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Rachel Pether

Rachel Pether

director of water utilities, Binnies

Expertise

Design, Project Management, Water

Location

United Kingdom
My highlights

Appointed to the All Reservoirs Panel in 2018

Working in New Zealand, Australia, the US and Hong Kong

Recognised in 2022 WES Top 50 Women in Engineering list

A day in my life

Some days I’m on site with reservoir owners, helping them to manage their assets effectively and keeping communities located downstream of large reservoirs safe.

Other days I’m in the office with my leadership team, discussing new ways to ensure that we continue to deliver Binnies’ purpose of enhancing lives, communities and the environment.

I also spend time with our clients to ensure that we continue to understand their challenges and develop new and innovative solutions. For example, by adopting sustainable design approaches to meet the water industry’s net-zero commitment.

As a business we’re also committed to providing flexible working conditions for our team, which means I frequently work from home.

There I can get my head down and write a reservoir inspection report or collaborate with virtual teams across Binnies and the wider RSK Group to deliver projects all over the world.

I never realised how flexible a career in civil engineering could be, and how it would adapt as my life changed.  

Which individual project or person inspired you to become a civil engineer?

I was fortunate to attend an Insight into Engineering course when I was in the first year of my A-levels.

On the last evening of the course there was a dinner, and a civil engineer gave a talk about her job, which was on a construction site of a pipeline project.

I just thought it sounded like the most fun way of earning a living, and so I decided in that moment that civil engineering was for me.

Obviously, I did more research before I started my degree, but on clear sunny days when I’m inspecting one of the UK’s impressive dams and taking in the outstanding scenery, I still feel very lucky to have chosen this career.

We asked Rachel…

I would recommend a career in civil engineering because…

With the tremendous variety of roles available in civil engineering, there really is something for everybody.

But one of the most fulfilling aspects of a career in civil engineering is the ability to make real improvements to people’s quality of life and the environment.

It gives you an opportunity to work on critical infrastructure that will have an impact on people’s lives for hundreds of years to come.

For example, in water, you can work on constructing mega projects such as Tideway in London or provide safe drinking water for rural communities in Africa. Civil engineers make all these projects possible.

What’s the biggest/most complex thing you’ve made out of Lego? How long did it take you?

The biggest thing I’ve made out of Lego was the Lego Friends Grand Hotel with my youngest daughter. It took us quite a long time because all the pieces had been mixed up with the other Lego!

My favourite Lego build was a funfair with moving parts, including a ferris wheel and roller coaster.

My favourite thing about Lego is watching my children use it for imaginative play. Including when they cannibalise their creations when, for example, they decide to turn their Lego house into a Lego swimming pool with a cling film liner to retain the water.

Which individual project or person inspired you to become a civil engineer?

I was fortunate to attend an Insight into Engineering course when I was in the first year of my A-levels.

On the last evening of the course there was a dinner, and a civil engineer gave a talk about her job, which was on a construction site of a pipeline project.

I just thought it sounded like the most fun way of earning a living, and so I decided in that moment that civil engineering was for me.

Obviously, I did more research before I started my degree, but on clear sunny days when I’m inspecting one of the UK’s impressive dams and taking in the outstanding scenery, I still feel very lucky to have chosen this career.

Complete this phrase: I’m a civil engineer, but I’m also…

...a parent of three girls. So I want to do everything I can to preserve this planet on which they will hopefully live for many years after I'm gone.

I also want to do what I can to ensure that young girls understand what a fulfilling career engineering and other STEM subjects can provide.

What about being a civil engineer gets you out of bed each morning?

Every day is different. Every day includes challenges to overcome, and opportunities to improve life for our communities and the environment.

What’s one great thing that you love about civil engineering that you didn’t know until you started working in the industry?

I never realised how flexible a career in civil engineering could be, and how it would adapt as my life changed.

When I first became a civil engineer, I was keen to work on big projects, travel and see the world, and Binnies has given me the opportunity to do all these things.

However, in recent years, I’ve also combined my career in civil engineering with raising a young family, taking advantage of Binnies’ excellent flexible working arrangements.

This isn’t something I even considered when I first made my decision to be a civil engineer at the age of 17.

Which civil engineering project (past or present) do you wish you’d worked on?

The average age of an embankment dam in the UK is well over 100 years, so in a sense I would have loved to have been working during the heyday of dam construction in the UK.

However, I’m fairly philosophical about that, as I’m well aware that, as a woman in engineering, there’s no better time to be working in our industry than now.

Name one civil engineering myth you’d like to bust.

The most important thing to be a good civil engineer is to be good at maths. Maths is a good starting point, though other skills such as communication and an ability to work in a team are also important. Not to mention creativity and a desire to innovate.

What are you doing to help fight against climate change?

Much of the work we do at Binnies is focused on fighting climate change through carbon reduction and supporting the water industry in their commitment to achieve net zero.

Personally, one area of focus over the past few years has been leading a team at Binnies to develop our intelligent Dam Monitoring System.

This allows dam movement to be monitored remotely using satellite data, rather than surveyors attending site to carry out frequent movement surveys.

As such, the potential to reduce operational carbon for owners of multiple reservoirs, such as water companies, is significant.

There’s also a social improvement side, as more accurate and frequent monitoring can improve understanding of dams and reduce the risk of failures. This reduces the potential for evacuation of downstream communities and all the upheaval that this causes.

Rachel's career path

I studied maths, physics, chemistry and further maths at A-levels and then did an MEng in Civil Engineering at Imperial College London.

When I graduated, I worked for Mott Macdonald for a little while, but then moved to Binnies as they were able to offer me work in the sector in which I was interested, namely water.

I then spent three years on the Twin Rivers Diversion at Heathrow, followed by 18 months in New Zealand and Australia.

I returned to the UK and became chartered in 2007, so seven years after graduating.

After this I turned my focus to becoming a supervising engineer under the Reservoirs Act in 2010, and then an All Reservoirs Panel engineer in 2018.

Today I combine a leadership role, with commercial and delivery responsibility for our UK water utilities consultancy business, with my technical role as an All Reservoirs Panel engineer.