7:00 AM

My day starts with three snoozed alarms that finally wake me up. Sipping my (first) coffee for the day I catch up on the overnight news by tuning into the tellie and finish off my breakfast. By 7:30am I’m out the door and drive into work. 

8:00 AM 

By now I walk into the office and say hello to everyone on my way to my desk. This can take anywhere from 5-30 minutes depending on how eventful everyone’s weekend was. After getting to my desk I review my emails that have come in and check it see if I have any urgent tasks coming up. I try to work out a rough agenda for the day’s events and plan out what I will be working on. Some emails have urgent reviews for our team to conduct and this usually means all premade plans are out the window.  

9:00 AM 

After settling in, my first round of meetings would usually start, due to the range of my team’s work we collaborate with many other defence organisations across Australia – One Defence is well and truly here! In the morning we might meet with DSTG in Adelaide updating us on their work, this might be followed up with a meeting with CASG from Sydney updating the progress of the project. Sometimes we have to stay up late when we have meetings with counterparts or companies (these in particular can be really insightful). 

10:00 AM  

10am is our designated daily stand-up time – with a coffee in hand our entire team gets together to discuss any updates on the tasks that we’re working on and our general plans for the week. During this time I get to hear what the wider team is up to and it’s a great opportunity to see the diversity of work undertaking by DNE. Some of the specialities covered include Lasers & Optronics, Underwater Acoustics, Autonomous Systems, Electronic Warfare or even Radar Systems. 

12:00 PM 

With lunch rolling around the team meets up again to decide between Sushi or Pizza (it can be a tough choice). We decide to go with Sushi and make our way across to Majura Park which is a short drive away. 

1:00 PM 

We’re currently working on integrating autonomous underwater vehicles onto the RAN’s vessels. To assist our work I organise a visit to a ship based at HMAS Waterhen. Since we’re going to be in Sydney I get in touch with a fellow graduate based at Garden Island East currently undertaking an industry rotation with Thales Australia. The CEDP is unique in allowing graduates to choose their own path and this usually means there is a fellow grad not too far away. 

It’s a tight schedule but we also plan to make a visit to DSTG Sydney and visit their autonomous systems lab. The lab is every engineers dream with 3D printers, CNC machines and CAD stations scattered across the room. 

2:00 PM 

The afternoon is usually filled with a few more meetings or a catch up with my supervisor. This a great time for me to ask any technical questions or concepts I might be unclear on. DNE has a fantastic culture of learning and development and your supervisors are always willing to help you along your way. This makes the technical leap into naval engineering a lot more manageable and you slowly build your knowledge in the space.  

3:00PM  

As the day comes to a close I finalise any urgent matters for the day and write any notes down in my diary for updates on tasks. If I have any updates to my tasks I would send out a summary message with the current status of the work to the project stakeholders. Working for such a large organisation such as Defence means communication is critical.

4:00PM

By 4 o’clock it’s usually time to head off and call it a day. The team is quite flexible with your start/end times and usually means some people start early whilst others have a bit of a sleep in before coming into work. 

On my way back home I go past my local shops and pick up the groceries for the week before heading home. After putting away the groceries I sit on the couch with my feet up and catch up on my newsfeeds. 

5:00PM 

With the weather cooling down a bit I get changed in to my joggers and step out for an afternoon run. There are numerous lakes around Canberra and I’m spoilt for choice on where to go. I decide to head down to Lake Burley Griffin and do a few laps as I listen to a podcast. 

6:30PM 

Dinner rolls around and it’s time to for Taco’s! I whip my dinner and browse through Netflix to find a movie for the night. This is also a good time to check in on friends and family interstate and see how everyone’s doing. 

11:30PM

After doing the rounds I get ready to go to bed to do it all again!

Background – This is a typical day for an Industry rotation supporting a Defence test and evaluation project. My role was part of a young team of engineers recently finishing their graduate programs and beginning their journeys as systems/test and evaluation engineers. This program has developed my skillset so I was easily placed in this team.

5:00 AM

In the desert, days start early. 5 AM wakeup for a 5:30 start on the testing range; especially for a day consisting of 2 flight tests.

5:30 AM

Test brief to go through who is manning which station during each test, the expected testing schedule and any adverse conditions that may impact our testing. Following the brief, everyone goes their separate ways with myself in charge of starting up the remote communications to the aircraft and ensuring we have a strong link to control the aircraft if any issues arise.

7:00 AM

We are a go! By this time the aircraft is at the end of the runway with the pilots going through their pre-flight checks and monitoring the flying conditions. From here I await any instructions to check signal strength and communicate this back to the test pilots. Once all checks are done its time to fly. During the flights, we are continuously monitoring the data we are receiving and live streaming it to the applicable SME parties in real time.

8:30 AM

Flight is over and jet is back in the hangar. At this time we are responsible for collecting on board data from the aircraft, processing and sending it to the SME’s not on site. After data retrieval, time for lunch, catching up on emails missed during the morning period and prepping for the second flight test for the day.

11:00 AM

After the jet is checked over, refuelled and data wiped we are ready for test 2. Exact repeat of the 7:00 AM procedure, we are manning our stations and ready to fly!

12:30 PM

Flight is over and repeat the data extraction and processing. After this we await the days testing debrief and plan for the following day. This usually occurs around 2:00 PM which means any downtime is spent writing scripts and troubleshooting current functions to better process, analyse and display the data in which we have received.

4:00 PM

We are done for the day, from here it’s a 10 minute drive to the accommodation and because we are located remotely the people you work with are the people you travel with and the people you eat, drink and socialise with. From here I personally go to the gym for a quick 45 minute to an hour workout and walk to the local hotel for dinner at 6:00 PM.

8:00 PM

From here it’s a quick shower, wind down, make lunch for the next day and get to sleep because for testing days we need to be onsite at 5:30 AM and non-testing days, onsite at 7:30 AM.

This is a typical testing day while deployed, usually 6 days a week and when returning to your home you are compensated with time off from work and the weeks following are all dedicated to planning the next deployment.