26/08/2020

Fiona Irvine: From Office Junior to Sika Product Engineer

Across the Sika business, there is a culture of recruiting young talent and providing opportunities for people to progress within the company. It’s a strategy that has underpinned an enviable staff retention record and allowed individuals to travel a career path that can take them on a journey quite different from their original role.

One of the members of Sika’s Roofing team who has benefitted from this policy of enabling career progression is Fiona Irvine. After originally joining us as an office junior in 2005, she is now the Product Engineer for both the liquid-applied and bituminous flat roofing systems within our roofing portfolio.

“My first job was a typical junior admin role,” explains Fiona, “but it was a good grounding in how the workplace operates and allowed me to move to different departments. When I was moved into an admin role in the technical department for liquid applied membranes, I started to take a greater interest in the technical aspects of the work that the department did, so, when a technical advisor role came up, I asked to be considered.”

Although Fiona did not have a technical background, her colleagues in technical knew her as a hard-working and focused colleague, which, alongside her enthusiasm for moving into a technical role, helped her secure the opportunity. The company provided her with training to help her build her technical knowledge and in 2009 she completed her Institute of Roofing training, supported by Sika.

Fiona Irvine
Image: Fiona Irvine: Product Engineer - Liquid Applied & Bituminous Membranes

“Studying and working at the same time was hard, especially at exam time, but I had great support from my colleagues and I really enjoyed being mentally challenged both by my course and my new role. It’s really rewarding to work in an environment where you’re providing solutions and have a positive impact on a project’s transition to site.”

Initially, Fiona’s Technical Advisor role involved writing technical specifications based on the condition reports carried out by the roof refurbishment team’s Area Technical Managers, but she was keen to extend her remit and identified another area where she could add value.

Fiona Irvine: On Site

“I loved what I was doing but I also wanted to get out on site and be involved with helping customers realise their plans. I took on greater responsibility, engaging with customers that had more than one property in their estate to help them plan their refurbishment programmes, based around the roof condition, budgets and commercial factors. It was a role I carved out for myself by starting to attend surveys and providing advice from a technical standpoint to add value to customers by helping them prioritise.”

Fiona’s evolved role offered customers a roof refurbishment triage service where roofing projects are prioritised, starting with reactive business critical refurbishments and progressing to planned preventative maintenance.

“It was a way of adding value to customer relationships and dovetailing what we could offer technically with customers’ own financial and commercial planning,” Fiona continues. “The additional responsibility also opened up new opportunities for me and, once again, Sika supported me with further training; this time an HNC in Construction and Surveying at Bolton University.”

Fiona’s role in technical for liquid applied membranes continued to grow and evolve until Sika launched the SikaBit range of bituminous membranes in 2019. With the new technology came a need for a roofing professional with the technical expertise to write specifications. Fiona was given responsibility that included both specification writing for SikaBit and more involvement with the product management side of things for the new range, which led to her current role as Product Engineer for liquid applied membranes and bituminous systems.

Fiona continues: “My role is more varied than ever now, it includes working with R&D on new technologies and finding out if there are any existing technologies within Sika’s global portfolio that we could potentially use or adapt for roofing in the UK. It also involves every step of taking products to  market, including live trials, contractor feedback, content for marketing materials and new product launches.

“I’m still Involved with the Technical department, ensuring they have all the necessary information and training to produce our bespoke specifications and contributing to literature. I’m also responsible for writing datasheets, so technical knowledge, accuracy and compliance remain very important aspects of my job.”

With the launch of SikaShield ProMelt, Sika’s hot melt range, Fiona’s remit has grown again, and she’s been instrumental in launching the new technology.

Fiona Irvine: Tecnical Drawing

“In fifteen years with the company my role has changed so much and with every turn in the road there has been a new opportunity to determine my own route forward,” Fiona adds. “There has always been scope for me to bring fresh ideas to the table, suggest ways to enhance our service and bring new elements into my remit.

“I didn’t have a plan when I took a role as an office junior 15 years ago and I
certainly never expected to have the word ‘engineer’ in my title. That initial admin role not only opened the door to career opportunities, though, but also to an environment at Sika where I could shape those opportunities into a rewarding career.”