CAD Lead Engineer Daniela says the Defender should appeal to both men and women.

Romanian-born Daniela Andrei puts her love of engineering partly down to a good teacher at school. “It makes such a difference. I swung between literature and maths as my favourite subjects, mostly depending on the teacher.” Mathematics won and she chose engineering at university, studying Mechanical and Economical Engineering in Bucharest. There, she gained experience working for a supplier to Dacia, the Renault-owned Romanian car maker.

“When you start working in the car industry you do get sucked in. Even if you’re not passionate about the car industry before joining, you will be once you start. Plus, I do enjoy driving and I like cars.” At university, she also spent valuable time working on computers. “We did lots of applications, all very useful as I now specialise in CAD [computer-aided design].”

After graduating, she worked for various suppliers servicing major OEMs, including Renault. Following her returning from maternity leave, she left to work in Italy and then went to Germany. “We were based just outside BMW in Munich. Italy gave us more freedom, in Germany you had to follow the rules. I preferred the Italian life. But for work, I preferred the German way. It was very clear what your responsibilities were.” She returned to Italy, where her engineering roles included computer-aided design for plastic and metal components for Maserati. She then came to JLR.

“A lot of Romanian colleagues were coming to the UK at the time. I thought it was a good opportunity for work and for raising a family.” Along with her partner – also an engineer – she joined JLR in early 2015. She began working on seats, immediately going onto the new Defender.

“I was a CAD engineer on all seats for the Defender, working on programme delivery. It was very demanding. The Defender must work in the city and off road. It must be tough, including farm work. But it also must be modern and premium.” Her primary role was to ensure that the various suppliers delivered seating components that met JLR design requirements and regulations.

“As a CAD engineer, you learn so much. You work over all model years, all versions and all roles. You know the entire seat, all the parts and how they fit together. It’s a complex job.”

Daniela says the Defender should appeal equally to women and to men. “That includes the seats. We engineer for a wide range of body sizes and body shapes, from small women to big men. The sheer spaciousness of the Defender makes it easy to accommodate the very tall and short. But I don’t look specially through a female lens. I make sure my work satisfies all customers.” Now a CAD lead engineer, she continues to work on Defender, tasked with delivering top-quality seats for future models.