In this series, we aim to feature a particular individual ITS UK Member who will talk through what they do for their company and detail their daily work schedule, whilst also offering some advice and reflection on their career thus far. Read on to learn more about Jonny Robinson of Siemens.  Discover how he got started within Siemens, what his current priorities are and what advice he offers to those looking to start a career in the industry.

Tell us about yourself, your background and how you got started in the industry?  What brought you to Siemens Mobility and led you to make this career choice?

My name is Jonathon Robinson I have always been in the highways sector starting my time at Amey as part of the leadership graduate scheme. I rotated across various highways and utilities accounts working within different roles. I then decided to move into the mobility sector as I believe there would be growth within ITS industry as highways agencies/ local authorities seek to better manage there assets and traffic as population grows and urbanisation continues to grow at pace. I joined Siemens Mobility as they are a industry leader within the ITS sector and have a global footprint of being well renowned in engineering. We work with a variety of clients from large local authorities to tier 1 contractors working on some exciting projects within ITS/Highways.

What is your current role? 

I work as a contracts manager within Siemens Mobility within their Intelligent transport Systems division. I operate the capital works within the North West region within field services I work on the Liverpool Combined Authorities account which services 6 district councils (Liverpool CC, St Helens BC, Halton BC, Sefton BC, Wirral BC and Knowsley BC) also we service Cheshire West and Chester Council and Warrington BC and other neighbouring boroughs. I work solely on new installations across their networks and I work either directly with the customers on schemes or through developments working with an array of large to small civils contractors. Current volumes equate to around £4-5 million of schemes delivered per year.

Take us through a typical day and what that involves.  What projects are you working on (dependent on what you can share of course)?  What are your current priorities? 

A typical day is very rare as within the role and Siemens no 2 days are ever the same! I prioritise my time where I should focus on as the weeks progress as it is an ever changing and busy role.  Covid times offer slight changes in how we operate but at Siemens we worked around this via utilising Microsoft teams for our daily tasks. I could be working on large tenders for future orders, working on setting programmes and making sure we have the correct resource to meet the demands we face to deliver for our clients. Attending pre start meetings for various clients to scope works out and provide support where needed.  

Is there anything specific that motivates you through the day? 

The thing that motivates me the most is that each project that we deliver makes an effort to better improve congestion and traffic flows in the local areas we serve and utilising the best products to serve our customers. Also the wider reaching projects we deliver globally is assisting the world to a more carbon free environment to leave the world in a better place.

What do you most enjoy about your role and what do you find the most challenging? 

What I Enjoy the most is the people I get to work with on a daily basis. It provide a great working environment to make an impact within the area we manage and working with a great team of people. The variety of work we complete always make it a learning day and opportunity to keep on learning and developing throughout my career.

What advice would you give someone who is considering seeking a career in this role and within this industry? 

Highways sector overall has many roles and opportunities for someone to have a great career. Albeit I didn’t think I would be in this industry upon leaving university it has provided me with a variety of exciting roles and opportunities to grow my career. Specifically in ITS sector the more digital the world is becoming traffic and congestion will rely on smarter infrastructure to make best use of the road networks around us to provide optimal performance and there is some exciting changes to the sector coming up regarding CAVs etc so it’s a great reason to get involved.

Finally, what do you know now that you wish you knew when you first started out your career? 

Network as much as you can and make effort to showcase your skillset as you never know where new opportunities will arise from to assist you in growing your career.