From Early Curiosity to Olympic Projects: A Modelling Career Q&A
- 3 days ago
- 4 min read
Katie Pearson is a Senior Associate Director of Water & Environment at Jacobs. We recently caught up with Katie to ask her some questions about her career to date and her global experience in the engineering industry.
Q: Talk to me about your early career. How did your career start and where did your love for the engineering industry come from?
I studied Environmental Science at the University of East Anglia. When I graduated, I knew I wanted to work with rivers and water, but I wasn’t sure which direction to take. I applied to the Environment Agency but didn’t get onto their graduate schemes, so I moved into consulting engineering as a graduate hydrologist at Capita Symonds.
That role marked the start of my career in the engineering industry. At the time, I had never even heard of engineering consultancy, so I didn’t know what to expect. However, once I started, I quickly realised the benefits - working on a wide variety of projects, collaborating with different people, and focusing on solving problems and delivering practical solutions.
Q: What have been some of your career highlights?
There have been both early highlights and more recent ones. Early in my career, two experiences really stand out.
The first was working on the flood risk assessment that supported London’s successful bid for the 2012 Olympics. I joined Capita Symonds in 2003 and was immediately involved in this project. After London was awarded the Games, we continued supporting the planning process from a flood risk and environmental perspective. Being part of that from such an early stage in my career - and then visiting the Olympic site in 2012 and seeing the rivers, bridges, canals and culverts in person - was incredibly rewarding.
The second highlight was spending 2006 in Brisbane, Australia, on secondment with BMT, working with the TUFLOW team. I spent a year working on Australian flood projects and learning how to use and apply the software, which was a fantastic experience.
More recently, my highlights are less about individual projects and more about leading technical teams - taking a project from the initial problem through to delivering a complete solution.
Q: What advice would you give to your younger self just starting out in the industry?
I’d say take every opportunity that comes your way and ask as many questions as possible. Early in my career, I had plenty of opportunities to learn from more experienced colleagues, and the knowledge they shared still influences me today.
Q: What does your role in the engineering industry look like today?
I’m currently a Senior Associate Director in the Water Catchment Management team at Jacobs. It’s quite a flexible role that has allowed me to shape the types of projects and teams I’m involved in.
I now primarily work in flood forecasting, where I lead a growth initiative within water catchment management. This involves delivering projects for existing clients, expanding services, and developing relationships with new clients. I’m working with colleagues on a strategy and action plan to support this growth.
One of the most exciting aspects of flood forecasting is how it connects me with other teams - particularly the Flood Modeller team and Flood IQ. This collaboration allows us to tackle more innovative challenges and develop new tools and solutions that go beyond traditional project work.
Q: What is one engineering acronym or piece of jargon you had to learn that completely baffled you at first?
There were probably quite a few, especially since I didn’t come from a traditional engineering background! One concept that stands out is how we talk about flood probability.
When I first started, we commonly referred to a “1 in 100-year flood.” Now, we describe this as a flood with a 1% annual probability of occurring in any year. While the meaning is essentially the same, the newer terminology is more precise and helps communicate risk more clearly to the public.
Q: What has been your favourite or most rewarding project to work on since you've been at Jacobs?
A current project we’re working on for SEPA (the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency) has been particularly rewarding. We’re benchmarking their existing flood forecasting models by developing tools and processes to test their performance.
We’ve analysed a large number of models, generating statistics to show which meet SEPA’s performance targets and which don’t. We’re now working on improving those models and will test them again to demonstrate the progress. The ultimate goal is to provide insights that support SEPA’s future investment decisions.
What’s made this project especially rewarding is the teamwork involved. Although we had an initial idea of how to approach it, putting it into practice has been challenging and required collaboration across a wide range of expertise - from hydrology and hydroinformatics to coding, as well as support from the Flood Modeller and Flood Platform teams.
Put Insights into Practice
Inspired by the projects and tools behind Katie’s work? Discover how Flood Modeller can support your own flood risk and forecasting projects.
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