Sunday 23rd June 2024 marked International Women in Engineering Day! In its eleventh year, the day celebrates the incredible work women engineers do every day, with this year’s theme being Enhanced by Engineering. We are showing our support by sharing stories from three of our female engineers who work across Scotland’s south-west trunk roads. 

Civil Engineer, Rebecca, was drawn to engineering after years in the Sea Cadets, where she expanded her interest by attending engineering courses at HMS Gannet in Prestwick. Maintaining a key interest in STEM subjects throughout school, she went on to pursue Civil Engineering at University of the West of Scotland, graduating with a BEng (Hons) in 2014. 

After graduating, Rebecca began working on the South-West Trunk Road Contract that year as a Graduate Engineer. Her experience has focused on bridge maintenance, including investigations into hidden defects to bridge refurbishments on our trunk road network.  

In her time at Amey, Rebecca has been involved in the design and replacement of a retaining wall on the A701 and is currently the Designer of the major M8 J21-23 Footbridge Refurbishments scheme, which will be undertaken over two phases and include removal of the suspended spans for refurbishment off site later this year. 

Principle Civil Engineer, Joanne really enjoyed Maths and Technical subjects at school, including technical drawing.  In 1989, she pursued her interest by attending a Women in Engineering event at Glasgow University and was hooked.  After working hard to get the required school grades, Joanne studied Engineering at Heriot Watt University.  

Since attaining her degree in 1995 she has worked on a wide range of projects across Scotland providing infrastructure used by thousands of people every day.   

Joanne has progressed from being a Graduate Engineer to providing support to other engineers, and today she leads extensive teams to deliver multi-million-pound projects.  

In 2023, Joanne was named one of the Top 50 Women in Engineering in the UK and this year has achieved the distinction of being admitted as a Fellow of both the Institution of Civil Engineers and the Chartered Institution of Highway Engineers. 

While still at school Rachel attended an engineering STEM event at the Forth Road Bridge, which enticed her to learn more about Civil Engineering. As a result, Rachel organised a week of work experience with Amey that encouraged her to become a Civil Engineer. 

During her work experience, Rachel spent time with different teams within Amey, all with varying specialties including water, roads, rail, environmental, structures, and geotechnical. Each specialism greatly differs but shares a common goal in helping to make the world a safer, easier, and more sustainable place to live, work, and travel in. The variety of different civil engineering roles interested Rachel as the career possibilities are endless and in 2014, she started studying a Masters in Civil Engineering. 

During her studies, Rachel continued to work with Amey, equipping her with invaluable hands-on industry experience and providing a better understanding of the university theories and their real-world application. After graduating in 2019, Rachel was offered a full-time position at Amey as a Graduate Engineer within the bridges team. Continuing to develop her skills and experience she has progressed her career to Senior Engineer. As part of this progression, she became an Incorporated Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 2022.  

Rachel commented: 

“Every day is different; there are always new things to learn about and problems to solve. Brainstorming ideas with colleagues and working together as a team to provide a solution is a rewarding experience, especially when you can physically see your ideas come to life and positively impact those that use them.” 

Amey is a leading provider of full life-cycle engineering, operation, and decarbonisation solutions for UK infrastructure. Our Early Careers programmes are a springboard for a rewarding and promising career. By joining one of our programmes, we will support you to be your best. We will invest in creating a personal career path for you through a tailored development programme and you will be part of a like-minded, supportive peer community. Explore our vacancies here: https://careers.amey.co.uk/content/Early-careers/?locale=en_GB  

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