“The world’s largest aircraft repair center was built on my instructions” – Nipuni Karunaratne – by Upali Obeyesekere

She has already shown her talents to the world as a Sri Lankan girl. She is currently working as a Digital Design Manager for Rolls-Royce, the world’s largest car and aircraft engine maker in the United Kingdom. In addition, the world’s largest aircraft repair center in Atlanta, USA, was built on her leadership and technical advice.

Nipuni Karunaratne is still 28 years old. Born in Raddolugama Ganepola, she received her primary education at Museus Girls’ School, Colombo. She then went on to study abroad at the University of Brunel in England, where she also excelled. Currently, a team of engineers led by her is engaged in a historic mission to introduce the world of artificial intelligence aircraft engines.Nipuni is the Digital Technology Manager at Rolls Royce, an Entrepreneur and the Vice chair for the Rolls Royce Gender Diversity Network in the UK.

“I was educated at Museus Girls’ School, Colombo until I sat for the London O / L exam. I go abroad after the normal class. My father and brother are engineers. That’s why my mother always told me that my biggest dream is to see myself become a doctor. During my school life in Sri Lanka, I was fascinated by education as well as sports. Swimming and tennis are special, engaging in any sport means that one can build great self-confidence. I say that with my experience. Because when I worked with white people in England, they were initially reluctant to work under me. That’s because they’re older than I am. Among them were engineers in their fifties who took double PHDs”

She comes from an engineering family background where her parents always motivated her to learn and thrive for more in life without any barriers. Little did she know that becoming a female engineer in a male dominated industry could be so challenging yet exciting.

After her early education in Sri Lanka and in Dubai, she started her MEng in Aerospace Engineering at an early age of 16 which made her the youngest in every situation that she faced. In her second year of university she was offered a role at a research centre in Cambridge as a Technical research assistant. This is where her passion for new technology and innovations fruited.

After her graduation in 2014, she was offered a role at Rolls Royce Civil Aerospace as a Graduate Manufacturing Engineer. During this time, she worked in various departments within the company progressing her career and gaining a wider understanding of the business. During this time, she became a Lean Six Sigma practitioner supporting the continuous improvement culture at Rolls Royce. As an example of this, she successfully closed out a major project which saves £1.2M yearly and increasing for the company.

After successfully completing her graduate scheme as an overperforming employee of the company, she was offered a technical leadership role in Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul department to lead the new global facility setup in North America and Asia. One of these factories being the world biggest repair centre for the Aerospace industry. In 2018 as a business-critical requirement, she then joined the Supply Chain Management Team supporting the service operations while looking after the German vendor network. In this role she was technically responsible for continuous supply chain of several critical parts of a Jet engine.

Nipuni’s passion in Science and Technology always motivated her to look for new technologies and improvements in industries. In 2019 whilst being at Rolls Royce, she started her own company in Research & Development with a focus in fourth generation Industry solutions. As the world moves to this digital transformation, Nipuni has recently been appointed as the Rolls Royce Digital Technology Team Manager for the Model Factory team. She will be working with a team of experts to deliver a major digitalisation program.

Throughout Nipuni’s career she has been actively involved in STEM activities and helping the young generation by mentoring, coaching and inspiring. She has been a motivational and a STEM panel speaker in many leading events in the United Kingdom.

During these events she have supported both young male and female participants by mentoring and coaching them from an early age to support in having a successful career in STEM industries. She has been elected in 2019 as the UK chair for the Gender Diversity Network at Rolls Royce and currently she is working as the Vice Chair supporting the company in positively changing the working environment to be more diverse and inclusive. This network has grown to be the biggest employee resource group with 1000+ members in the company. She has been involved in designing and developing a personal development session within the company which has become very popular and helped many female engineers to do well in their day to day job.

Nipuni’s ambition has always been to spread awareness and change the communities and STEM industries to move away from the stereotypes to values the talent and be more inclusive. She always thrives to be a role model for career driven women, demonstrating through her own experience of being a female young engineer in the world.