VAR WAKEFIELD, MECHANICAL TEAM LEAD

Engineering is broad and needs unique perspectives, says Var Wakefield. She tells us why diversity is the key for the industry to continue to progress.

I always loved maths and physics in school but I knew that I didn’t want to be a mathematician or physicist, I wanted to do something more hands-on. My dad was an engineer and I enjoyed listening to what he was getting up to at work. He led me down the path of enjoying the technical side of things and encouraged my curiosity to find out how something worked. As a young child, I probably had a preconception that an engineer was supposed to be a man. But then my uncle married an HVAC Engineer and being able to picture her in that role broke the stereotype for me. I always thought she was very cool and I wanted to do what she did.

It is a really exciting time to be a woman in engineering. Traditionally, it has been and still is a male-dominated industry, but we are starting to see a change. There are a lot of more women in the industry now, so it doesn’t feel lonely. Female engineers are also being recognised for their achievements and are seen as assets to an engineering team. Having more women in engineering has brought different perspectives and ways of working, resulting in a positive change to the industry.

I am the Mechanical Team Lead based in Aberdeen. There are 16 engineers that report into me, spread across our own offices and client offices in Aberdeen and Great Yarmouth. Our team look after the operations and maintenance side of the business and are split into two functions: client facing roles – where an engineer is assigned to an offshore asset and looks after day-to-day support requirements for the asset, and a centralised team that provide technical support across several contracts, both in the UK and overseas. This may range from planning major equipment services or repairs to carrying out equipment failure investigations or improving maintenance strategies.

My work is broad and I take on two very different roles. On the one hand it is very managerial – I look after the welfare of the team, performance management, training and development, and make sure we have the right people in the right places. The other half of my time is spent supporting on the technical side. For example, sometimes we are informed that a piece of equipment on an offshore asset has broken down and our team then lead the investigation into what caused the damage, assess what needs to be done to fix it and liaise with the equipment manufacturer and people who service the equipment so that the issue can be resolved to prevent reoccurrence in the future.

When I left my previous role before Petrofac, I wasn’t sure if I would ever come back to engineering. I started my career at Shell through their graduate programme as a Rotating Equipment Engineer. I was there for five years and then took an extended break from the industry for four years after my maternity leave to look after and spend time with our children. As they got older, I wanted to get back to engineering and I joined Petrofac in 2021. At Petrofac, I can work flexibly around a schedule that suits my parental responsibilities. I drop the children off at nursery and school a couple of times a week, spend a bit of time with them in the afternoon and get my work done around that. I am not limited to the traditional 9-5 – as long as the work is getting done, everyone’s happy. My husband works flexibly too so we share childcare responsibilities. Supporting women in our industry also means allowing men flexibility in their work schedules to give women the space to progress.

I would advise any engineers or aspiring engineers to take stock of their own strengths and bring them to the table. Engineering is a very broad industry – some positions need people that are detail-focused and can go into the specifics of how a certain component is designed or how the metal structure works. Or it can be a broader role like I do that is quite business-based and requires collaboration and coordination with many teams and projects to find the best solutions to a problem. In engineering, we require all sorts of people and personalities which is why having a diverse workforce is so important.

An engine inspection conducted by Var’s team in preparation for a gas turbine change out offshore

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