 Beginning our Sector Spotlight on Engineering, we hear from Elsa Ramírez Santiago of Leask Marine, where she works as Lead Project Engineer. Leask Marine carry out a variety of marine work around the Northern Isles, such as marine construction, inspection, diving, and installation and maintenance of tidal and wave energy devices. --Can you describe a typical day in your role as Lead Project Engineer? There are a lot of things that can happen in one day! But usually, my day starts with a quick team call to discuss the tasks of the day and sort our priority list. Then, we split, and each tackles their list of tasks throughout the day. As a project engineer, I cover many areas. One day, I can be very busy designing tools and equipment using 3D software. The next, I can be helping the operations team with site layout, deck plans, and lift plans, or maybe going to the workshop to ensure steel fabrication is going according to plan and drawings. Also, as a project engineer, sometimes I need to cover project management areas, so there will be times when I’m required to meet with clients to help with project planning. One big part of being a project engineer is creating methodologies for different types of operations. Depending on the project, this can be really simple or complex documentation. --How did you end up in this role? From an early age, I knew I wanted to study something related to science. In school, I always liked maths, physics, chemistry, and science in general. I also always wanted to understand how things worked, so every time something broke at home, I was the first one to volunteer to try to fix it. I did not always manage to fix it, but when I did, I felt extremely happy and proud. When the time came around to choose my next steps after high school, I decided that engineering would be a good challenge for me. By then, I had also developed a big love for arts and crafts, so after talking with a couple of teachers and career advisors, I realised that mechanical engineering was the perfect mix of arts and science. I studied mechanical engineering and chose to do a concentration in aerospace design because I wanted to design and build planes and rockets but halfway through engineering school I became more aware of the planet's current state and considered a different path, I started to get quite interested in sustainability and everything to do with helping the environment and the use renewable energies; then one day I stumble upon “blue energy” which I have never heard about, so I did some research and got hooked, so that became my next goal, get involved in the renewable industry and for some reason, I have always felt a connection to the sea, so I looked for available masters and just after finishing engineering school I came to Orkney to study my masters on Marine Renewable. After I finished my master's, I decided that I wanted to stay in Orkney for a bit longer to gain some experience, so I did what every other graduate student does: I sent my CV and cover letter to all the companies that might need an engineer to work within marine renewables. I finally got an interview with Leask Marine, and as they say, the rest is history! I have been with Leask for over seven years, and I’m still learning new things in different sectors of the marine world. --What is the best thing about your job? The challenges! I never get bored; there is always something new to build or solve. I also love being able to see a project's entire life cycle. It is incredible to see something I sketched in my notebook become a full-size tool/equipment/structure. What makes it even better is that I work with a great team! --What is the worst thing about your job? I don’t have enough time to do everything I want, and I'm not a big fan of meetings. Some meetings can be interesting, but a lot of meetings are not really interesting, at least not from the engineering perspective, but it’s part of the role. --What skills do you need to undertake your role? You need to be a fast learner and be good at multitasking, as you might be working on more than one project at a time, and the work scope can be very different from one project to another. You also need to have excellent communication skills and be good at working as a team. --What qualifications do you have?
--Would you recommend this job to young people, if so why? If you always love to understand how things work, then engineering is definitely the right path. Visit Leask Marine on:
Website: https://www.leaskmarine.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/leaskmarine X: https://x.com/leaskmarine LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/leask-marine-ltd Comments are closed.
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