Welcome to July’s NAVBLUE Employee Spotlight Feature! We’ve created these stories with the goal of shining a spotlight on the pivotal role our employees play in the tech and aviation field, their journeys so far, and how NAVBLUE aims to create an innovative and inclusive workforce with their help.
Today we are sharing the story of Josh Maguire, Deputy Production Director in Hersham, UK.
Fun Facts
- Golf is his biggest passion, he currently has a handicap of 0 and has had 3 hole-in-ones to date!⛳🥇
- Avid sports fan and loves going to watch live sporting events, the first one he remembers is going to watch Manchester United aged 5, the most recent was England cricket v Australia last month!⚽🏏
- One of the Mental Health First Aiders for the Hersham Office and will be refresher training in September🧘♂️📣
Q&A
Thanks for joining us, Josh! Tell us a bit about your background.
I’m originally from Lancaster in the North-West of England, after attending Loughborough University I moved down to Hersham in November 2014. At NAVBLUE I started in the Charts America’s team and moved on to a Team Leader role before my current position of Deputy Production Director.
I live just around the corner of the office in Hersham with my fiancee Sophie (I think most NAVBLUE Hersham employees will know her…) and cat Coco!
What led you to pursue a career in aviation?
I completed an MEng in Chemical Engineering but never really loved the modules or saw myself pursuing a career in the sector. I had a childhood dream of becoming a pilot, and saw an opportunity at NAVBLUE to start my career in the aviation industry.
I quickly realised just how passionate and driven some of my new colleagues were towards becoming pilots and knew I wasn’t at that level, but I had found myself in an interesting position in a company which was forward thinking and like minded people who I really enjoyed working with.
Can you tell me, in brief, what a Deputy Production Director is and what that role entails within NAVBLUE?
My role is to oversee the Charts, Navigation and Airport departments within the Aerodata Hub in the Operations department. I work with managers in the department to ensure customer issues are resolved in a timely manner and corrective actions to safety critical issues are identified and progress well.
Can you tell us about your recent visit to Cranfield University? What was the purpose of your visit?
My colleague Taylor Nunn and I went to Cranfield in June to see the Air Transport Management MSc presentations. The project teams had to start up an airline (not based in Europe or N. America) and factor in fleet size, location map, geopolitical issues, finances plus a lot more in order to get funding from a group of potential investors – think Dragon’s Den!
There were many other aviation companies present and we could provide feedback to help with their final reports, but we could also talk to the students during downtime and share what NAVBLUE has to offer in the market, and as future career possibilities.
The standard of the presentations was very high!
How do you feel our company’s emphasis on supporting young talent has positively impacted new grads career development?
One thing I really like about NAVBLUE is the opportunity it offers internally for new positions or backfilling existing ones in other departments. We’ve had a significant number in the last few years move from Aerodata into management positions, Business Analyst, Delivery and Technical Product Managers.
We also a have training budget available, so anyone who identifies an area of training which will help them grow individually and solve a business need has this great opportunity.
What advice would you give to young employees who might be considering a similar career within NAVBLUE ?
I’d certainly recommend a career with NAVBLUE. We have people here with a real variety of backgrounds and work experience, but with the level of training offered what it really takes is the willingness to learn, drive and focus in order to succeed.
Whilst there are times where the work is intense and there is pressure, we also know how to have fun and build real connections with people. More recently we have had Airbus to leverage, and we’ve seen NAVBLUE employees move to take on exciting opportunities within a variety of areas within Airbus.
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Interested in joining NAVBLUE?
