The NCSC’s Chief Engineer Carolyn Ainsworth has been named as one of the top 50 Women in Engineering at a prestigious awards ceremony. 

The Women’s Engineering Society (WES) Awards recognise and promote the varied achievements of female engineers across different domains.

Carolyn’s award, which she received at a ceremony in London, came as GCHQ Director Anne Keast-Butler and NCSC CEO Felicity Oswald were each named in Computer Weekly’s UKTop50, a list of the most influential leaders in UK technology.

Carolyn has enjoyed a varied career, with roles ranging from aeronautical engineering to cyber security specialist.

She now leads a team of engineers who provide the infrastructure and applications that the NCSC needs to support organisations from Government and Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) through to small businesses and schools.

Carolyn Ainsworth said:

“I found it a great honour to be selected for one of these awards along with my fellow recipients, who are a very inspirational group.

“These WES awards recognise and promote the wide and varied achievements of female engineers. Such recognition simply didn’t exist earlier in my career, so it’s great to see how things have changed.

“My advice to women looking to advance their careers in engineering is to find problems that interest and motivate you, be confident about your strengths, but don’t be afraid to acknowledge where you need to develop.”