Emma Taylor

"Emma is the Lead Systems Safety Engineer for a company that helps Britain's railways to be better and safer.Emma and her colleagues need to engage with, and listen to, people working in the rail industry. They then use their technical leadership to develop standards for safe practice. This suits Emma because she is outgoing and curious and matches really well with the ‘Explorer’ and ‘Coach’ types. Emma’s work has been successfully used in many national railway standards, directly contributing to improvements in understanding and management of safety risk, so it really shows that she is persistent and the ‘Innovator’ type."

"Emma is the Lead Systems Safety Engineer for a company that helps Britain's railways to be better and safer.Emma provides expert risk analysis and safety engineering for the rail industry. It is important that the network is safe for passengers and for all the people working on the rail network, but it is also important that it runs to time and provides a good service. She helps to define safety standards and necessary improvements – this could be about safer working practices, track, signalling or logistics; communications and all areas where appropriate changes can improve safety.One of the standards that she worked on now allows for continued safe operation of train services, when previous arrangements would have led to cancellations. She is really proud of this because it has direct benefits for the travelling public.Emma’s job is typically based in an office. Since her company RSSB has over 100 member companies, so she can find herself working on a whole range of technical problems, no two days are the same! "

"Emma originally studied Physics and Space Science at university. She then worked for a long time in Space Science and Engineering with roles in industry, academia, consultancy and non-governmental organisations. After a career break, she gained an MSc in Safety Engineering and Risk Management and worked in the oil and gas industry. More recently, she got the opportunity to switch to working in the rail industry and has been at RSSB ever since. The starting salary for a Safety Engineer varies depending on the sector, but usually lies between £23,000 and £28,000. Emma thinks working in the rail industry is just as interesting as working in the space sector! "

"Emma likes being part of a community, whether working with her neighbours to help their town thrive or being part of a global community through social media. She also does a lot of mentoring online. When she has some free time, she enjoys sitting down and reading a good book.In her space career Emma travelled to places all around the globe, including Moscow and Tokyo. She also travelled to Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Hong Kong and the USA while working in the oil and gas sector! Nowadays, her work is based in the UK, which she also enjoys.Engineering is such an interesting career that Emma can't ever see herself retiring – she has too much energy! In the far future, she'd really like to be an advisor to a company working on new transport technologies. Who knows what those technologies will be by then!"