Profile

As Pipelines Facilities Engineer, I support three crude pipelines operations teams across the US Midwest for bp’s Terminals & Pipelines business.  My days vary widely, and I work from the office, home and our field operations.  Some of my tasks include helping operations buy and repair equipment, updating drawings, running annual calculations for regulatory/legal reasons, and representing operations in project discussions.  I also am involved in bp’s women’s organization and in a social responsibility side project.

I love what I do for many reasons.  The people I work with are amazing, and I love that my work is so collaborative.  If you would have told me as a student I would do group projects for a living, I would not have believed you.  I also love the variety in my day and that I can make time to learn new skills (like how I’m learning hydraulic modeling right now).  I get to support my field teams and project managers in every stage of work, and I like knowing the secrets of energy infrastructure.

I joined bp in June 2019 as part of the early careers graduate program.  I started as a rotating equipment engineer (pumps and motors – the machines that make the pipeline “go”) before transitioning to my current role in January 2021.  I graduated the early careers program in July and retained my current role.

I work from the office or field three days per week, and I work from home the other two days.  I work in bp’s downtown Chicago office, so my schedule is pretty typical for any office job (about 8am to 5pm), and I have flexibility if I have an early call or want to catch an afternoon workout class.  My days can vary wildly because I support yearly tasks and the urgent and immediate tasks for operations.  One thing is constant – since I work in bp’s pipelines business, we don’t have just one office or plant where my team works.  This means I’m on the phone a lot, either calling technicians individually or on conference calls working through issues.  Everything we do is to support safe, reliable, and compliant operations and keep our pipelines running so bp’s Whiting Refinery can keep producing refined products like gasoline and diesel.

I had no clue what an engineer did until I was 13 and attended an intro to engineering summer camp.  I would attend two more engineering camps before graduating high school, and these programs were crucial for engineering even being on my radar as a career path.  Many of the engineers I know have parents or siblings who are engineers, but I don’t, and I would never have the life I have without these camps.