Working in the tech sector, we often hear stories about non-linear career pathways and Victoria (Tori) Sloan is a prime example. As a young girl Tori confesses she spent more time watching property renovation shows than cartoons. Tori was glued to renovation shows like Property Ladder. Her passion grew from hours spent designing homes on The Sims game, all while dreaming of a career as an architect. Fast forward to today, and she's building something entirely different as Software Engineering Manager at DailyPay, yet her passion for transformation remains the same.
"I loved taking something neglected and unloved and turning it into something beautiful," Tori recalls. "Now I'm doing the same thing, just in a different medium. We're transforming people's financial lives."
Tori's path into software engineering was anything but linear. Despite her architectural dreams, she pivoted to pursuing midwifery, even completing work experience in the maternity ward at Ulster Hospital. Her plan was set until an A-level timetable slot changed everything.
READ MORE: The Algorithm That Pays You: Inside DailyPay's AI Strategy for On Demand Pay
With one column left to fill and limited options, she chose computing, despite never having studied it at GCSE level. She had to plead her case to the school to be allowed to take the course. It was a gamble that paid off, thanks in large part to an inspirational teacher, Mr. McCready, who saw potential she hadn't yet recognized in herself.
"He showed me that tech wasn't just about boys in dark rooms working on spreadsheets, it was a creative outlet. It had that same Sims energy I loved as a kid, where you could design and build things, but it was creative and logic-based at once."
After a placement year at a big four consultancy, upon graduating Tori spent the next eight years working her way from junior to senior developer. Her transition into engineering management wasn't a calculated career move, it was an evolution born from curiosity and restlessness. During lockdown she began experimenting with different disciplines, teaching kids to code outside of work hours and teaching herself product design.
"I was trying on different hats to see what fitted," she says. "I didn't realize at the time that I was interested in how products were built for the user, not just the code behind it."
This exploration led to an 18-month stint in a product design role. That experience proved to be the perfect bridge when given the opportunity to found and lead a design system team, a role that required speaking both the language of engineers and designers.
"Building that design system was the perfect intersection of everything I'd learned," she reflects. "I had to grow the team, create business cases, and lead people through change. By the end of my time there, I was leading full product development teams, both back end and front end."
The transition to leadership came with surprises. "I always thought management looked fun with lots of one-on-one conversations, not doing as much of the actual work," she admits with a laugh. "What I didn't realize was the invisible labour of leadership. Getting everyone swimming in the same direction, especially when there's ambiguity, providing clarity, the constant communication and recalibration as well as the mental load. As an engineer, you can sometimes leave a bug at your desk. As a leader, you sometimes take your work home with you and think about it in the evening."
Today, Tori leads the Financial Empowerment team at DailyPay, a New York headquartered fintech company, addressing a massive systemic issue: the paycheck-to-paycheck cycle that traps millions of workers. While DailyPay's core product allows users to access their earned wages early, Tori's team focuses on what comes next by building tools that help users take fuller control of their financial futures.
In 2025 the team launched a Marketplace of Perks, where users can save on essential everyday costs like car and health insurance, making hard-earned dollars stretch further. Just before Christmas, they released Bill Manager, a feature that helps users track upcoming expenses and, crucially, identify and cancel recurring subscriptions that drain their accounts.
"By helping users reclaim that cash, we're enabling them to put those funds towards savings or other essential needs is incredibly rewarding"
Tori's approach to building high-performing teams is built on autonomy and trust, principles shaped by her own experiences. "I don't like being micromanaged myself, and I've never believed that a leader should be the smartest person in the room or the one making every technical decision. In fact, I think it's the opposite."
She leans heavily on her team to drive technical excellence. Her job, as she sees it, is to explain the why and what they're building. While team members, the true experts in code and architecture, determine the how. "My role isn't to dictate their moves. It's to provide the framework and safety net so they can do their best work."
Tori describes herself as a facilitator and dot connector, constantly scanning across the business to align company goals with her team's personal growth. Her role is to provide the right environment for the team to flourish by deeply understanding and communicating the why. She does this by scanning for potential issues six months to a year down the line, and asking the right questions to get them thinking differently.
"I see myself as a shield," she explains. "Engineering at a high level requires deep, uninterrupted work. I need to protect their time from shifting priorities, noise, or anything else that might come their way."
Tori's typical week looks vastly different from her days as an engineer, when a good day meant eight uninterrupted hours writing code. "My code now is my team's environment. My IDE is my calendar," she quips.
Her weeks start heavy on alignment involving meetings with product, design, and stakeholders to ensure everyone's priorities are synchronized. Mornings are dedicated to one-on-one conversations with every team member each week, checking in on how they're feeling and connecting individual goals with business opportunities. She spends time reading product and design documentation to stay ahead of what's coming, and reserves deep work blocks toward the end of the week for reflection on processes and documentation.
What energizes her most has also evolved. "A few years ago, it would have been a successful release, seeing something daunting go out the door with good metrics," she reflects. "Now it's more about watching the team achieve something they didn't think was possible, or seeing someone who's hit a plateau in their career overcome that and progress."
DailyPay's mission to break the paycheck-to-paycheck cycle resonates deeply with Tori, and the company's growth trajectory offers significant opportunities for engineers and technologists looking to make an impact.
For women considering a career in technology, Tori has clear advice: "Don't worry about it being a male-dominated industry. I think that's what holds a lot of people back, thinking that if there's only men in it, maybe womenaren't good at it. That's absolutely not the case."
"There are so many different roles in tech, as you can see from my journey. I've experimented with a few, and now I've found where I want to be."
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