Spotlight on women in gas: Sophia Mutton

One of the core principles Sophia Mutton, Lead Process and Project Engineer at Orbital Gas Systems and Associate IGEM member, would stress to any woman wanting to get into the gas industry is this: “If you have a passion to become an engineer or work in an engineering environment, do not let other people’s opinions supress that.

“It can be difficult to not let people’s opinions and comments affect your drive to pursue this type of career, but for me being able to cancel out the negativity goes a long way. The effort and ability does not go unnoticed. Your capability as an engineer is not defined by whether you are a woman.”

Sophia’s journey into the industry began in her youth with a strong interest in engineering from high school which carried her through to university where she studied mechanical engineering.

During her time spent studying for a master’s degree in professional engineering, she spent two years in automotive manufacturing. This only strengthened her appetite for developing her career.

Sophia then began her time at Orbital Gas Systems as a Junior Mechanical Design Engineer. Here, she quickly learned that she was starting from scratch but said it was “the best move she could have made.”

Since then, she has continued to progress her knowledge and skills within the company and has worked through a few different roles in mechanical design, process design and project engineering.

She said: “All of these positions gave me vital knowledge and experience to help me to succeed in the position I hold today as a Lead Process and Project Engineer.”

Sophia’s current role entails a number of different aspects in both technical and management fields. Her main responsibility involves producing upfront concept designs and FEED designs through the engineers she manages.

She is also the support mechanism and mentor for junior engineers and is the technical go-to person for any issues within her discipline.

Sophia has a huge amount of appreciation for her position, which she shares with others in the business. She said: “I have a lot of passion for my role and like to instil my enthusiasm, hard-working nature and technical ability, through knowledge sharing, into all of my engineers to help them succeed in their own careers.”

One of the standout moments in her career so far includes the completion of two major innovation projects in a short space of time. These focused on future billing methodology and real time networks monitoring.

These were some of her first projects when she worked as a Project Engineer. She highlights that “the completion of the projects was definitely my sink or swim moment and the sense of accomplishment when these were successfully completed gave me the confidence to move up in my career and demonstrated the tenacity I could show in my role.”

For the next steps in her career, Sophia is working to become a Chartered Engineer after a short career break to care for her newborn child.

“Since studying at college, it has always been one of my career milestones to become a Chartered Engineer. To do this, it was imperative to join the right institution to assist me in getting to my goal, alongside having great resources to compliment the work I conduct in my role.

“Working in the gas industry led me to IGEM. The institution stood out not only for offering the best resources to support my day-to-day work, but also for its strong member support, especially for women in STEM, and its role in setting industry standards. All of this ultimately pushed me to become an IGEM member.”

On the benefits membership has given her, Sophia said IGEM has helped support her career not only with her chartership goals, but also by allowing her to make new connections through a variety of networking opportunities.

Looking ahead, Sophia feels that STEM should be promoted to individuals well before university age, possibly beginning in secondary school as that’s where the passion often ignites.

She said: “I think engineering can have many misconceptions as to what it involves, which is why young women don’t even investigate what a career within it could look like.

“Perhaps there could be more initiatives that look at this aspect to pique the interest of young women earlier on and embed the positives of a career within engineering.”