A childhood ambition is realised at the JORN project

The world of Engineering has been part of Georgia's life for as long as she can remember.

“My Dad’s an Engineer so as a small child I grew up surrounded by his work and given the opportunity to play with tools and Lego as well as dolls,” she says.?“I guess that interest started very young and my Dad has been fuelling it from the get go.”

Georgia joined BAE Systems Australia this year after completing a bachelor’s of electrical and electronic engineering at the University of Adelaide as well as a graduate program with engineering services and technology solutions company Nova Systems.?

Several years at Nova saw Georgia play a role in developing the company’s digital systems engineering capability, and also resulted in national recognition after being named the Australian Industry & Defence Network – South Australia (AIDN SA) Young Achiever of the Year for 2021.

Now a Systems Engineer on the JORN project, Georgia says her role is about understanding the “bigger picture”.

“When a customer asks us to design and build a piece of technology for them, we take a look at how the system will operate, where it operates and who will use it to ensure we are building the right tool for the customer in the long term,” she says.

That is entirely applicable to JORN as the nation’s most important Defence project moves through its complex Phase 6 upgrade across operating sites in northern Australia and major locations including Edinburgh Parks and, in the near future, Melbourne.

“Fundamentally, JORN is about protecting every Australian at the end of the day,” she says. “It’s a massive project with a team of 500 people working across it.”

“And the thing I love about my job is I get to work with people every day to solve some pretty amazing and complex challenges. We all get to challenge each other.”

I’m a firm believer that leadership comes from within a team environment.”

While working in Defence wasn’t among her ambitions as a student, it’s a sector she is committed to.

“I’m really passionate about it because this is where innovation starts,” she says. “And our industry enables the people of the Australian Defence Force.”

“When they are going out on missions they want to have the best capability available out there and they place their trust in that capability.

“That’s where we come in; companies like BAE Systems are there to build, upgrade and sustain the technology and ensure every member of the ADF can trust each product.”