Sonal Prabhune has worked at Omnicell more than once.
She first joined in 2004, early in her career, as a junior software engineer focusing on development, then left to gain new experience and continue building her technical foundation. When she eventually came back in 2018 as a quality assurance engineer, it wasn’t just for the work itself, but also because of the environment.
“[Omnicell] has this nice collaborative environment where people are really genuinely interested in helping and enabling other coworkers to get their job done.”
After rejoining, Sonal quickly grew into more senior positions before eventually transitioning into development work.
“I love to creatively come up with new ideas of building or fixing things,” she says. “That’s just how I think.”
That instinct to build carried into the next phase of her career, but it was her early experience in QA that shaped how she approaches work today.
In QA, the focus wasn’t only on fixing problems, but on understanding how systems (and people) behave in the real world.
“…looking from the customer’s point of view… and seeing the shortcuts they take that you don’t expect when you’re building something... That completely changes how you think about testing.”
Today, Sonal carries this perspective into her new role as Omnicell’s R&D AI strategist.
“My day-to-day life is getting Omnicell ready for AI,” she says.
The role itself is evolving alongside the technology, but the focus behind her work has remained consistent.
“I want to make sure that we… [approach AI] very securely, very reliably, so that there’s no adverse effects that we haven’t foreseen.”
It’s a perspective on AI that’s grounded less in hype and more in responsibility: thinking carefully about how new technologies are implemented, validated, and trusted. It’s a mindset shaped by years of learning to look for edge cases, question assumptions, and plan for the unexpected.
Making Connections and Creating Opportunity
Sonal’s transition into AI strategy didn’t come from a formal career roadmap.
After participating in a Hackathon, she followed up with the people involved and shared where she wanted to contribute.
“I just reached out… and said that I have this AI background, I have this skill set. So, is there anything that you would like to use me for?”
That step didn’t come with guarantees, but it did open the door to new opportunities and eventually led her into the role she holds today.
It’s an approach that has shaped other parts of her career too: identifying where she can contribute, speaking up, and being willing to pursue work before there’s a clearly defined path.
Building Ideas Together
Some of the work Sonal is most proud of started simply.
As she shared ideas across teams, more people became involved.
“I could see people getting excited… and collaborating... working alone in a silo would not have had that kind of an outcome.”
What started as an individual idea became something stronger through collaboration - a process that continues to shape how she approaches innovation today.
Alongside her work at Omnicell, Sonal has also been pursuing her PhD in AI, continuing to deepen her expertise while balancing a full-time role. The two paths often inform one another in ways that aren’t always obvious from the outside but consistently influence how she approaches problem-solving and learning.
Outside of Work
For someone helping shape the future of AI at Omnicell, Sonal is refreshingly candid about the parts of life outside of work that help ground her.
When she’s not working or studying, she unwinds through drawing and oil painting. Both are creative outlets that require patience, iteration, and trust in the process, and that allow her to flex her creativity in less structured ways.
Original portrait done at a workshop – Oil on Gesso board
That same patience carries into another important role she holds: caregiving. Balancing family responsibilities alongside a demanding career and PhD work hasn’t always been easy, but Sonal says support from her leaders and teammates made a meaningful difference.
“There was a lot of understanding,” she says. “It wasn’t about clock-watching, it was about trust.”
That trust, she believes, allows people to bring more of themselves into their work and often do their best thinking because of it.
Advice for Someone Starting Out
Sonal’s advice is straightforward.
“Just stick your neck out there and reach out to your leaders… they’re so much more approachable than you might think... As long as you have a skill set and you’re willing to put in the work… they’ll show you the path.”
While her career has moved across roles, across disciplines, what has remained consistent is the way she approaches growth: continuing to build, continuing to learn, and continuing to reach toward the work she wants to do, even when the path forward isn’t fully defined.