiency, sustainability, and safety in Air Traffic Management.

Her day typically starts with squad stand-ups, where the team shares progress and discusses blockers. She frequently collaborates with technical leads and solutions architects on architectural decisions and emerging technologies.

A key part of her work involves workshops with ATCOs (air traffic controllers). She finds these especially valuable because they deepen the team’s understanding of real-world operational needs and the aviation domain.

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Skills for Aspiring Software Engineers

Sanjukta highlights several important skills and mindsets:

• Cloud proficiency: Comfort with cloud tools and platforms is essential as development increasingly becomes cloud-native.
• Product-focused engineering: Engineers should align technical decisions with end-user needs and real-world use cases.
• Continuous learning: She notes, “The best engineers I work with are constantly upgrading their skills.” Staying current with tools, frameworks, and practices is critical.

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Trends to Watch

Sanjukta points to generative AI as a major emerging trend:

• Useful for creating boilerplate code
• Helpful for learning new technologies and exploring unfamiliar stacks

She is particularly curious about how generative AI will influence and transform the aviation sector, from development workflows to operational decision support.