Award-winning Engineers

In November 2025, Dr Chineye Princess Udeze won the Institute for Systems Engineering (IfSE) Rising Star award award for her technical proficiency and leadership contributions in Model Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) for Leonardo.

Princess, who is a Principal Systems Engineer based at Leonardo’s Luton site, joined the company after transitioning from medical engineering into defence through the STEM Returners programme. Since then, she has progressed rapidly, co-leading the architecture team and driving model-based systems engineering practices across major programmes.

Alongside her technical achievements, Princess is an active member of Leonardo’s Equalise and Ethnicity Inclusion networks, where she champions diversity and mentors future talent. She regularly speaks at internal events, encouraging women and ethnic minorities to pursue a career in engineering.

In November 2024, Freya won the ‘Unsung Hero’ award at the West of England Aerospace Forum (WEAF)’s 2024 awards, for her role as Chair of AeroWomen and for trailblazing at a young age for women in engineering.

Freya, who is a Mechanical Engineering Technician Apprentice in Yeovil, the Home of British Helicopters, joined Leonardo in 2021 and took up her role with AeroWomen in March 2023. She has since led the committee organising AeroWomen 2023 and AeroWomen 2024. At this year’s event, she reminded delegates that “While there may be more women than ever in industry, there is still a long way to go before the ideal 50:50 split. We must be more courageous – to take up more opportunities and not be scared of failure.”

As well as Chairing AeroWomen, Freya is also the Young Professional Representative for the Royal Aeronautical Society.

Dr Cath Hossain was selected as one of the Women in Engineering Society’s Top 50 Women in Engineering (WE50) in 2026, under the year’s theme of ‘Engineering Intelligence’. This recognition was for the creative, multi-disciplinary, people-centric approach Cath has taken in pushing forward the technology development within the Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP), bringing together multiple sources of innovation to support the step changes in technology needed for next-generation systems.

"Through being nominated for awards like this, I am able to progress and develop my skills further and influence the wider community. I fully intend to nominate others when I see exceptional skills and practices being demonstrated,” says Cath.

Outside of her technical role as a Project Engineering Lead, Cath is an active member of Leonardo’s Enable Network Group, focussing on the promotion of knowledge and awareness of working with disabilities, and supporting the HSE team in their development of assistive resources. She also informally mentors several early careers engineers.

In 2023, Jainna won the Judges' Choice Apprentice of the Year at the Multicultural Apprenticeship Awards, which aim to showcase talent and diversity within multicultural communities through the celebration of those working hard to overcome adversity to achieve their goals through apprenticeships. In June 2025, Jainna was named 'Alumni of the Year' at the Future Leaders Awards, having been a former student of the programme and now forging a successful career in Project Management at Leonardo.

As well as her individual awards, Jainna was also part of the winning team for the IMechE Apprentice Automation Challenge 2022, where Leonardo won both the Overall Winner Award and the Peer Review Award.

Sophie, who is a Production Material Support Planner, won the 2022 Business Apprentice Final Year award at the Make UK Manufacturing Award National Finals.

Following her award, Sophie said: "This was a huge milestone in my career, and proves that through hard work, commitment and dedication, you really can achieve anything."

Outside of her day-to-day role, Sophie was also part of the Yeovil Trainee Charity and Social Committee, which raised over £88,000 for the Yeovil Hospital Breast Cancer Unit during a three-year period.

Devon Ward, a Mechanical Degree Apprentice in Aerospace at Leonardo’s Yeovil site, won the 2021 Engineering Apprentice Rising Star Award at the Make UK Awards. She joined Leonardo's degree apprenticeship scheme in 2017, aged 18, having grown up in Yeovil and become very used to the sound and sight of helicopters flying overhead.

Leonardo was a desirable and exciting company to me, and I looked into its apprenticeships. I always had a desire to continue my education and advance my qualifications, so the degree apprenticeship scheme was the perfect choice, allowing me to do so while gaining the work experience and professional development I was eager for," she explains.

Devon was also part of the Leonardo's student and apprentice association committee in Yeovil, spending a year each as Vice Chair and then Chair – the first person to hold both roles during the association's 80-year existence.