Women at CPL: Part 2

Following on from the last blog post, we present to you, Hazel Jeffrey.

Hazel Jeffrey is the Mission Architecture Lead at Craft. Her job is to understand and define all of the various elements that contribute to the design and implementation of space-based systems. As the lead of the Mission Architecture group, she helps shape the products and services that Craft provides and gets to meet a lot of interesting people who work within the space industry.

Hazel is an experienced system engineer who has performed as the technical lead for the full systems lifecycle of various CubeSat missions. With an MEng in Aeronautical Engineering, she is a ‘jack of all trades’ engineer who has a broad background in space mission design, conceptual design, and feasibility assessment. She also has hands-on experience with the assembly and testing of CubeSats.

In her spare time, she is interested in music and is currently learning guitar and piano with dreams of learning drums and violin. She says that she is yet to come to terms with the fact that she has limited musical ability.

In Hazel’s words: “Engineering is all about problem-solving and working with other (very talented) engineers and team members. I particularly enjoy engineering because of this — it’s a constant learning process. The challenges can at times appear pretty daunting, but the thing that keeps you going is breaking them down bit by bit and pulling together as a team to solve a very complicated problem. It always amazes me what human minds can accomplish. My advice for anyone looking to improve their careers, both in general or in the space sector, is to keep trying new things, keep learning and always be curious!”

Next, we present to you, one of my newest recruits, Lucy Donnell.

Lucy Donnell is one of the graduate software engineers in the Responsive Ops team at Craft where she is involved in the development of software for secure, autonomous satellite applications.

Lucy has an MSc in Artificial Intelligence and Applications from the University of Strathclyde. With previous experience of working in the arts and a design degree from the Glasgow School of Art, she definitely can vouch for how the sciences and arts go together and brings a wealth of knowledge over to the team.

In her spare time, Lucy enjoys listening to music and watching films of all genres. Most of all, she likes to be in nature and has a love for swimming in the sea and in lochs. She is very curious and enthusiastic about learning new things and used to play electric guitar in a live band!

As someone who has done a very successful career change, in Lucy’s words, “Don’t feel like it’s too late to make a career change. For most of us, there are many more years of our working lives ahead and it’s important to grow, be challenged, and feel rewarded in our work. Don’t let any ideas about where you belong hold you back from where you want to be. Technology may be a lot more accessible than you imagined. It’s such a dynamic and exciting area to work in, and there is so much to get involved with here in Scotland. I’m delighted to have the privilege of working within the talented and diverse team at Craft, and to be expanding my knowledge and skills every single day.”

The story doesn’t end here. So, don’t forget to go check out all the other profiles in the subsequent blog posts.