Jane Wilson did not always want to be an engineer.

However, after a career in the water industry – including 21 years at United Utilities – she says she could not think of a better job.

Jane, who lives in Kendal, worked in a variety of roles for United Utilities, including seven years as area engineering manager for Cumbria and North Lancashire, leading up to her retirement in October.

In that role she oversaw the engineering support for United Utilities’ 22 water treatment plants in the area.

“I ran a small team of engineers who helped with any performance or efficiency issues,” she said.

“With assets of the diversity and size difference that United Utilities have in Cumbria it was fascinating.

“It’s a great job, I loved it.”

The job could involve anything from urgent engineering work to fix problems on the sites to studying performance data to see where things could be made to work more efficiently.

“We were a performance enhancement organisation,” Jane said.

“There would always be something, when you had finished one improvement project you would be onto the next one.”

Jane studied biology at York University, although she says she had no idea what she wanted to do afterwards.

However, she soon got a job working in the lab at an independent water supply company.

“I was able to learn from the ground up all about the science of water treatment and the water quality aspects of water treatment,” she said.

“I got a flavour of all the different parts of the business.”

Another job for Southern Water followed, in Kent, where Jane worked in the technical department.

In 1998 she began working for North West Water, now United Utilities, which would ultimately see her return to Cumbria.

It was a homecoming for Jane, who had lived in Barrow until the age of five as her father was in the navy, involved in commissioning nuclear submarines.

She said her work touched on another of her life’s passions; wildlife and nature.

“I was able to support the people who ran the big reservoirs and I got involved in the engineering side of the catchment section,” she said.

“As someone who has always been passionate about wildlife and conservation it was great to be able to go up to Thirlmere and try and help them with work up there.”

Jane’s job also involved doing outreach work as a STEM ambassador at Kirkby Kendal School, as well as working with students on work experience at United Utilities.

“One young lady has actually gone onto get a first in mechanical engineering and work for one of the big engineering consultancies,” she said.

“I think women can bring a lot to engineering.

“We have our own strengths that can add enormous value. Engineering is problem-solving. If you like to solve problems and understand why things work and you want to make things better then that’s the main driver.”