Audrey*

Audrey in the field wearing security gear, not her usual day-to-day dress code! Photo credit: personal photo.

Audrey, now a department head in the submarine combat systems division at Naval Group, laughs that years ago her mother wanted her to be “a teacher… with a teaching degree, of course… so that I could look after my future children during the school holidays!”

Her father, on the other hand, urged her to follow in his footsteps and study engineering because, as he put it, “engineering is a doorway to everything.”

Her father won the battle of influence.

“At school I used to get good marks in science even though I’m not a scientist at heart,” she recounts, so she chose an integrated preparatory course, which involves two years of post-A-level study directly at an engineering school before moving on to a ‘traditional’ three-year engineering degree. She passed the competitive entrance exam for ISEP (formerly the Institut Supérieur d’Électronique de Paris), a digital engineering school, from which she obtained her degree.

“We studied a lot of signal processing and waves there, which didn’t interest me at all,” she admits, even though “today waves are at the heart of my work and I’m very interested in them!” On the other hand, “I really liked video games, so I loved studying computer science and algorithms.” So Audrey began her professional career in the digital sector.

Whilst at the ISEP she had compulsory work placements to find and she did those for three consecutive summers at Thales, the electronics giant. “And there, during my final-year placement, I worked on an old computer programming language called Ada,” in honour of Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace, the world’s first computer programmer… and also, incidentally, the only legitimate child of poet Lord Byron.

“And then, during my end-of-studies internship, I worked on an older computer programming language called Ada” – named in honour of the Englishwoman Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace, the first computer scientist in history.

Ada is often used in real-time and embedded systems that require a high level of reliability and security, particularly in the aerospace, space, rail and automotive sectors.

At the end of her placement, Thales, which was looking to recruit someone familiar with the Ada language, offered her a position in the Toulon area. The timing was just perfect! During her internship, she had met the young man she later married. “He’d just landed a job at Naval Group in Toulon, and as I wasn’t particularly keen to stay in Paris, so I thought, ‘Why not?’”

She has lived in Toulon ever since.

In September 2012 after nine years at Thales and starting to feel a little frustrated at not seeing the full scope of the products she was involved in, she found a role at Naval Group in the field of combat systems for ships, a position that gave her the broader perspective she was seeking.

In answer to a question regarding potential awkwardness at working for the same company as her husband, Audrey laughs that “it’s a large group” and that she rarely runs into him at work.

As her career progressed, Audrey became a programme manager in Ollioules, a town just 8 kms west of Toulon. “This is where I discovered the responsibilities of management, in other words, managing people. Even though I didn’t particularly want to move into a department head role, my experience at Ollioules as a manager on two major programmes prepared me for the role I currently hold.”

When her twins were born, Audrey chose to work 80% of full time, a pattern she maintained until her daughter, the youngest of her three children, turned five. But they are now teenagers so she has the leeway to be out in the field more frequently. If there is a clash with her husband’s schedule, which is relatively rare, “we discuss it to establish whether his trip or mine takes priority.” And she adds with a smile that in the past when she was taking part in sea trials, “the childrens’ school had my husband’s phone number listed as the primary contact so whenever a parent needed to be reached, he was the first they would call.”

Audrey with her National Order of Merit medal. Photo credit: personal photo.

In June 2024, Audrey was appointed Knight of the National Order of Merit. “This award has encouraged me to be exemplary in my role as a manager,” she stresses.

Audrey in her role as representative of the Elle bougent charity. Photo credit: personal photo.

Another source of pride for her is the role of PACA (Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur) regional representative she has held for over six years with “Elles bougent”. This charity works in schools and organises visits to partner companies to encourage young girls to pursue careers in science and/or technology.

“We now have over 15,000 female volunteers across France, working to challenge the status quo, raise awareness, inspire and guide girls towards the diversity of scientific and technological careers that they often believe are reserved for boys.” And this starts as early as primary school. An Elles bougent mentor visits the class, then the girls and boys visit a company or an engineering school and subsequently give a presentation to the other classes.

For secondary school and university students, the Innovatech Challenge is a competition organised across all regions, bringing together teams of six females (four girls with two mentors) who, over the course of a day, work together to devise an innovative solution for the industry of the future and pitch their project to a jury of professionals. This enables them to discover the diversity of technologies and careers available to female engineers and technicians.

The question most frequently asked by the girls is: how do you balance your professional and personal life? Audrey’s career path is the perfect example.

• Naval Group no longer allows staff members last names or precise job descriptions to be published.