Nicole on public service, safety, and building transportation that lasts

Nicole, Transportation Strategy & Advisory Growth Lead for Roads, Bridges & Tolls, on bringing a career‑long public‑service mindset to AtkinsRéalis, and the safety and resilience work she finds most rewarding.

Nicole spent her entire career in the public sector before joining AtkinsRéalis. When she decided to make the move, she wasn’t looking to leave that world behind. She was looking for a company that shared its sense of purpose.

Having worked my whole career in public service, I wanted to find a company that shared that passion for improving quality of life for the people we serve, she says. I found that at AtkinsRéalis, and especially within the RBT group.

It’s a fitting home. Day to day, Nicole works directly with the local governments and state departments of transportation whose mission is to keep people moving, safe, and connected. They’re the same kind of institutions she once served from the inside.

 

A role that spans safety, workforce, and resilience

As Transportation Strategy and Advisory Growth Lead for Roads, Bridges & Tolls, Nicole works across many facets of transportation. Right now, her focus sits on three areas: safety, workforce development, and resilience.

Safety comes first, for every client and every traveler, whatever mode they’re using. “We work with clients to identify their safety needs and help them implement countermeasures for all users across their networks,” she says.

On workforce development, her work is about people as much as infrastructure. She helps clients build leadership development programs that give their employees the tools to grow personally and professionally, while developing the next generation of leaders inside those organizations.

In the resilience space, she helps clients prepare their networks for whatever the future holds. “We identify vulnerabilities and develop ways to strengthen them, building robust systems, with redundancies built in, that can withstand and recover quickly from future shocks and stressors.”

A connected team, wherever you are

Roads, Bridges & Tolls is spread across the country, but Nicole describes a group that stays closely linked. “We’re a very connected team, sharing information, ideas, and best practices,” she says. “Leadership encourages innovative thinking, supports new ideas and initiatives, and gives us the room to pursue our own growth.”

That mix of autonomy and support is, for her, part of what makes the work rewarding over the long run.

The most rewarding part

Ask Nicole what she values most, and it comes back to impact she can see.

“Whether it’s safety and resilience improvements that directly affect quality of life for transportation users, or a workforce program that empowers a client’s staff to advance their careers, I get to see the direct result of the work, and the impact it has.”

Thinking about a career in roads, bridges, and tolls?

Her advice to anyone considering it is simple. “RBT is a supportive space to be innovative, and it encourages collaboration. The work we do directly impacts the safety and quality of life of everyone who uses the transportation network. You genuinely get to make a difference.”
 
We’re growing our Roads, Bridges & Tolls team across the US.