We are the engineers of possible: From traveling musician to software architect

If you take a peek at Donogh (pronounced Done-uck) O’Carroll’s resume, it’s clear he is immersed in all things software engineering and architecture. However, what you won’t find is that for almost two decades, he played guitar in a number of bands that traveled all around his home country of Ireland.

It’s this duality that energizes Donogh when it comes to his career and personal pursuits.

“It takes creativity to do both software engineering and guitar playing and I love doing both. I work supporting the BD Diagnostics business, and the BD Synapsys™ platform, specifically, which enables efficient integrated lab workflows and actionable insights and helps our customers be able to understand and manage data better.”

Purpose aligns with personal values

Donogh has been with BD for five years and joined the company after 10 years as a contractor in the software engineer space. He offered that through his work, he firmly believes he is supporting the company’s Purpose of advancing the world of health^TM. 

“I feel like I contribute to our Purpose and the greater good of our society because when you code in the MedTech space, your code must be bulletproof – your mindset is that what you code absolutely impacts patient care, which is a powerful motivator for performing the highest quality coding,” said Donogh.

This customer-centric mindset and appreciation for working on a variety of projects is part of why he moved from Ireland to Maryland in 2022 with his family. “I literally live across the street from where I work. My family and I love the area. My son is into wrestling, which you don’t really have in Ireland and my daughter plays basketball. They both participate in soccer so I’m usually pretty busy,” said Donogh.

A career sparked by a love of code

Donogh explains that his love of coding began in secondary school, when a friend’s dad served as a lecturer at a nearby university. He shared programming books and tips on coding, and he was hooked at age 12. By 16, Donogh said he and his friend were completely addicted to programming and were already writing commercial-grade code.

“I’ve had friends who have gone into coding for gaming companies and what have you, but I’ve always preferred enterprise software engineering,” concluded Donogh.