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Claire Greenwood

Director of Engineering at Andor Technology

STEM Ambassador Northern Ireland Role Model
Take opportunities as they come to you, and be brave!
Claire is a...

Coordinator

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Investigator

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Manager

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About Claire...

Who am I?

"The personaility types I matched with are coordinator, investigator and quality controllerCoordinator suits me very well as a type. I have to be quite organised in my role, and as a team we need to deliver products in time and to budget, this means a lot of bringing teams together and working with others.Investigator - as an engineer, I really enjoy problem solving and working things out logically. Using different sources of information to get the best result and using the information to ensure everyone is aligned.Quality Controller - A large part of my role is people management. Making sure we are fair with our colleagues and other team members around us. Keeping people safe is the highest priority in any business, especially in an environment which could have additional risks, like engineering and manufacturing. The team and I must challenge decisions and solutions, ensuring we don't just keep doing what we have always done, but we do the right thing."

What do I do?

"As the director of Engineering I am responsible for new product development and technical authority of the products in our portfolio. I work closely with other functions in the business to understand the products which we need to design and develop and then to ensure that they are manufacturable and of high quality for our customers. I need to ensure that projects run on time and within budget. I enjoy solving problems, that's why I became an engineer, in my job the problems are less technical and more business related, but still need consideration and decisions made. The starting salary for my role is over £80,000."

How did I get here?

"I started working in telecommunications after finishing my degree, working on silicon device development. My first role was in a very large multi-national company. I then moved to a start-up, also in telecommunications where I took on some other management responsibilities. Start-ups mean that sometimes you need to take on other roles in the business. After 3 years there I moved to my current company where I have been for 12 years. I started as a senior engineer, then moved to line management, some project management, including software project management. 5 Years ago a saw an opportunity to move to the director of Engineering. Now I lead 90 engineers in Belfast, Zurich and Toronto. Every day is different. I have been inspired along the way by many different people, including very strong female leaders. "

The life I live

"In my spare time I like going to concerts, I've been to Glastonbury music festival 4 times. I also enjoy spending time with my family and our dachshund Bowie. My family and I enjoy paddle boarding although I'm nowhere near as good as my daughters."

My typical day

"I co-ordinate a lot of projects together, working with project managers in my team to ensure that design projects are on time and budget. If problems occur I work with the teams to remove any blockers and to try and resolve the issues as soon as possible. A lot of my time is taken attending meetings on everything from business strategy, technical reviews to people management. I can truly say that every day is different bringing different problems and successes. "

My qualifications

"4 As at A'Level (Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Maths)MEng Electrical and Electronic Engineering - Queen's University, Belfast"