Antonella Dell’Aglio started her career at Hitachi Rail as a Passenger Control Engineer, helping to deliver digital signalling technologies and autonomous trains to networks around the world.
Antonella Dell’Aglio started her career at Hitachi Rail as a Passenger Control Engineer, helping to deliver design and commissioning of driverless metro around the world.
After 9 years in this field, she was ready for a new role in Project Management. Thanks to training provided by Hitachi Rail, Antonella is now a Senior Project Manager, aligning teams across the business on maintenance contracts. Including her most memorable work for the ETR500 onboard system with TrenItalia.
Hear from Antonella, as she tells us more about her career journey so far…
Antonella, tell us about your initial career journey in Engineering?
After graduating as a Mechanical Engineer, I began my career in the construction sector, before moving into rail.
My first role at Hitachi Rail was in the Engineering and Commissioning team. Soon after joining, I was involved in a part of the Design and Testing of the company’s Driverless Metro system in Rome (Line C). It was a challenging project which put me in line with lots of different stakeholders.
I hit the ground running as soon as I started this role, thanks to my background as a Mechanical Engineer and experience in manufacturing. My role involved understanding costumer and integration requirements using many specialist systems.
Which skills helped you thrive in engineering?
It’s essential to be intuitive and draw from previous experience to identify issues. During the different phases, from design to test, you could face many challenge until the delivery delivering large systems for a city infrastructure. This is part of what has led my career so interesting!
Can you tell us about one system or product that you have used in your career?
When I was a Control Systems Engineer, I worked on a platform screen door system that is one such critical system which is used for passenger safety. It features electrical systems and mechanical systems. After the successful design and commissioning, we must ensure the maintenance of the systems.
Expertise and lessons learnt every day were grounds for continuous improvement. With passenger safety being paramount, the whole team and I consistently worked to mitigate any hazard.
Why did you want to become a project manager?
I loved the teamwork aspect of my Engineering role. Project Management would be an opportunity for me to work closely with lots of people from different departments across the business. Also, it would familiarise me with lots of different projects.
What was the internal process for the career move?
I applied for an internal job posting, then progressed to an interview with HR and three Head of Project Management groups. They asked me why I wanted to switch, my ambitions, specific questions about project management and also about my role in engineering.
What makes you proud of your work as a project manager?
My team get good feedback from customers, we are recognised for high levels of competence. I am proud of what we achieve as a team who are aligned in the same direction. Client satisfaction!
One of my daily goals is to support my team so that they can do their best. We are constantly reaching more and more challenging goals through collaboration. It’s a two-way exchange, they learn from me and vice versa!
How has your Hitachi Rail career been rewarding?
The diverse range of projects that I have worked on have exposed me to the broad wonders of rail engineering. Over the 10 years that I have worked in on driverless metro projects, I have the confidence to say that I have become an expert in the field. From the Cityringen in Copenhagen and the Metro Lima, Peru - this global exposure has helped build my technical knowledge and given me the chance to collaborate with colleagues in countries around the world.
Now, my every day is about making decisions, so my strong technical background is highly useful. I work with people in the sales team, quality team, logistics team and more.
Do you have any advice for people looking for a career in rail?
For Project Manager aspirants, always remember you are working with people not machines. Never forget team spirit, harmony, and common goals.
