Danielle Pinksen
Training Coordinator at SSI Corporate: Software, services, and expertise for the business of shipbuilding
Which oceans or northern-related program did you study at Memorial University and why did you decide to work and do research in this area? What interested you about your particular program from the start, and do you have any memorable experiences, related to your classwork or research, which you'd like to share?
Upon graduating high school, I wasn't entirely sure where my interests were, but I knew that I likely wanted to pursue something related to engineering. I had a knack for problem solving and had a keen interest in developing those skills and applying them to more complex scenarios.
Through research, I discovered an interest in shipbuilding and the diverse opportunities within marine industries. I decided to trust my instincts, enrolling in the Marine Engineering Systems Design program at the Fisheries and Marine Institute. After completing this Diploma of Technology program, I completed the Bachelor of Technology program at Memorial University.
As a young leader on many of my jobs, my managers placed a lot of trust in me, giving me opportunities to stretch my leadership skills and to test the waters of management. This paired with my love for academia drove me to apply for the Master of Technology Management program, from which I graduated in 2022.
My love of continuous learning and my current work pushed me to return to school once again in pursuit of a degree in post-secondary education, on which I am presently working. I have thoroughly enjoyed dipping my toes into different types of roles, allowing me to expand my skillset and to find what I really enjoy.
The most memorable experiences for me are always taking advantage of both ship and shipyard visits. Actually witnessing the grandeur of these vessels in which you’ve had a hand in building is a surreal experience, and it never gets old!
Where are you currently working? Can you tell us a little about your place of work? What does a typical day in your work and/or research life look like?
I currently work as Training Coordinator at SSI, maker of ShipConstructor ship design software.
Our software solutions are designed to tackle shipbuilding's unique challenges through design, build, and maintenance phases of a ship's lifespan.
As Training Coordinator, I am responsible for managing all training initiatives across the organization. I create new learning materials, maintain our current catalog, deliver online learning webinars, and am often pulled into other training-related side projects along the way. My goal is always to ensure that users are leveraging the software to its full potential, maximizing efficiency, and optimizing workflows as much as possible.
Prior to my work at SSI, I worked as a marine piping designer for eight years, applying ShipConstructor software daily. What I enjoy about my current role is that it allows me to put my experience using our software solution in industry to use, training new users with tricks of the trade that I’ve picked up along the way. It also enables me to provide my subject matter expertise internally in new feature discussions.
Topics of interest that have been emerging in the shipbuilding industry are how we can mitigate the ever-present talent shortage and lack of qualified ship designers. My work at SSI allows me to be a key player in the development of training and onboarding materials to transition people into the industry as seamlessly as possible. I love playing a part in ensuring that users are capable and confident using our software solutions for their design problems.
Is there a recent initiative (e.g., a project, partnership, trip, presentation, or something similar) which you’d like to tell us about?
A recent project that I had the great pleasure of working on was a partnership between SSI and National Shipbuilding Research Program (NSRP), an American organization whose mission is to employ a collaborative framework to research and development across the shipbuilding industry. The project in question was a major update to something called Modern Shipbuilding Design Courses 3, which is a deployable training package that teaches the basic principles of ship design and computer-aided design tools to learners. The goal of this package is to onboard interested and qualified professionals into the shipbuilding industry as quickly as possible, equipping a capable marine design workforce for the modern shipbuilding industry.
This project and those similar are highly valuable due to the talent shortage mentioned earlier. It’s really exciting to tap into my shipbuilding knowledge and to pair it with projects within the software development world. I have a lot of freedom and flexibility within my work to try new things and to see what sticks!
How did your experiences at Memorial influence and/or prepare you for your current work in the cold oceans and northern field?
My experiences at the Marine Institute and Memorial have helped instrumentally in building the confidence that I needed to jump off the deep end into the world of ship design. It is quite easy to feel a sense of imposter syndrome while working in this industry, so I will give MI kudos in helping combat that feeling. I always knew that I had the full support of my professors, who were highly active in helping students find jobs upon graduation.
While nothing can truly prepare you for the complexities of the world, MUN does an excellent job in preparing students with a diverse toolkit of experiences to draw upon.
What is something you would like for everyone to know about the ocean/the North?
The important thing that I always rave about are the endless opportunities that exist within the ocean. Be it employment, science, food, or scenery, there is something in it for everyone.
If you have an interest, you owe it to yourself to explore it, even if it doesn’t lead you down a traditional career path. That was one thing that I really latched onto. There is an entire world of jobs that I had no idea existed, and there is still so much opportunity that remains untapped out there, with new things being discovered every single day.
The sheer vastness is unreal!
You can listen to Danielle speak about her work in this interview from the recent MARI-Tech conference: