Marielle Roux happily admits that she “has always been interested in maths”, dunked in it by her parents, both maths and physics teachers. Attracted by information technology (IT), she did a Masters in that subject during which she had to do an internship. “I did it in the bank and that's where I quickly realised that Management IT was really not for me”, she laughs. So for the first decade of her professional life she worked in the space sector before moving into aeronautics. Today, at Collins Aerospace – Avionics she is Director Europe, Certification, Safety, Cybersecurity, and AI (Artificial Intelligence).

Her job is to make sure that the aircraft systems on which the company works meet all the regulatory standards, which are severe for civil and military aviation. With her team of some 30 experts she must certify that these aircraft systems are “safe” a word Marielle prefers to use in English. And as today’s aircraft are increasingly computerised one has to be absolutely certain that all these systems are fully protected from intrusions. In other words right from their preconception stage their vulnerabilities must be analysed and protect from them, so that they are resilient against any potential cyberattack.

Marielle concedes that she “learns something new every day in this job” but sees herself as a conductor of her experts, ensuring that everyone is playing from the same score, which is that “all embarked systems are safe” she explains. “My role as a manager is to help my experts develop, to create diversity and complementarity in the team. For example, at the beginning there were only two of us and over the years my department has grown with the addition of experts in aircraft certification, safety, cybersecurity and more recently in artificial intelligence,” essentially machine learning, remarks this easy-going, approachable woman. In the aeronautical industry “AI is a precious help for preventive maintenance [that is to say to replace or inspect an element before it can cause a mishap], managing flight performance, decision-making or recognising a cyber intrusion for example.”

Collins Aerospace in Toulouse works in both the civilian and military sectors. For the moment Marielle spends a good part of her time in the military sector because this French subsidiary of a US company is the main contractor for the upgrading of the French Air Force’s 14 C–130 H aircraft. Acquired between 1987 and 1986 they transport freight and/or passengers and can also undertake other missions. She explains that this upgrade programme aims at entirely modernising the aircraft, a vast undertaking which Collins aerospace is not working on alone. “We work with sub-contractors so we must ensure that the networks we have with all our sub-contractors are secure. It's a whole ecosystem that we need to protect," she explains. 

Marielle began her career in control systems for satellites. “I worked on ground systems rather than on the satellites themselves.” The difficulty in the space sector is that “you only get one go because you cannot do a test flight before.” Once the rocket has taken off, it's too late! As she moved up the professional ladder, she found herself in a transverse general management position. “I was working less on specific projects and more independently as a consultant in various technical domains.” She stresses that even if she was “not at all unhappy” she did miss working in a team.

So the day when she was offered a position working on a project at Collins Aerospace she jumped at the chance. “The company, the project and the stakes were really interesting," she remarks. Six months later Collins offered her a full-time job, “even though I’d told them I was expecting my first child,” she smiles.

Has her career path in this extremely masculine world of aeronautics and space always been smooth? She thinks for a few moments before confirming that it has. “I’ve always benefitted from goodwill by both men and women, so have never felt restricted in what I wanted to do,” she answers.

Married and the mother of two girls, now young adults, she admits having little interest in gardening and cooking, but this ski fanatic is happy to drive several hundred kilometres to practice her favourite sport over a weekend!