Engineering offers a diverse range of pursuits
From space to the deep sea, a career in engineering could take your work almost anywhere. Despite differing specializations, all the female engineers we spoke to for Women in Engineering Day 2024 are united by a love of complex problems and the opportunity to use analytical, creative and technical skills to solve them.
“I’ve always loved math and learning how things work,” explains Heather Woods, an aerospace program manager at Leidos. “I got my degree in mechanical engineering because I wanted to take a ‘peek behind the curtain’ of modern marvels. I enjoy the opportunity to understand how the things around me work and to challenge if they could be made better.”
I got my degree in mechanical engineering because I wanted to take a ‘peek behind the curtain’ of modern marvels.
Heather Woods
Program Manager
An engineering career offers variety not only through its range of applications but also through the diversity of skills it involves.
The challenges an engineer might face during her career and the skills needed to overcome them go beyond the technical aspects of the job. When Woods first joined Leidos as a lead project engineer, she found herself joining a very newly formed team, still figuring out how best to work together to overcome unexpected roadblocks to deliver a Laser Air Monitoring System for NASA’s Artemis III mission.
Interpersonal skills are even more vital for those like Leidos U.K. senior systems engineer Aarti Asnaney, whose role involves her in every aspect of a delivery lifecycle – from the initial consultation with customers and partners to delivering the final product or service.
“The best experience is receiving positive feedback from customers for outstanding implementation of a system and seeing the benefits it continues to bring them,” she says. “It is very rewarding to see a successful and valuable system in operation and knowing that you have been part of the engineering effort behind it.”
It is very rewarding to see a successful and valuable system in operation and knowing that you have been part of the engineering effort behind it.
Aarti Asnaney
Leidos U.K. Senior Systems Engineer
That ability to see the tangible impact of her work has particular resonance for Leidos defense delivery manager Rebecca Kirk, who previously served as an engineering officer in the U.K. Royal Air Force. Kirk finds it “incredibly rewarding” to know that her work in spaceflight engineering allows her to continue contributing to national security.
From military training to on-the-job learning to undergraduate education, the women we spoke to each took a different path into their current roles. Thanks to this growth of alternative routes into engineering, Kirk strongly believes that it can be a fantastic career for anyone, regardless of gender.
