Top 10 Women in Tech Groups and Resources in Puerto Rico in 2026

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Boricuactivated
• Enterprise Women Forum
• SHRM-PR x Ironhack Puerto Rico AI Scholarship
• Girls Who Code Puerto Rico - NextGen Tech Scholars
• Puerto Rico Science, Technology & Research Trust
• WomenTech Network Puerto Rico
• Latinas in Tech - Puerto Rico Chapter
• TechWomen (U.S. Department of State)
• Puerto Rico IT Cluster - Women Pioneers Campaign
• Parallel18 - Pre18 Incubation Program
• Frequently Asked Questions

Boricuactivated

This nonprofit documents the stories of Puerto Rican women who have built coalitions across tech, manufacturing, and community organizing - and it makes those narratives accessible as career roadmaps. Rather than a directory of names, Boricuactivated offers an archive of practical career trajectories, especially valuable for women in early-stage tech who need to see local role models who stayed and thrived on the island.

Getting involved requires no membership fee. Follow their Instagram page, where they spotlight a woman in STEM monthly, and attend the free virtual storytelling salons held each quarter. These sessions let you share your own journey or learn from others in a format that feels more like a tertulia than a conference. The organization's archive of success stories provides concrete roadmaps - from navigating a first job at a San Juan fintech to scaling a startup through Parallel18's pipeline.

This work matters precisely because of the numbers. Nearly 40% of Puerto Rican tech graduates relocate to the mainland U.S. within five years. Boricuactivated roots women in local success narratives, making the choice to stay feel viable. As Marisol Vega-Dávila, a software engineer at a San Juan fintech and Boricuactivated contributor, puts it: "Seeing someone who looks like you, who stayed and built here, changes what you think is possible." The organization is part of a broader shift where 67.1% of patents filed by Puerto Rican teams include at least one woman inventor - a figure that stands above global averages, as Boricuas Distinguidos 2.0 reported. For early-career women wondering if a tech career in Puerto Rico is sustainable, Boricuactivated provides the answer in story form. News is My Business has featured several of these profiles, amplifying the message that local success is not an exception - it is a pattern.

Enterprise Women Forum

This annual forum by the Puerto Rico Chamber of Commerce moves beyond networking into deal-making territory. It connects women-led businesses directly with capital access and corporate procurement teams from the island's largest employers. The 2026 edition will be held in October at the Sheraton Puerto Rico Hotel & Casino in San Juan, bringing together over 400 attendees as it did in 2025.

Registration opens in August 2026 at $150, which includes full-day workshops, keynote sessions, and a networking lunch. Chamber members receive a 25% discount. Spots typically fill within two weeks, so early application is essential. The format prioritizes direct interaction: past forums have produced joint venture agreements between small tech firms and manufacturing IT departments at pharmaceutical companies on the island.

What members gain is concentrated access. Attendees get face time with enterprise procurement from Banco Popular de Puerto Rico, Evertec, and giants like Johnson & Johnson and AbbVie. The 2025 event featured a panel on "AI in Supply Chain" led by women executives from Google Puerto Rico and Wovenware, signaling the forum's focus on emerging technology sectors. The Chamber represents over 1,500 businesses, making this the most efficient access channel for women-led startups needing enterprise clients - especially in pharma and manufacturing, sectors that anchor the island's economy. News is My Business covered the 2024 forum, highlighting how these sessions create concrete partnership opportunities that smaller firms rarely access on their own.

SHRM-PR x Ironhack Puerto Rico AI Scholarship

The partnership between the Society for Human Resource Management Puerto Rico chapter and Ironhack Puerto Rico offers 20 full scholarships per year for women in HR and tech to complete Ironhack's AI School bootcamp. The 2026 application cycle opened in February, targeting women who reside on the island and are either currently employed in HR or tech roles, or actively transitioning into those fields. The application window runs through April.

Selection prioritizes women from municipalities outside the San Juan-Caguas-Guaynabo metro area, directly addressing geographic fragmentation that has limited access to affordable AI training. For women in cities like Mayagüez, Ponce, and Arecibo, this scholarship provides a tuition-free path into one of the island's highest-growth tech sectors without requiring relocation to the metro area.

Scholarship recipients receive a 10-week intensive AI certification covering Python, machine learning fundamentals, and AI ethics - valued at $3,500. Ironhack's career services team then provides job placement support targeting roles at Evertec, Popular, Evertec's fintech clients, and local startups. According to SHRM-PR, 75% of 2025 scholarship recipients secured tech roles within 90 days of completing the program. This outcome matters deeply in an ecosystem where InvestPR reports that women often rely on personal funds rather than institutional financing for career advancement - a barrier this scholarship eliminates entirely. AI remains the highest-growth sector in Puerto Rico's tech economy, and this partnership ensures women across all municipalities can participate in that growth.

