Jonathan Baber

What do you do at Mott MacDonald?

I’m a chartered engineer with more than 35 years’ experience in delivering design for major infrastructure projects across the globe – the majority of which have been complex underground works for metro and highways projects, waterway crossings and energy projects.

I currently lead Mott MacDonald’s tunnels practice in the Asia Pacific, New Zealand, and Australia region to maintain technical excellence and to ensure best practice is applied to the tunnelling projects we deliver for our clients.

Tell us about your career journey

I was convinced about following a career in engineering when, during my civil engineering degree course, I was given a year’s industrial placement with the British Airports Authority. I spent six months working at Stansted Airport in the Resident Engineers team and got to see a whole variety of things being built. That made it real and non-academic and I knew this was the field I wanted to work in.

After university I joined a consultancy starting as a bridge design engineer, but branched out into other areas that included road and rail projects, bridges and tunnels. Over the years I worked on quite a number of tunnelling projects and eventually became responsible for that area of the market, as well as managing the bridge, tunnel and geotechnical teams.  The company I was with specialised in immersed tunnels and that was an area I loved and became a specialist in. I was fortunate enough to work on projects all around the world in the field and through that became involved in the International Tunnelling Association.

I moved to Mott MacDonald in 2011, where I established myself in our tunnels team and the broader Metros and Civils division, taking on increased responsibility for larger projects. I have been fortunate enough to be involved in many of the large projects Mott MacDonald has delivered including road tunnels, metros, Crossrail, high speed rail, and I still get to play with immersed tunnel projects occasionally. I was also fortunate to have been asked to contribute to jobs around the world in Hong Kong, Malaysia, Scandinavia and Australia.

When I was invited to become our Australian tunnels practice leader in Sydney I jumped at the chance. It has been a fantastic opportunity to work on some great road, rail and energy projects, and also to build a new tunnels team and instil a technical excellence ethic. I’m pleased to say it’s worked out very well!

How do you contribute to Mott MacDonald making a difference to people and planet?

I love that we have our values captured in Our Purpose to guide us in how we select and deliver our projects. I think most engineers are really aware of the global issues we are facing and genuinely want to deliver projects that respond to the crisis we are facing.

Sometimes it’s hard to measure how we contribute individually, but we can all draw satisfaction when we are involved in delivering community enhancing projects like new metros, or helping in the energy transition toward renewables. But on every project always having an eye on the most sustainable design solutions is really important, whether that’s at the macro or micro scale. Working through our practices internally, and technical societies externally to develop tools and guidance in this respect is also important to me.

I’m also passionate about helping develop others. Wherever possible, I aim to be a role model to encourage and inspire Mott MacDonald’s young engineers. Our practice structure is great for this and enables me to help develop individuals who have a desire to progress technically.

Within the tunnels practice I’ve enabled people to grow and develop in areas such as software development and digitalisation, and sustainable design. I also put high value in broadening people’s technical knowledge through engagement with technical societies, writing technical papers and attending conferences and seminars. Guiding people to get the right training is important, and finding time for individual mentoring is something I regard as an obligation for experienced engineers.

Do you have a mantra you live by?

I have a few of these, but will stick to three for now:

• “You’re never too old to learn” – I learn new things on every project and at every conference or seminar I attend. We should never be so arrogant to think we know every answer.
• “Trust your gut” – when you’ve been working in the industry a while if something doesn’t feel right it probably isn’t.
• “Share your knowledge but also listen to others” – the best outcomes are generally achieved through collaboration and sharing ideas and experience.

Describe your role on a landmark project

One of the projects I am most proud to have been involved in is Sydney Metro - Australia’s biggest public transport project. It is the country’s first fully automated driverless railway and is completely accessible – it’s no exaggeration to say the project is revolutionising travel for people in Australia’s most populated city.

It was a major step for the Australian business to take on a contract that large, delivering multiple metros concurrently, so it was a big moment for us. I was charged with taking the Western Sydney Airport Metro from concept through to construction, which was hugely satisfying. It certainly wasn’t an easy ride, but it went incredibly well in terms of getting it done on time, to budget, and having a very happy client.

The project had a bit of everything – tunnels, viaducts, surface and underground stations, rail systems, depot and rolling stock, and an interface with an airport, which is where I started back in the 1980s!

Although I was leading the project on this occasion, I was still able to input my subject matter expertise which was satisfying. Great teamwork and the application of technical excellence helped us deliver this major project on time and to budget.