Meet Jamie WilsonJamie Wilson – Engineering Team Leader, New Zealand

​Jamie was a fresh-faced undergraduate on work experience when he first walked through the doors at VAE Group head office in Brisbane. In 2012, he joined the team permanently as a Junior Engineer and over the next eleven years, he worked his way through the ranks and across the seas to his role now as VAE’s Engineering Team Leader for New Zealand.

Jamie’s experience is a great example of how people can grow their careers within VAE.

“After I completed my work experience with VAE and graduated, I was fortunate enough to be offered a full-time position with the company in Brisbane. For the first few years, I worked and learned the profession from Craig, Schoey & Richie Vaughan, whilst getting to watch the company grow.”

"After about five years, we were successful in tendering the Christchurch hospital over in New Zealand. [Company director] Craig asked me whether I would like to move across the ditch and become a site-based engineer for the project. And I thought, yeah, why not? I mean, most people probably move and get jobs in London or somewhere a bit more exotic, but it sounded good to me. Christchurch is a stunning part of the world, actually.”

“At that point, we didn’t even have an office in New Zealand. Things have changed a lot since then as we now have more than 18 employees on the South Island alone. I look back on the hospital project as my biggest career achievement so far, because I feel like it helped to build and cement a good reputation for the company in New Zealand.”

“After we finished the hospital project, we picked up a bunch more work over here. We have three other engineers now and we've got a little team going on. Being a team leader gives my job variety, which I like. I’ve got to make sure my team are having a good time and finding enjoyment in their work.”

“When I’m not doing that, I’m focused on my mechanical engineering responsibilities which involve a lot of document review and calculations.”

"It doesn't sound super exciting to most people, but it’s a nice feeling when the job’s finished and you actually get to see the design come to life and operate the way it’s meant to. Seeing it come off the page into reality."

“That’s what I enjoy most about my job – that feeling of fulfilment you get when you’ve finished a project and you can see that the hard work you've put in has paid off. It can even be a small part or milestone in an overall project. For instance, at Christchurch hospital, the new building needed to be connected to the existing site steam supply, and also be provided with a new standby boiler, which is something I hadn't really worked with before.”

“The learning through that process was significant and seeing it working as intended was a good feeling. The steam supply was there to serve the hospital’s sterile services department. You see, all the scalpels and tools from the operating theatres get sent to this department to be put through a bunch of washers and sterilizers which consume a lot of steam. It’s quite complex because each connection to a sterilizer or washer needs to be validated as having suitable steam quality and dryness, which is only achievable through sound installation practice and application of the correct components. It was a very cool project to work on.”

Jamie thinks the culture of VAE has a lot to do with why he’s stayed with the company.

“It comes down to how I've been treated, not just by managers, but peers, colleagues and so on. I've always been treated respectfully, and it feels like people have my interests in mind. And that's given me a lot of opportunities to grow.”

“VAE is not your typical mechanical contractor. The culture here is great. I enjoyed myself in Brisbane, and in New Zealand we've got a great, tight-knit team. Everyone's friendly, easy to get along with and they're like-minded people so it works well.”

“In addition to that, I get a lot of confidence from how open Ben Carter, our CEO, and the executives are about the business’ performance. Ben provides quite a bit of insight in his updates on how we’re performing financially, and I feel like not many companies would do that. That gives me confidence the company’s healthy and our jobs are going to be secure.”  

Outside of work, Jamie likes to play basketball, DotA 2 and relax with his fiancé and their cat.

What’s next for Jamie on the work front?

“My goal for the future is just to solidify the company’s position in New Zealand. There are some projects on the horizon that I'd love to be involved in so fingers crossed that works out.”