Women's Month Profile: NIKITA BUDREE, SENIOR STRUCTURAL ENGINEER, AECOM

This August, in celebration of Women’s Month, Leading Architecture + Design has profiled a dozen inspiring women in the fields of architecture, urbanism, interior design and engineering, showcasing their skills and achievements, as well as their views on the challenges that the industry faces.

NIKITA BUDREE, SENIOR STRUCTURAL ENGINEER, AECOM

Nikita Budree is a Senior Structural Engineer in AECOM’s Durban office. “I also assist our manager to plan the weekly workload for a team of eight engineers,” she says. “As an engineer, I design structures using hand calculations, 2D and 3D analytical programs; I also review designs and drawings.”

One of many career highlights was Nikita’s involvement in the design and construction of the Moses Mabhida Stadium. “I was given the opportunity as a young candidate engineer to design concrete suspended slabs for the stadium,” she recalls. “I was also fortunate to be heavily involved in a green field bottling plant in Mozambique, which gave me a huge platform to grow both as a design and site engineer, as well as to travel within Africa.”

She achieved her professional registration in 2015, which helped to boost her career. More recently, she has developed knowledge about travelling crane designs and fulfilled a design manager role on a press plant project in East London, as well as earthquake/seismic design on a project in Ghana.

“Site visits initially were awkward due to so many males on a construction site,” she recalls. “Eventually, I decided to take a stand and greet as many of the staff on site so that they could realise that us women are to be treated as equals.”

As a senior, Nikita says she enjoys mentoring others. “I also enjoy helping to organise social events within our team to keep the spirit up,” she adds. “I think this is a ‘motherly’ trait that I bring to the team.”

She says that women have to “constantly ‘think smarter’ as they juggle many roles both at work and at home”. She adds, however, that “this brings a great energy to the construction industry”.