Lydia began her career as a Graduate Transport Planner in 2016, after successfully obtaining a first-class honours in BSc Geography and an MSc with Distinction in Energy and Sustainability.

At Atkins, Lydia specialised in using advanced GIS analysis to plan new transport routes and took opportunities to take this skillset beyond her team in London, going onto support the rail team on projects in the UK and abroad, and also the Geospatial team in Glasgow. At the same time, Lydia started gaining experience as a Project Manager.

Lydia always seeks opportunities to improve and successfully applied for a secondment to the Local Transport Market team in 2019, enabling her to develop skills in the commercial management of projects and operations. This opportunity helped to fast track her career, taking on a Framework Management role for one of the key local authority clients in Atkins’ portfolio. As part of this role, Lydia is responsible for managing the client relationship and delivering all the projects that sit within this growing account. Since then, Lydia has taken on more responsibility in her role, focussing on creating efficiency and process improvements and then sharing these as best practice across the wider Framework Management team. In 2020, Lydia was privileged to be awarded the Atkins President’s Award for outstanding contribution to her team and the Frameworks she manages.

Alongside this, Lydia is currently working towards a chartership with the Association of Project Managers, and successfully received the Project Fundamentals Qualification in February 2021.

Lydia also volunteers as a regional STEM Ambassador and an Enterprise Advisor for a school in Hampshire, helping them develop their careers programme and encouraging students to broaden their careers horizons and fulfil their potential. Lydia is passionate about wanting all students, regardless of gender and ethnicity, to have the opportunity to pursue careers in STEM and actively works to be a positive role model for women in this industry.