By then, she had already taken on significant responsibility at SSTL.
Jenny studied Physics with Astronomy at the University of Southampton, completing an MPhys which included observational astronomy using the University telescope to monitor supernovae.
She began her career on Lockheed Martin UK’s graduate scheme before joining its special projects team as a Systems Engineer. From there, Jenny moved to the UK Space Agency’s Office of the Chief Engineer, supporting work including the UK Active Debris Removal Mission, Space Based Solar Power studies and payload projects for NASA and ESA. She also represented the UK at the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space.
Jenny joined SSTL in October 2025 and quickly took on technical leadership responsibility, becoming Systems and Technical Lead for the JUNO satellite mission.
It is the breadth of systems engineering that particularly appeals to her.
“I’ve always been someone who prefers being broad rather than going deep into one particular area. I like joining the dots, solving problems, and bringing people - and parts - together.”
That means looking across the complete mission: understanding what the customer needs, working with specialists across each subsystem, making technical trade-offs and considering how decisions in one area affect the whole spacecraft.
Jenny says one of the biggest surprises since joining SSTL has been how quickly she was trusted to make those decisions.
“The level of autonomy and authority I’ve been given to make decisions has genuinely surprised me. From very early on, I felt like I was part of the team and that my views were listened to.”
Her IET award also recognised her commitment to encouraging more young women into engineering - helping, as she put it at the time, to ensure that “all children can dream big”.
For now, Jenny’s focus is on taking JUNO through the next stages of its journey and delivering the spacecraft ready for operations, whilst developing her skills ready for her next challenge.