​​​Q: How do you and your team work with customers and space agencies?

We tend to work on the bespoke orders that customers want to meet a specific need, rather than the more general requests that come in. These one-off projects can be more complex to deliver and so need someone to manage them from start to finish. We also look after R&D projects for the company internally. This involves developing new products to offer to our customers, so they, too, need a dedicated project manager to run them.

Sometimes, the R&D projects are funded by the company and other times, we receive support from customers or external agencies, such as ESA to help us work on a development project. Together, we come to an agreement to work on a cost neutral basis. So, we make an initial investment and they fund the rest to support us in developing the kind of products they might want to buy in the future.

Q: What types of projects do you work on?

We work on a wide range of things, from really complex projects that might run for ten or 15 years, including feasibility studies and full-scale delivery, through to very simple projects that we can turn around in a few months where the customer needs something very simple or small to solve a problem.

An example of a longer project that I am working on with NASA is Lightning Mapper. As the name suggests, it is designed to chart lightening as it happens across the USA. NASA will feed the data it collects into various organisations that work on climate change or storm damage insurance claims, for example. That project will probably launch sometime around 2032.

Q: Have you always worked in space?

I did a PhD in cell biology and then worked as a scientist in the same field at the University of East Anglia for three years. After that, I moved to a company that made medical devices, again working as a scientist for a number of years. During my time there, my job evolved into a project manager role. I became more and more involved in the planning and budgeting side of things, as well as taking responsibility for managing a bigger team.

When I moved on from there, I came to Teledyne, where I dropped the technical side of things entirely to focus purely on project management. So, my background is more biology than physics, but there are many aspects of my background and various experiences that help me in my current role.

Q: How is your role impacted by the continued growth of Teledyne Space Imaging?

We are seeing new business come from different sources. Some comes from repeat customers who give us new projects to manage for them on the basis of our heritage and position as the best place for customers to come for more complex space imaging sensors. However, we are now also delivering into commercial space projects. Here, the customer tends to want more of an ‘off-the-shelf’ approach and faster turnaround times. 

My role in all of this is to make sure everything's co-ordinated, and that we can remain agile for our customers, whatever their requests may be. That’s really important. They need to have someone to steer their project to make sure they get exactly what they want. That is how you get repeat business and grow a reputation for excellence and reliability in the industry.

Q: Do you have to work to different parameters or requirements for different types of customers?

Yes, absolutely. The space agencies have a lot of requirements, and their specifications are a lot more detailed. They are interested in the heritage of our devices and continuing that on. This means that the accompanying documentation can be very detailed. Whereas if you look at our more commercial customers, many do not have quite so strict requirements. We don’t need to produce as much documentation for their projects – they just want to get their hands on the product and make sure it works and meets their needs.

Q: What would you say is the most interesting part of the project management process?

Personally, I enjoy having full oversight of a project. I like seeing the bigger picture and having a chance to get involved in every stage of it from start to finish. It is very different from when I worked as a scientist. Back then, I only worked on smaller, very specific parts of a project. Now, I love seeing everyone come together from across the site, bringing their skills to complete the project and deliver it successfully. 

I've got this huge network across the whole business and in other countries too, with a great team of people working to reach the same end goal. It’s my job to pull this amazing set of skills together to deliver a solution and bring in revenue for the company. That is a huge privilege for me.

Q: Who else is involved in projects from across the wider company and in other countries?

Teledyne Space Imaging is a global team that spreads out much further than our manufacturing facility in Essex. We have a lot of silicon designers in Seville, Spain, for example, with whom I engage at the start of a project involving silicon. We also have a team of project lead engineers in Grenoble, France who act as the technical authorities on our projects. Then, we have teams in Canada who make various products for us. It's across the board, really.

Q: How do you find working in the space sector as a woman?

I think there are more women working in the sector nowadays, which is good. It is a very friendly environment for women, as is engineering in general. I have never encountered any discrimination myself, although I do think there are some barriers remaining. For example, whenever I recruit for new team members, I usually only have a few women apply. There could be more flexibility in workplaces in general to encourage more women to consider a career in space, in my view. That said, we do have several women in senior roles here at Teledyne Space Imaging, which is great.

Q: You mentioned recruitment – are you actively looking for new people to join your team?

I am always looking for new talent to join our team! We have lots of exciting projects happening that need people with strong project management skills and enthusiasm for working in the space sector. We are a friendly bunch and welcome applications from anyone with relevant skills and experience.

Q: What is the most exciting thing about working in a space company?

It is nice to have a product that you can really talk about and get people interested in. When projects that we have worked on make it into mainstream media and the news then it's great. I have worked in places where we have not been able to talk much about what we do, which is not as motivational as being able to make a splash about it. We can feel proud about what we do and enjoy seeing the publicity around the end results.

Q: How do you think project management in the space industry differs from project management in other sectors?

It’s all about our customers and the projects they are working on themselves. We have to have a good understanding of space in order to deliver the really bespoke, technically advanced products that they need. Our technical knowledge becomes highly specialist as a result. No two days are the same, in terms of what we learn and the type of skills we need to employ and information we must digest. That’s what makes it all so interesting!​