Mae is lead survey manager for offshore wind geotechnical and geophysical surveys at SSE Renewables. She studied for a BSc in Geophysics and Meteorology at the University of Edinburgh.

Can you give a brief description of what the company/employer does and how your role fits in?

I work in offshore wind I am a project manager overseeing the progress, contract and commercial operation of geotechnical and geophysical survey vessels. The surveys are done to inform ground risk and site conditions prior to wind farm construction.

What does a typical day in your working life look like?

I communicate daily with survey vessels and track progress through data and information sent to me. I then take decisions and communicate this to the offshore wind project. I visit vessels in port and check equipment and speak with the crew prior. I manage everything else remotely not going offshore but I do have to have an understanding of the offshore processes and operations.

What was your pathway to what you do for your job now?

My degree was in Geophysics and Meteorology, and then I took an internship as a wind analyst and subsequently joined a wind energy company as a wind analyst calculating predicted energy production from wind turbines. I then took a decision to move to oil and gas as a field engineer in order to travel and work in the field. Following that I moved to work as a geotechnical engineer on onshore wind farm sites assessing ground conditions. I now work for a developer building offshore wind projects and oversee geotechnical and geophysical survey campaigns.

What advice would you give to someone interested in pursuing a career like yours?

If you don’t know what to do try anything, you can always change later. I had no idea what geophysics really was until I started studying it a university and it happened to suit me very well. It has also still given me flexibility to change my role. I know various colleagues who have moved from geophysics into finance and health sector as studying geophysics gives a very good background in data analytics and general physics which is highly transferable to alternative industries.