After a 30 year career in the Royal Australian Air Force, I am now leading a team, primarily made up of QinetiQ personnel, that is procuring the latest weapons for Defence. With the current climate that we are living in, this body of work is contributing to the defence of our nation and shows the body of experience and the work QinetiQ does to support Defence.

I joined QinetiQ in August 2021 and went straight into a project manager role in Explosive Materiel Branch. Almost a year later I was promoted to Team Lead which I am also doing on top of my PM role with the client.

I have been exposed to a number of consultant organisations, and I was attracted to QinetiQ as consultancy is only one part of the company. With the creation of the Australian Sector there are opportunities to grow and expand my career and experiences.

I have a team that is geographically spread across Australia. This has created a need for heightened communications between myself and my different managers and team to maintain effective team dynamics. There are morning briefings, weekly meetings, and ongoing schedule and risk assessments which aid in this.

I have taken advantage of QinetiQ’s professional development financial support. I have done a number of courses and have upskilled myself with capability management.

Following a 24-year career in the Australian Army, I now work in the Explosives Materials Branch as the SEA1300 facilities manager and also have a second role as a deputy project manager within Air and Missile Defence.

With SEA1300, I provide advice and subject matter expertise to stakeholders and project managers on facilities and infrastructure projects aligned to support particular streams. These include earth covered buildings to house new guide weapons systems for Navy and torpedo maintenance facilities for future acquisitions. I also liaise within the Fundamental Input to Capability (FIC) team to provide advice on training, infrastructure, firing ranges and risk identification to support SEA1300 outcomes.

As deputy project manager ESSM Block 2 Guided Weapon System for Air and Missile Defence, I’m developing and managing multiple virtual meetings with Australian stakeholders and the Consortium of nations to ensure information and accuracy surrounding the munition is up to date and accurate to ensure optimal outcomes are achieved. I also work with Integrated Logistic Support, senior engineers and project managers for the acquisition and sustainment of this future munition and integration into the Australian Navies Guided Weapons Network.

During my service in the Australian Army as a Physical Training Instructor I developed my niche of Facilities Management through the management of strategic and highly complex facilities and finished up as a Warrant Officer Class 2.

I have deployed to and worked within many varied and complex work environments both in Australia and abroad with my career revolving around teaching and instruction. This has always been my passion and the development of people has provided a great and satisfying career.

I began at QinetiQ in February 2022 and was working under Tony Mitchell assisting with Business Development. I found it extremely rewarding and provided a very good introduction to the background of business within QinetiQ.

I was then employed within my first project role May 2022 as a project support officer for Autonomous Warrior 2022, a Navy exhibition where industry would showcase the latest in autonomous technology.

QinetiQ’s culture can be best described from me as a large company who shows a responsibility for their employees without being treated like just a number.

QinetiQ’s values promote inclusivity of race and background of all walks of life and has an understanding through the recruiting process that ex-Defence members have a wealth of knowledge that can be utilised and benefit industry. QinetiQ provides a varied work environment and when applied to project support roles, they have numerous employment opportunities that will provide you with exciting working environments.

QinetiQ has provided me with training support through the payment of a Diploma of Project Management that I completed in 2022.

Every business requires a workforce and recruiting and situating personnel within the correct role is vitally important for retention and future growth. I believe that the work I am doing for QinetiQ, even though I am one of many, allows Defence / CASG to see the professional team that is provided by the company and allows a future contractual arrangement to be met.

I am currently working within the field of Electro-Explosive Hazards, which is concerned with the safety of Explosive Ordnance (EO). My role as a graduate engineer within EMB is to ensure EO is not inadvertently initiated due to electromagnetic energy. This requires a detailed analysis of the electromagnetic environment, in combination with the details of the EO in question.

Prior to joining QinetiQ, I only had one graduate role, working as an electrical engineer in the building services sector, meaning I had no experience in the Defence industry or with explosives. The training provided by QinetiQ quickly taught me the skills required to perform in my role.