Girls Who Code Puerto Rico - NextGen Tech Scholars

NextGen Tech Scholars launched in 2025 as a localized 20-week coding program for girls aged 14 and older across Puerto Rico, managed by the nonprofit SOWCoders. The curriculum focuses on Python, web development, and AI fundamentals, delivered through two hours of virtual class per week plus one hour of one-on-one mentorship. Applications open each January for the March cohort; the enrollment fee is $50, with need-based waivers available for over 60% of applicants.

Participants build a portfolio project by the end of the program - a web app for a local nonprofit or an AI-powered chatbot for a small business, for example. Graduates receive a certificate and are matched with ongoing mentors from Evertec, Banco Popular, and companies from the Parallel18 portfolio. After graduation, the alumni network hosts monthly career workshops and internship referrals, keeping the connection alive beyond the cohort. As of 2026, over 300 girls across 18 municipalities have completed the program, including participants from Ponce, Arecibo, and Mayagüez.

The program directly addresses the pipeline problem. At the University of Puerto Rico-Mayagüez, women earn roughly 40% of engineering bachelor's degrees - far above the U.S. national average of 24%. Yet many still face barriers after graduation: a gap this program aims to close by building career readiness before they enter the workforce. In an island where retaining homegrown talent remains a challenge, NextGen Tech Scholars ensures young women see a viable, supported path from classroom to career in Puerto Rico's growing AI and tech ecosystem.

Puerto Rico Science, Technology & Research Trust

Beyond funding, members gain access to lab space, business development coaching, and direct connections to pharmaceutical and manufacturing partners. Women-led teams from Ponce and Mayagüez have used Trust grants to launch health-tech startups that now contract with local pharma giants. The Trust also runs an annual symposium where grantees pitch to investors, creating a pipeline from research to revenue. The Trust's grant data shows women-led teams are disproportionately successful in commercializing research - a pattern consistent with InvestPR's finding that 44% of Puerto Rico's companies have reached gender parity as of 2025.

For women pursuing tech careers in biotech, pharma IT, and AI, the Trust is the most consequential institution on the island. It combines capital, infrastructure, and corporate partnerships into a single platform specifically designed to help local innovators scale without leaving Puerto Rico. Whether you need seed funding for an AI prototype or commercialization support for a life sciences discovery, the Trust provides the scaffolding that transforms research into enterprises that compete globally from San Juan.

WomenTech Network Puerto Rico

Membership is free for women in tech at any career stage. Sign up through the WomenTech Network portal, select Puerto Rico as your local circle, and receive a Slack invite, monthly newsletters with job postings, and discounted access to the annual WomenTech Global Conference (virtual ticket: $50; in-person: $200). Beyond the digital infrastructure, members get mentorship matching, monthly AMA sessions with local tech leaders, and a job board featuring roles at Evertec, Evertec-backed startups, and remote positions from mainland companies that recruit through WomenTech's global pipeline. The organization also regularly nominates Puerto Rican women for leadership awards at global conferences, giving local talent visibility on an international stage through the WomenTech Global Awards.

In 2026, the Puerto Rico circle will host its first hackathon focused on AI solutions for healthcare logistics - a sector critical to the island's economy where pharmaceutical manufacturing plays an outsized role. This initiative reflects how the circle has evolved from a networking group into a platform that tackles concrete industry problems. As one member shared after a San Juan meetup, "what truly made it special was the authenticity in the room... The speakers didn't just talk about achievements; they shared their journeys, the lessons, the detours, and the growth." The launch announcement drew immediate engagement from across the island, signaling the demand for community that this circle continues to meet.

Latinas in Tech - Puerto Rico Chapter

The Puerto Rico chapter of Latinas in Tech launched in 2024 and has grown to over 200 members, covering the island's full tech landscape from fintech and AI to manufacturing IT and education. Membership is free for Latina professionals in tech, including students, with approval within 48 hours. The chapter meets twice monthly via Zoom and hosts quarterly in-person events at co-working spaces in San Juan's Santurce district - like Piloto 151 - and in Ponce at the Centro de Innovación y Tecnología.

"Latinas in Tech gave me a community when I was the only woman on my engineering team." - Camila Rivera Ramos, backend engineer at a fintech startup in Guaynabo, 2026

Members gain access to the global mentorship platform, where they connect with Latina VPs and CTOs at Google, Microsoft, and Amazon. Locally, the chapter runs resume workshops tailored to Puerto Rico's bilingual job market - where Spanish/English fluency is required for most tech roles - along with negotiation clinics and monthly career talks with women executives from Popular and Evertec. This focus on bilingual readiness is critical: many tech jobs in San Juan require fluent English for client-facing positions, creating a barrier for locally educated talent. The chapter provides English-language interviewing practice while also connecting members with companies that offer Spanish-first work environments, expanding the range of opportunities available.

The chapter addresses one of the island's most persistent gaps by preparing women to navigate both linguistic expectations without sacrificing their cultural identity. As 2PuntosPlatform reported, the organization's expansion into Puerto Rico signals a recognition that local talent needs infrastructure that bridges global standards and local realities. For Latina professionals building careers from San Juan to Ponce, this chapter provides the community and the career scaffolding to stay and grow on the island.

