Dinda Timperon: Cybersecurity, Proudly Ambitious, Community Building
This week's guest is Dinda Timperon, Head of Cybersecurity Engineering at one of Australia's largest wealth management organisations, and founder of Perth Women's Circle, a community of over 10,000 women focused on growth and development.
Dinda's career spans the Royal Australian Air Force, aerospace engineering, flight test, a stint writing stage plays, and now leading national teams in financial services cybersecurity. She built Perth Women's Circle from a sunrise beach gathering of five women in 2023 to a movement with over a thousand women at live events, all alongside a demanding full-time role and raising two boys.
In this episode:
- How Dinda went from joining the Royal Australian Air Force at 17, with no clear career plan, to becoming an aerospace engineer and leading aircraft maintenance and flight test programs.
- What it was like to step into leadership at 21 as an aircraft maintenance officer, managing a team of experienced technicians twice her age, and how that shaped her approach to leadership.
- Why she left the Air Force after a solid career and spent a few years writing stage plays, and what that transition taught her about identity and following your instincts.
- How she made the move into cybersecurity and financial services, and what it takes to transfer skills across very different industries
- How Perth Women's Circle was born from a simple personal need for connection, and what it took to grow it from five women at a beach to a community of over 10,000.
- How Dinda thinks about juggling a national leadership role, community building, coaching, and parenting, and why she frames it less as balance and more as presence.
- What success means to Dinda now compared to her early career, and why she believes ambition should not be a word women feel they have to apologise for.
- How growing up between eight schools, and watching her Indonesian mother lead on building sites, gave Dinda an early and quiet confidence that she could do whatever she wanted.
Dinda's insight on success: “True success expands your life. If something feels restrictive, it's not actually true success. It needs to be something that adds to your life.”
All opinions are the guest's own.
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Career Stories is brought to you by The Career Library.
Career Stories is brought to you by The Career Library.
Creators and Guests
Host
Dr Luella Forbes
Dr Luella Forbes is a consultant specialising in Organisational Change and founder of The Career Library and it's podcast, Career Stories.
Guest
Dinda Timperon
Dinda Timperon is a senior technology and engineering leader, global keynote speaker, and leadership mentor redefining what it means to lead in complex, high-stakes environments.
