What's your job about?
Armament Engineering Centre of Expertise in Directorate Navy Engineering is responsible for providing advice and support to the assurance of Explosive Ordnance and Weapon Systems for Navy. As Senior Weapon Systems Technical Officer, I conduct technical investigations, research using standards and peer reviewed papers, analyse data sets, preparing brief to articulate complex technical problems to decision makers and review standards to ensure suitability for certification and acquisition. This is all focused on the weapon systems including cannon systems, mounts and interfaces to combat management systems. I’ve looked issues relating to 12.7mm M2QCB machine guns through to 5 inch Naval Gun systems. It all comes back to ensuring that when an operator needs to use the weapon, they can do it safely and deliver the required effect. Most of my work is research and analysis in an office, but on occasions, I’ll make it down to a firing range or a ship to investigate an issue or oversee the conduct of a trial.
What's the coolest thing about your job?
The coolest thing about my job is the depth of the technical challenges and our approach to addressing them. It could be a collation of peer reviewed scientific papers to explain the fundamentals of ballistics, developing test plans for investigation firings or working through acquisition specifications for new equipment. Every challenge leads to learning something new in greater depth and developing the articulation skills required to take a complex engineering problem and explain it in simple terms.
What are the limitations of your job?
The limitations of the job are mostly linked to flexibility of lifestyle. Sometimes there’s weekend work or travel to support operational requirements. Sometimes there’s early/late meetings with other nations.
Additionally, sometimes physical fitness plays in to getting the hands on experience. Its not strictly necessary but it is helpful. This means getting around ships and engaging in live fire exercises.
For someone with a medical condition, there are a few extra administrative hoops to jump through even with reasonable fitness.
3 pieces of advice for yourself when you were a student...
You don’t need to have a clear idea of where you want to go in life. Take any opportunity that comes and work out what you want to do or don’t want to do as the case may be. Sometimes the journey is more important than the destination.