TechWomen (U.S. Department of State)

Sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, TechWomen selects 100 women annually from countries around the world - including Puerto Rico - for a five-week professional mentorship program in Silicon Valley and San Francisco. Puerto Rican women working in tech with at least two years of professional experience are eligible. The application opens each January on the TechWomen website; competition is intense, with over 1,200 applicants for 100 spots in 2025. Successful applicants receive full funding covering airfare, accommodation, and a stipend - removing financial barriers to participation.

Participants are matched with mentors at companies including Google, Apple, Salesforce, and Meta. Beyond technical skills, they learn to navigate U.S. corporate culture, build a venture pitch, and access networks that lead to funding or job offers. The experience functions as an immersive career accelerator: alumni return not just with new skills but with a global network they can activate from San Juan.

"The mentorship I received through TechWomen opened doors I didn't even know existed." - Dr. Patricia Méndez, biotech AI researcher in San Juan and 2025 TechWomen participant

After returning, participants join a global alumni network that spans over 50 countries. Many alumni launch startups that become part of Parallel18's pipeline, applying Silicon Valley frameworks to Puerto Rico's unique market context. The program also helps combat talent migration by giving local professionals a global network they can access without leaving the island. For women whose career ambitions include scaling beyond Puerto Rico while remaining rooted here, TechWomen provides an unparalleled bridge to the mainland tech ecosystem. The program overview details how this exchange creates lasting professional bonds that continue to generate opportunities long after the five weeks end.

Puerto Rico IT Cluster - Women Pioneers Campaign

Launched in 2024, this digital campaign and ongoing initiative by the Puerto Rico IT Cluster highlights female pioneers who have shaped the local tech industry through interviews, video spotlights, and networking events. The Puerto Rico Information Technology Cluster's Facebook page profiles a new pioneer weekly, building an archive of visible role models for women at every career stage. Women working in IT across any sector - fintech, manufacturing, healthcare, education tech - can nominate themselves or colleagues for a spotlight feature.

Beyond visibility, the Cluster provides direct access to hiring pipelines. In 2025, 12 women featured in the campaign received job offers from Evertec and manufacturing IT departments at companies like Baxter and Medtronic. The Cluster also runs a mentorship program pairing early-career women with executives from its member companies. The monthly networking mixer rotates between San Juan's District Live! and the University of Puerto Rico campus in Mayagüez, ensuring professionals outside the metro area can participate.

The IT Cluster represents over 80 member companies, including nearly all major tech employers on the island. For women seeking to break into or advance in IT roles - especially in the pharmaceutical and manufacturing sectors that pay some of the island's highest tech salaries, often exceeding $75,000 annually for senior positions - the Cluster is the most direct channel to decision-makers. This initiative matters because it transforms visibility into tangible career outcomes, proving that representation campaigns can drive real hiring results when embedded within an employer network of this scale.

Parallel18 - Pre18 Incubation Program

The pre-accelerator under Parallel18, itself a flagship program of the Puerto Rico Science, Technology & Research Trust, offers equity-free grants up to $40,000 and follow-on investment opportunities. Pre18 is specifically designed to prepare local startups for global acceleration and has become the single most powerful resource for women ready to build a venture that competes internationally while staying rooted on the island. The 2026 cohort accepts up to 30 startups, with selection prioritizing teams that include at least one woman co-founder. Applications open annually in January-February; no equity is taken.

"Pre18 gave us the structure and network to turn our AI prototype into a company with paying customers." - Elena Torres-Díaz, co-founder of a San Juan-based health-tech startup, 2025 Pre18 graduate

Graduates gain more than capital. The 12-week program provides intensive mentoring, pitch training, and direct connections to Parallel18's network of angel investors and venture capital firms. Beyond the cohort, startups access the Trust's corporate partners including pharmaceutical manufacturers and financial institutions that become early customers or strategic partners. A 2025 cohort analysis showed that 40% of Pre18 startups were women-led, reflecting the program's intentional focus on addressing the #1 barrier women face: access to capital. The Sociable reported that Parallel18's model removes the personal-funding trap by providing institutional financing from the start. This approach aligns with InvestPR's data showing that while 44% of Puerto Rico's companies now report gender parity, women entrepreneurs still often rely on personal funds rather than institutional investment. Pre18 eliminates that gap entirely.

The program's key elements at a glance:

• Funding: Up to $40,000 equity-free grant plus follow-on investment opportunities
• Duration: 12 weeks of intensive mentoring, pitch training, and investor connections
• Eligibility: Women-led tech startups in Puerto Rico; preference for teams with at least one woman co-founder
• Outcome: 40% of 2025 cohort were women-led; graduates access corporate partners across pharma and finance

For women founders who want to build a venture that competes globally - and remain on the island to do it - Pre18 offers the clearest path from prototype to revenue.

Frequently Asked Questions