Her passion for maths and science saw her aiming to study volcanoes. When that blew out, she chose a control systems apprenticeship instead. Her career in the nuclear industry gives her new problems to solve and challenges to meet every day. Meet Natalie Parker, winner of the Women’s Engineering Society (WES) Prize.

I am

Natalie Parker, I am a Technical Specialist within the Operational Technology Group at Sellafield Limited.

What inspired you to get into engineering?

I always enjoyed maths, science, and technology-based subjects at school. English was never my strongest subject. I went on to further education at sixth form and studied maths, chemistry and geography. At the time I actually wanted to go and study the field of geography and work with volcanoes, that was always my dream job. I loved geography, but when reality set in and the university fees jumped from £3,000 a year to £9,000 a year, I started to look at what other opportunities were available, such as apprenticeships. I have a great local provider in my area which offered a wide range of apprenticeships, and I came across Control Systems. I didn't really know much about it at the time, but the emphasis on the use of maths and problem-solving really stood out to me. I was successful with my application and from then my love of engineering grew.

How did you get to where you are now?

I spent seven years in one of our facilities called the Thermal Oxide Reprocessing Plant (THORP) at Sellafield, working on the ABB MOD300 Distributed Control System, which is the largest known in Europe, with over 30,000 inputs and outputs. I started as an apprentice and worked up to become a Senior Engineer.

Over the seven years, I've developed many skills in software engineering, hardware engineering, engineering processes, standards, compliance with nuclear licence conditions, and working on some vital system modifications to enable the end of reprocessing in the facility. I've also done a lot of maintenance work on various control systems to keep them operational. I then changed roles to become a Single Point of Contact, which supported the delivery of upgraded and new control systems at the Sellafield site. I remained in this role for around three years in which I worked closely with the supply chain and internal stakeholders on large-scale and smaller projects.

A year ago, I was promoted to the Distributed Control Systems Technical Specialist. This role is extremely varied from providing technical support to engineers and projects, undertaking assurance activities across the department, coaching and mentoring engineers, line management and training for control systems degree apprentices, to name a few.

What difference do you think this kind of an award can make to women engineers?

During my time at secondary school, the girls didn't go to the talks on apprenticeships as it wasn't the "typical" route that women took. I didn't know of any girls or women in my personal life who had gone into engineering, and it was never promoted to me during my time at school, so it wasn't something I ever considered.

When I started as an engineer, there were no women within my department that I was able to clearly look to for coaching or mentoring to develop in my career or who I would see as a role model. When you start amplifying that into organisations like Sellafield or the wider nation, it's so important to have role models that you can take inspiration from.

This is why I am so passionate about going into primary and secondary schools to promote a career in STEM and why I designed a fun interactive workshop that really gets younger students engaged whilst inadvertently showcasing women in engineering roles. 

I'm also a proud mum of two young children, I've got a 5-year-old daughter and a three-year old son. And for me, trying to showcase that I've still managed to develop in my career within engineering as well as being a mother and having that balance is something I'm really passionate about. I think many engineers found that when they become a mother, they have to choose being a mother over their career. But you can balance the two with the correct support.

This award is an excellent platform to showcase women who have broken down barriers and who are passionate about promoting STEM to the next generation.

What can the IET and wider society do to get more women into the sector?

I think the issue is at secondary school stage. When we're going into primary schools, you can see the young girls are really engaged, and they love the workshops. As you get into secondary schools, people like to follow the crowd, and they don't like to put their heads above the parapet and do something different. That's where the biggest battle is: trying to engage young women into considering engineering as a career. We are actually organising a showcase of nuclear technology - hosted by women in technology and engineering.

The event takes place on 7 November from our facility at Cleator Moor, and we've got a lot of the supply chain involved. We will be inviting all the sixth forms and secondary schools in the area as an opportunity to explore careers within technology and engineering at Sellafield.

