Amanda Smith, once a part-time worker in a West Cumbria supermarket, represented the UK at a major international drone conference.
The drone conference took place in Switzerland ahead of International Women's Day, which was held on March 8.
From her teenage years pondering her future amongst the aisles, she is now on the forefront of drone advancements in the UK.
Ms Smith hopes this will encourage more young women to explore the world of drones.
Amanda shared a panel with Kevin Young of the Idaho Environmental Coalition at the Flyability User Conference in Lausanne on March 6.
She highlighted her work at the Sellafield Ltd nuclear decommissioning site in Cumbria.
Through their operation of drones, Amanda and her team have made operations at Sellafield safer, faster, and more cost-effective.
"The change I have seen in five years you would not believe,'' said Ms Smith.
"We've taken the number of drone flights at Sellafield from one flight every six months to 200 flights a year."
Amanda's career in the drone industry didn't start conventionally.
Initially, all set to study accountancy at Newcastle University, Amanda had a change of heart and subsequently, a stint in business studies at Carlisle College proved not to be her calling either.
Her part-time job at a Safeway supermarket allowed her the time to contemplate her next move, which turned out to be joining Sellafield Ltd as a technical assistant testing instruments.
Fast-forward to today and Amanda not only heads a team of drone pilots at Sellafield as head of UAV, but is also the newly appointed chair of the national organisation COMIT2Drones.
This group is committed to making drone technology a key tool for UK construction and infrastructure industries.
Ms Smith said: "It’s a really good community for sharing learning and supporting each other and I am looking at how we can grow that and reach into wider industries."
Her membership of the Critical National Infrastructure Working Group for drones, which includes big names like Network Rail, National Highways, National Grid, and Transport For London, will help achieve her aim.
Ms Smith marked another achievement earlier this year when she presented to 200 attendees, largely from the oil and gas industries, at an offshore energy event in Aberdeen.
She said: "People were coming up to me afterwards to discuss how we can best share knowledge and support each other.
"We are often fighting the same battles across different industries such as with maintenance backlogs and skills shortages, so how can we support each other better across each other’s industries?"
She believes drone technology can be part of the solution to many of these challenges, especially as far as keeping people safe in harmful environments.
She said: “Everything we do with drones at Sellafield is about removing people from harmful environments.”
Ms Smith says she would like to see more women in the industry.
She said: “I would like to see more women coming into the profession - women are still few and far between in the drone world and that needs to change.
"I think we need to engage women and girls earlier in the school years, as early as primary school age, to know that they can do these types of jobs.
"You don’t need to have a degree to have a career in the drone industry.
"I am proof of that.
“You need to understand how things work, have a good grasp of maths, English and the sciences and be a good communicator - everything else is about attitude and a willingness to learn.”
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