Stephanie Newman talks safety and innovation at Rolls Royce

As Chief Project Engineer for Trent Fleet Engines at Rolls Royce, Stephanine leads the Subsystem and Airframe Integration Teams for the Trent 900, 800, 700, 500 and RB211 engines. She is responsible for managing product safety across the fleet, supporting in service engines and leading a team of talented engineering managers to support Rolls Royce customers. Stephanie’s role has a strong focus on both safety and sustainability, and she runs a gender diversity network within Rolls Royce with the aim of creating gender balance across its teams.

Stephanie has to date had an incredible career journey, from aspiring astronaut, through to chief project engineer. In this podcast Stephanie shares with Dr Graham Kelly not just her career wins but what fuelled her passion for engineering and what were her early ambitions that led her to Rolls Royce.

Looking at your current role at Rolls Royce, what excites you the most?

I am currently working at Rolls Royce, where I am the Chief Project Engineer for our fleet engines and I am just about to take on a new role looking at our future engines and how are we going to be growing our products more sustainably and innovatively in the future.

I’ve been at Rolls Royce 15 years now, so I graduated from University and came to Rolls Royce, and I can’t say that I was planning to be here for all of this time but I continue to be excited by the products that we make by the challenges that we face in the industry, by the teams that I work with, and the different opportunities that I’ve been given.

Looking a little further back, when I was around seven years old, at New Year time, and I was sitting watching Apollo 13, I turned around to my parents and told them I wanted to be an astronaut. My love for science, maths, engineering and space exploration started here.

I began taking things apart and trying to fix things, trying to work out how to do things better in different ways, and I think those are all attributes that then kind of naturally lend themselves into an engineering career. I was really lucky at school that I had a teacher who was both my geography teacher and also our career advisor, when I was around 13 she invited me to join some of the senior girls in a presentation from someone from the RAF. And that was when I knew I could make a career out of all the things I was passionate about.

You’re also a trained pilot, when did you start to fly?

I was part of my university Air Squadron – that gave me the great opportunity to learn to fly. It was my first experience of understanding the freedom flying gives you, but also the awareness of responsibility of piloting an aircraft.

I’ll never forget that first solo flight. I took off so quickly because, I mean I was used to little old me and a six foot three instructor both in the plane, suddenly the weight shifted  and before I knew it I was at 60 knots and taking off in no time. And then I had to land, which was another adventure. But fortunately all went well!

Then you moved on from flying planes to building them! Could you talk us through a little bit more about your role at Rolls Royce?

We have a number of different engine programs. I guess it’s similar the construction industry where you need a ream of people looking after the building once its built. The same applies to our engines, our products, once they’re in service, that’s not the end of the story. We need to ensure that they remain safe throughout their life span.

What is your approach to problem solving, particularly when it comes to safety?

We have a strong people and safety culture where we actively encourage getting people together and getting them to think not just technically, but innovatively and creatively – sharing ideas to develop new solutions.

As engineers, we often dwell on the things that go wrong, but we actively start the day focusing on what went right yesterday. We’ve moved the thinking forward and this helps us solve problems more quickly.

We can’t be safe without this kind of innovation, without that different thinking. Everyone of us has accountability to spot where things could potentially go wrong. And if everyone’s thinking the same, it doesn’t work.

Listen to the full podcast to as Graham and Stephanie continue the conversation on safety, innovation and sustainability at Rolls Royce, plus how her teams integrates this with technology and digital development.