My career journey at QinetiQ has been a huge learning experience. Beginning in October 2021, I have had the opportunity to travel to numerous Defence bases across Australia, meeting tonnes of interesting people to discuss interesting topics. I have remained within Electro-explosive Hazards for the duration of the graduate program, and even had the opportunity to present a paper at an international EO symposium in Canberra.

I chose to work at QinetiQ due to the numerous opportunities available through the company, and the work for Defence is both interesting and challenging. In addition, QinetiQ allowed me to work in the field I was most interested in (radio frequency), and applying this theory to ensure the safety of Defence personnel created meaningful work.

QinetiQ’s culture is quite unique in that the company is actively looking for feedback from the employees to see what can be done better, and what people are happy with. It is very employee focused, and safety is the number one priority across the board.

As a Graduate Electrical Engineer, I have the ability to either work from home or head into the office. A typical day in the life consists of logging on, checking any outstanding emails, and getting stuck into which ever electro-explosive hazards Assessment I am working on at the time. I am lucky to have a supportive team to collaborate with on complex tasks to meet the demands of the role.

QinetiQ is big on promoting each employee to further their knowledge and capability through professional development. Each employee receives an allowance to enrol themselves in different learning opportunities, and a professional development goal is set to promote growth within the company.

The work I do for QinetiQ and Defence is integral for the safety and reliability of the explosives. The field of Electro-explosive Hazards is centred on safety of EO, so when considering the potential catastrophic consequences, the work I do is quite important.

I am currently a project manager in SEA1300 with underwater weapons. My project is looking to deliver the Mk54 Mod 2 Advanced Lightweight Torpedo, as well as finalising legacy weapons delivery for the MH-60R Maritime Helicopter. Prior to joining QinetiQ in February 2021, I was in the Australian Defence Force having joined as part of the Overseas Lateral Transfer program, transferring from the British Army.

Since joining QinetiQ I have been part the Joint Programs team working with the Major Service Provider (MSP) in the Explosive Materials Branch (EMB) of the Capability Acquisition Sustainment Group (CASG). I was immediately welcomed by my small QinetiQ team and integrated into the company with the help of my assigned buddy and team lead.

After ten months, an opportunity to become a team lead came up and II was successful in achieving promotion and to lead a team of my own. Leadership is something I’m passionate about, and having the ability to assist with the growing footprint of the company and help develop my peers so we can achieve the best outcomes personally and professionally.

Leaving a military career after a combination of 30 years of service was daunting, but something that made it far less so was my confidence in QinetiQ gained from a previous experience when in the British Army. I had the lead on a project to deliver a rapid engineering change, one which needed to be operational within nine months. The QinetiQ engineers were employed to plan and deliver the solution. They were excellent, extremely professional and ensured the change was delivered on time. This left a lasting impression, and when the time came for a change in career I applied for a few roles, one of which was with QinetiQ. I was lucky and received a few offers of employment, but accepting a role with QinetiQ was an easy one, mainly due to my previous experience and impression of the company.

I have now been with QinetiQ for over two years and one thing that stands out the most for me is the culture and how everybody works together to achieve the outcomes required. My team is made up of employees with varying degrees of experience, age and length of employment with QinetiQ, but are all afforded the ability to develop and provide meaningful input and this all-inclusive approach has helped the team bond. Each day can provide new challenges, but having a team around you that is willing to assist, offer advice and help provide ways to continually improve really does make a difference.

To help me integrate into my role in project management delivering Defence capability, I have made use of my Professional Development allowance. This has allowed me to stay current, develop my understanding of the specialist areas that help me when managing some of the more technical challenges and to help me up-skill for future roles. This is important, as the Defence environment does not slow down and there is a continual need to modernise the many complex systems operated across the five domains (Maritime, Land, Air, Space and Cyber).

The work that QinetiQ does across the Defence capability system is very important in ensuring that anything introduced into service is safe and suitable for service. This can range from ensuring artillery ammunition functions as required throughout its life, armoured vehicles can safely operate in all environments or that an aircraft maintenance and repair has been sufficiently planned and resourced. QinetiQ employees can find themselves in roles that are highly depended upon and have a direct role in ensuring the safety of the nation and those who serve. This is why I am proud to work for QinetiQ and will always seek improvements in the employee experience.