Frazer-Nash Systems Safety and Assurance Consultant, Sindhu Shankar, has been shortlisted as a finalist in the Engineering category of the 2020 Australian Defence Magazine (ADM) Women in Defence Awards.
The awards celebrate talented, determined, successful women who make a positive impact to the defence industry, or in uniform or public service in Australia, recognising the integral part they play across the sector. The Engineering award is presented to the defence community’s most outstanding female working within any discipline in the engineering field.
Australian Defence Business Manager, Damien Farrell, outlines the experience and skills that won Sindhu her finalist place:
“Sindhu is an experienced systems engineer, who is passionate about always achieving the right capability outcomes for our defence clients. She has significant expertise across both defence air and land platforms across the whole capability life cycle.
“She is particularly adept within the acquisition environment, developing requirements for the integration of new assets into the Australian Defence Organisation; and in managing the interfaces between systems. As part of her work on the LAND400 Phase 2 acquisition project, Sindhu spent four months in Unterluss, Germany, with the manufacturer of the Boxer Combat Reconnaissance Vehicle. Working with the design teams, she was instrumental in helping them understand how the gap between Australian sovereign capability requirements and the platform design specifications could be bridged.
“Her experience and expertise, combined with her mentoring of both junior colleagues and contacts; plus her advocacy for diversity and inclusion make her a real role model. We’re proud that her commitment and talents have been recognised by Australian Defence Magazine, as they are within Frazer-Nash.”
Describing the enjoyment she gets from working in the defence sector, Sindhu said:
“What I love about defence projects is that, above all else, delivering capability and safe systems is paramount. This focus puts engineering in the driver’s seat, allowing the application of best practice engineering principles at scale. It has given me the opportunity to work on exciting and complex systems such as the Joint Strike Fighter, Combat Reconnaissance and Infantry Fighting Vehicles.
“I truly believe that engineering creates real value for the world around us. As an engineer I feel empowered with the skills and knowledge to look at the world around me, understand how things work, ask how we could be doing things better and innovate solutions! Ultimately, it is rewarding to know that we are contributing to national strategic objectives and supporting our service personnel.”
