‘We Have One Life’

The alarm goes off at 5 a.m., same as it does every morning in Houston, TX, and Uday Madireddy is already reaching to silence it before the second buzz.

The house is quiet, and the sky outside is still more night than morning. He pulls on his cycling gear, stretches, then closes his eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath—in, out.

Madireddy wheels his bike to the door, wraps his hands around the grips, and feels that familiar mix of stiffness and readiness settle in.

“You’ve got this,” he whispers to himself before pushing the first pedal forward.

It’s a scene that will repeat itself hundreds of times over the next few years, each ride a small deposit toward a much bigger goal: completing a 150-mile cycling race from Houston to Austin.

In many ways, it’s the same approach Madireddy brings to everything else in life—including his work at NDIT: steady, prepared, and focused on the road ahead.

He’s made up his mind. No matter what happens, it’s going to be a good day.

Making Technology Work for Everyone

Madireddy serves as Business Applications Director at NDIT. Ask him what a typical day looks like, and he’ll pause, chuckle, and tell you there really isn’t one. There’s always something big that needs attention, and that’s where he and his team do some of their best work.

Right now, like many other stakeholders across the state, they’re focusing hard on supporting the State of North Dakota’s digital accessibility initiative—coordinating efforts to make websites, applications, documents, and digital services more accessible for everyone, including people with disabilities.

It’s a major undertaking, to say the least. And they’re balancing it alongside other priorities, including supporting a major agency workforce transition, preparing for the next legislative biennium, and keeping daily operations moving.

Originally from India, it’s safe to say that Madireddy has learned the Midwestern term “uff da” by now. But he and his team appreciate a good challenge—and they know the work matters.

“Technology is never just about systems,” he says. “It’s about people.”

Keeping a Cool Head…& a Warm Heart

Spend a few minutes with Madireddy, and you quickly learn that very little fazes him.

Long before joining NDIT, he spent years working in SAP security at Hewlett Packard, helping ensure the right people had access to the right information and tools within business systems.

During that time, he inherited a team responsible for a security backlog that had gone untouched for years. Tickets had been sitting unresolved, customers couldn’t access systems they needed, and frustration was high.

“It was chaos,” Madireddy says. “There seemed to be no rhyme or reason to anything.”

But instead of focusing on the size of the problem, Madireddy focused on the solution.

He divided his team into three groups, each tackling a different portion of the backlog based on ticket age. After six months of steady work, they reduced more than 6,000 aging tickets down to around 1,500. And within a year, their service levels rivaled any other group in the organization.

“That was a big deal,” he says. “It pushed our comfort zone, but we just took it in stride and said, ‘It can’t get worse than this. The only way to go is up.’”

Moving Up in the World

Years later, feeling like he had reached a ceiling in the private sector, Madireddy started thinking about what might come next.

That’s when a friend offered some advice that stuck with him.

“He told me, ‘Why don’t you go to the public sector? That’s a whole different ballgame. You learn so much, and you’ll get to make a bigger impact,’” Madireddy recalls.

The timing was right. During the shift to remote work brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, Madireddy—who had lived in Houston for nearly two decades—wasn’t looking to relocate.

That’s when he found NDIT.

The agency not only offered flexible work-from-home arrangements, but was beginning its ServiceNow journey (Madireddy’s jam), using the platform to streamline digital services, automate workflows, and modernize how state agencies manage IT services and business processes. Madireddy already had four years of experience with the low-code, no-code platform.

The job “checked every box.” He joined NDIT in November 2020 and hasn’t looked back.

What has kept Madireddy here is exactly what he had hoped for: the opportunity to see technology improve lives.

“When you work for the public sector, your efforts are directly impacting people,” Madireddy says. “You get to see the good you’re contributing to the world in real time.”

That perspective also changed how he views government technology.

“In many ways, the public sector is on par with the private sector in terms of our technological advancements,” he says. “We might move a little slower sometimes because of compliance requirements, but we’re on the same pace in many ways. That’s something to be proud of.”

The challenge, he says, is investing wisely and making resources stretch. It’s a philosophy that applies whether you’re modernizing government technology—or preparing for a 150-mile bike ride.

Family is Madireddy’s greatest motivation, with his wife and two daughters being his biggest supporters. They cheer him on through every challenge, from leading major technology initiatives to training for a 150-mile cycling race.

Breaking Challenges Down, Mile by Mile

Madireddy has learned that the biggest challenges are rarely solved all at once. Instead, progress comes from taking a complicated problem, finding the right next step, and building momentum over time.

That approach guides how he leads his team today.

Whether they’re managing competing priorities, supporting customers, or navigating complex initiatives, Madireddy encourages his team to plan ahead, create space for the unexpected, and avoid waiting until the last possible moment.

“I’ve been telling them, don’t think the deadline is your deadline,” he says. “Think three months ahead, because something unexpected will inevitably come up—and you’ll want that buffer.”

It’s the same mindset he brings to cycling.

Right now, he can comfortably ride about 10 miles at a time. Getting from that level to 150 miles requires consistent training, learning from experienced riders, and figuring out the right equipment.

The distance may be intimidating, but the approach remains the same—one mile at a time.

Finding Joy With the Job

If you ask Madireddy what he enjoys most about his role, the answer has nothing to do with dashboards or ticket queues. It goes back to a lesson an old manager taught him: trust your people, give them room to work, and create an environment where they can succeed.

“I have the best team. And when they succeed, that’s what gives me the most joy,” Madireddy says. “I’m just a cog in the wheel. The actual motor? It’s them.”

“I’m here to remove roadblocks, escalate, and fight for them every day,” he continues. “As long as the deliverables and timelines are met, I’m not going to interfere more than I have to.”

That leadership style is built on trust. Madireddy gives his team autonomy and flexibility while setting clear expectations.

It’s an approach that has earned his team’s trust—and reflects what he believes makes NDIT special.

A Beautiful Road Ahead

For Madireddy, NDIT’s culture comes down to one thing: people genuinely care about one another.

“I’ve been in work settings where nobody cares—the kind of culture where you join the call, report what’s going on, and drop off, with nobody asking how you or your family are doing,” he says.

That’s the opposite of what he’s found at NDIT. From colleagues across the agency to the Executive Leadership team, Madireddy says the support people show one another is genuine.

“Our executives are key to setting that example,” he says. “They really care and actually invest the time to talk with you.”

For him, that makes all the difference.

“At the end of the day, we’re all in this together, and that’s kind of great,” Madireddy says.

And none of it—the demanding projects, the early mornings, the mile-by-mile training—would work without his family.

He and his wife are raising two daughters: one preparing to start high school and another heading into third grade this fall. Between school, scouts, and everything in between, life moves quickly.

Working remotely has been huge.

“Being remote definitely helps,” Madireddy says. “I’m here, present—all the time. It’s a healthy mix.”

His family also supports his cycling goal. As training ramps up, his daughters have become his biggest cheerleaders. His youngest girl has even grabbed the massage gun to help work out his sore legs after long rides.

It’s a full and fulfilling life, built one intentional decision at a time—the same way he approaches a stalled ticket queue, a complex project, or 150 miles of open highway.

“We have one life,” Madireddy says with a smile. “I intend to enjoy every mile of it.”