It's events like this that can make small differences in promoting an engineering career to more young girls and women.

What do you think wider society can do to improve matters?

Society needs to be more accepting of the fact that this is not a male-dominated job. It's a job for everyone and anyone. The skills that women, or any diversity, can bring into engineering are amazing. It's just getting away from the unconscious bias of what is seen to be the norm.

Unfortunately, it's a huge task to change people's unconscious bias of what a typical engineer is and looks like. I feel that as employers, we're really trying to do our best, but there's only so much engagement we can do going into schools whilst doing a full-time job. There's got to be the elements of support within all secondary schools to begin that path on the engineering journey.

What are you working on at the moment, and why is it important?

At the moment, my department has set up an off-site location, the Operational Technology Engineering Centre (OTEC), at a place called Cleator Moor in Cumbria. Within the facility, I am the Lead for the Distributed Control Systems Bay. Sellafield is very siloed; engineers work for that facility, and that's it. The aim of this off-site location is to bring engineers together on problems where we can cross-train them against multiple platforms. With resourcing an issue and systems that were obsolete in the 80s and 90s, we're trying to pass on that knowledge to the newer generation.

I also have a large piece of work aimed at standardising control systems maintenance across the site to ensure we are compliant with nuclear licence conditions. As well as this, I am developing new training packages for the Distributed Control Systems which can be rolled out to degree apprentices and new starters.

I lead on work experience for control systems. I have ten students during the October half term who will learn about the work we do within control systems at Sellafield whilst collaborating with the newly formed educational outreach team. I also continue to lead the Women in Technology group, where we continue to roll out our primary school workshops, organise the technology in the nuclear event and look at personal development for individuals.

What's next in your career?

For my career to develop at Sellafield, it's going up through the management levels. Maybe it'll be moving from Control Systems Manager to Head of Control Systems, but you never know. My ambition would be to either develop within control systems or potentially look at another engineering department within Sellafield where I can use the knowledge I've gained over the last 12 years and share that in other areas to make a change.

I'd love to go into a strategic role. At the moment, I'm in a predominantly technical role, but I'd love to look at strategic work within engineering: how are we developing and helping the current workforce, and how will we get the future workforce? I've now developed into a role where I am no longer a frontline engineer.

What kind of breakthroughs would you like to see in your field?

Within control systems at Sellafield, in particular, we are maintaining very old systems. I'd love to see how we can encompass the newer, more innovative developments that are happening every day - things like cybersecurity and keeping our systems safe, which are massive things for us at Sellafield. That would be a huge breakthrough. Currently, we've got a 16% representation of women within our department, and some of the female apprentices we've had are some of the best engineers we've had. Across the engineering and maintenance area within Sellafield and within engineering as a whole, I would love to see that percentage increase. Within the engineering and maintenance lead team, there isn't a single female, and I'd love to see some diversity at that higher level.

What do you hope to achieve in your career?

It's the people legacy that I'd want to leave behind when I retire. One of the pieces I worked on in THORP was a major project, and technically was my proudest achievement. The engineering solution I helped to come up with allowed the shearing operations to continue and meet the targets to enable reprocessing to finish.

However, for myself, nothing will ever beat the sense of knowing you have helped and supported another individual within their career. An individual I had supported, who is autistic, said to me: "Natalie, the support you've given me since February isn't what I wanted, but it's what I needed." To be able to say that I've helped someone develop in their career or for a woman to say they were really inspired by my work would be an amazing achievement.

What is the best part of working in your area of engineering?

I absolutely love the diversity of my job. Every day when I go to work, it's something completely different, and I'm fortunate that I'm allowed to run work experience and lead the Women in Technology group. I love that I get to interact with different engineering departments every day, share learnings and collaborate together. No day is the same. I love that.

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The IET hosted the IET Young Woman Engineer of the Year Awards at Savoy Place on December 9, 2024 celebrating some of the best young talent in engineering.