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In 2014, when Jennifer graduated with a degree in Biotechnology from Northumbria University, she was wholly on track to becoming a brewer while the industry was growing in the �鶹��ý. “Of course I soon realised, to my dismay, that being a brewer involved far too much manual lifting,” she chuckles. “So then it was off to find a new calling. After that I worked as a lifeguard for a while, and then a science technician for a school in Newcastle, setting up experiments for the labs. I actually had fun there, and for a minute I thought I might go into teaching.”

Eventually, she put her CV online. “They saw that I had a STEM degree and was already working a lot with Excel, so they had a hunch I might make a decent programmer. Cue a little Java training and, in 2017, they put me on site with a bank making Python apps. That’s how my career in software development began. About four and a half years back, Shell got in touch.”

Her first role at Shell, she says, involved working with its European power trading arm, largely building data acquisition pipelines. “Data Engineering wasn’t the most fulfilling for me, but I was very interested in the power business. About a year into the job, the company expanded its London IT team and we switched to .NET development to build more robust applications. Since then, our team has grown tenfold, and we’ve moved from bespoke requests from individual traders, to big integrated projects to support multiple markets. I’m currently working on an automated trade creation engine, accelerating uploading our deals onto our energy trading and risk management systems.”

Jennifer has really grown to like working at Shell. “It’s nice to feel part of this incredible machine, sharing energy across the seas and continents,” she says. “Providing the world with enough energy is the most crucial problem at the moment. I quite like that we’re trying to solve that.”

She especially loves working in renewable energy. “That was the reason I accepted the job in the first place. When I joined, I was nervous about working for a large global corporate entity like Shell because I disagree with investments in fossil fuels. But the moment they said I’d be helping make wind farms more profitable, and assisting in the transition away from polluting energy sources, I was sold.”

The job is also far more complex than anything Jennifer has attempted before. Part of the joy though comes from the new challenges she’s always encountering. “I think the most exciting thing I’ve worked on would have to be the wind farm in Borssele. A colleague and I were just two developers working on setting-up the biggest wind farm in the Netherlands for trading, and indeed the biggest in Europe at that point. We were responsible for getting it onboarded, building a lot of the automated trading processes, as well as gathering and analysing the data coming in. It was a pioneering project and will likely lead to many more similar ones in the future.”

It’s because of projects like these wind farms that Jennifer says she’s happy to be a part of the Shell renewable push. Work satisfaction aside, she’s quick to point out how she’s also given the freedom to feel comfortable while on the job. “I make sure I have a clear distinction between work and home life. I only work late if I’m really enjoying a particular task, but that is rare as I get through most things in the day,” she says. “In stark contrast is my partner who, in a similar role as project manager in another company, seems to always be thinking of work, even during dinner. Thankfully, I think he’s starting to absorb the Shell work culture from me. I keep prompting him about how video calls can be emails, trying to save him time. We’ll get there,” she laughs. “It’s never a chore to be at work though, especially when there’s great things to be involved with like hackathons, future energy leaders and the Shell choir!”

When it comes to plans for the future, Jennifer is still as unpredictable as you’d expect of a brewer turned lifeguard turned software engineer. “I do know when I retire, I want to have a garden I can bask in while coding, and a tomato farm of my own. Oh yes, and my own solar panels and wind turbine, so I can be off the grid and self-sufficient. But I also love exploring London and attending nearby music festivals, so I do think I’ll miss that.”

“If things work out, I’d love to stick with Shell until I retire,” Jennifer says. “We’re one of the biggest players in energy and making great progress in renewables, so I’d love to be in a team where we’re doing the most to help the planet.”