What's your job about?
Saab Australia works primarily in the defence and civil security sectors, a large portion of the business is involved in the development of Combat Management Systems (CMS) for naval ships. The CMS is a very complex system and is essentially the brains of the ship.
I am currently a Graduate Engineer working in the Product Design Verification and Validation (V&V) team within our Naval Combat Systems division. The V&V team is responsible for testing the CMS against a defined set of requirements and verifying that the CMS product meets all the requirements.
My role involves simulating the CMS and designing test scenarios to ensure that the designed functionality meets the requirements of the Navy. This requires a hands-on approach and it allows me to put my engineering problem solving skills to the test! I enjoy the creative aspect of this role and having the freedom to create my own test scenarios. It’s nice knowing that I am making a meaningful impact on Saab’s projects.
My favourite part of this role is having the opportunity to work with people from different backgrounds and teams, including software, hardware and systems and gaining a deep understanding of how the system works.
What's your background?
Throughout school I played a lot of sport and thought I wanted to pursue a career in Physiotherapy, but my favourite subjects were maths and physics. I decided to enrol into a Biomedical Engineering degree, thinking it would be a middle ground between the two. After a couple years, I decided to transfer into an Electronics Engineering degree as I enjoyed electronics more than biomedical topics.
I was very excited to see where a career in electronics engineering could take me. I knew there were many exciting opportunities within the defence industry in SA and was keen to see what a career in defence is like.
I completed a Summer Internship at Saab Australia in 2020/2021 and was offered a role as a casual Undergraduate. I thoroughly enjoyed working at Saab and genuinely looked forward to coming into work each week. It was a great opportunity for me to put everything I learnt at university into practice.
In 2023, I was accepted into the Saab Graduate Program and had a seamless transition working full time. I am currently in my second year and feel like I have already experienced significant growth since joining the company, both professionally and personally.
Could someone with a different background do your job?
The Graduate Engineering program is limited to those with an engineering or computer science background. However, there are employees with a non-engineering background at Saab and work in departments such as finance, marketing, HR etc. The work at Saab is team-based, it requires communication and teamwork skills to provide solutions to complex problems.
What's the coolest thing about your job?
I love knowing that the work that I am doing will be used on real navy ships which has a direct and crucial role in keeping Australia safe. The culture at Saab is especially unique, with a very social company culture and strong focus on employee wellbeing. A highlight of my day is when Carmen, the well-being dog comes around the office for pats!
What are the limitations of your job?
Defence projects generally have long timelines and span over multiple years. One of the limitations is not having visibility or experience across the entire project lifecycle. For example, you might only focus on a specific area and phase of the project. Although it might seem like you are confined to one team, this allows you to hone your skills and become a subject matter expert. As a result, you can explore other roles within the business and participate in other exciting projects at different stages of the project life cycle.
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