Keren

Principle Engineer - Business Improvement

International Women’s Day

Tell me about your career progression before and at AWE?

I left University with a BSc in Laser Physics and an MSc in Applied Optics. Ahead of joining AWE I worked for three separate optics companies looking at display films development, holographic data storage and optical metrology. I joined AWE, 6 years after leaving university, as a Team Lead for a small team within the Engineering function designing and developing laser firing units.  grew the team in size and developed our connections with teams across site.As a result of our combined achievements we were awarded the AWE Gold Award for team innovation. After that I took on a Group Lead role covering firing units and safety mechanisms across in-service and future systems, which included people, project and technical management.

As my people and communication skills emerged, I picked up a new role acting as a conduit between Engineering and Production to improve the working relationship and address delivery blockers, and then back into resource management as Capability Lead for Electrical and Electronic Engineering.  At this point I left on a combined maternity leave and career break to start a family.

I returned to Engineering on a part-time basis and was supported in taking around 3 months to familiarise myself with the company and how it had changed, and therefore find a new role that would justify my time away from my family. The company’s organisational structure had changed a lot and I knew I wanted to move on to something new and not simply pick up where I had left off.

I now work directly for Director Program talking to staff across science, engineering and production listening to and relaying messages addressing where the staff experience difficulties in delivery or efficiency. I then translate this into recommendations of how we can address issues and facilitate the implementation. The role draws on my existing network across the company as well as on a confidence to interact with anyone at any level. The technical knowledge I developed in my previous 10 years at the company is essential and I continue to learn new aspects all the time.

Tell me about how you work flexibly and how the business supports you to do this?

The company has, and continues to be, hugely supportive in helping me to find working arrangements that help me to achieve the balance I need. I arranged a 12 hour week flexible between work and home (usually one day on site and one day at home). I commute quite a distance to work and without this flexibility my situation would not have allowed me to remain at AWE whilst I have young children to care for.

At first it was difficult to adjust – four years out of the business makes adjusting back in quite challenging and we certainly learnt some lessons along the way.

I was concerned about maintaining the level of role that I would be able to undertake, particularly on 12 hours per week – I’m a Principal Engineer and was in a senior management role when I left on maternity – but I was pleasantly surprised by the leadership of the company and how they viewed part time as having no limitation. I don’t have a set desk space as my role is so agile, so the company supplied me with a laptop and a mobile. Most people are very understanding in the complexities of arranging meetings around my onsite days. Some meetings can take place using Skype but in person is often more productive. Being advised to ‘not choose a role that will fit in with part-time working but find the role you want and then make it work’ was the inspiration for me.

Why do you enjoy your role and working at AWE?

The role I have now gives me a lot of satisfaction – I really enjoy talking to people at all levels across all areas of the business, helping build relationships to improve delivery performance and to build communication routes.  The connection with people and the opportunity to engage on technical concepts is very welcome when spending a lot of time at home with young children. I am able to build on my network of people built up over almost 15 years of working at AWE, and to utilise my technical knowledge. Being supported to work in such a way that I can spend the time with my family that I need to is so important to me now, but so is the ability to continue my career in its own right in an arena that I am proud to work in and to continue to build on my achievements to date. For me, one of the most motivational aspects is that I can continue to work effectively in a role that is recognised as beneficial to the development of such an important business.