From Apprentice to Lead Engineer: Hannah Magowan’s Career Journey at Dale Power Solutions
Podcast
For Hannah, joining Dale Power Solutions as an apprentice at 16 marked the beginning of a career that has grown across multiple departments, disciplines and technologies. Over the last 10 years, she has progressed from a school leaver unsure of her next step to a Lead Engineer working across new product development and battery energy storage systems.
In the video below, Hannah shares how she started her career at Dale Power Solutions, how her apprenticeship shape her development, and how she progressed into her current engineering role.
Hannah joined Dale Power Solutions at 16, straight out of school. Like many young people at that stage, she was unsure what she wanted to do next. Although she had always excelled in maths, science and computer science, she also had a practical and creative side, including a love of textiles. This made it difficult to find the right sixth form or the right subject combination that matched her interests and strengths.
Hannah met an apprentice training provider who suggested that an apprenticeship could offer a more practical route into work. Through that provider, she was introduced to Dale Power Solutions, where she began her apprenticeship and started gaining hands-on experience in a real engineering environment. Over the course of her training, Hannah progressed through her apprenticeship to Degree Level (Level 6), combining academic study with practical experience across the business.
During the first few years of her apprenticeship, Hannah completed rotations across a range of departments. This gave her the opportunity to experience different areas of the business and develop a broad understanding of how Dale’s products are designed, built, tested and supported.
Her rotations included shopfloor wiring, design, testing, electronics and software development. This variety helped Hannah explore different aspects of engineering while building practical skills and technical knowledge. It also gave her the chance to understand how different teams contribute to delivering reliable power solutions for customers.
This rotational structure played an important role in helping Hannah identify where her strengths and interests aligned. After gaining experience across several departments, she settled into electronics and software development, where she worked as a Development Engineer for around five years.
As a Development Engineer, Hannah focused on electronics and software development, applying her technical skills to support the design and functionality of Dale’s systems. This role allowed her to build on her strengths in maths, science and computer science, while continuing to work in a practical and problem-solving environment.
Her work in this area has had a lasting impact. Some customers are still using code that Hannah wrote during her time in development, demonstrating the long-term value of her contribution and the importance of robust engineering within Dale’s products and systems.
After several years in electronics and software development, Hannah began looking for a role that would allow her to become more forward-facing and have more interaction with customers. This led her into new product development, where she became involved in introducing new products across Dale’s divisions, including Industrial UPS, Commercial UPS, Generators and Battery Energy Storage Systems.
This move allowed Hannah to combine her technical background with a broader understanding of customer requirements, product application and cross-divisional development. It also gave her the opportunity to support innovation across multiple areas of the business.
Hannah’s involvement in Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) became a key part of her career progression. Working with partners to support the release of Dale’s BESS offering, she found an area she particularly enjoyed and continued to develop within it.
Today, Hannah works as a Lead Engineer, supporting the deployment of BESS across a multitude of sectors. Her journey reflects the value of apprenticeships, internal progression and hands-on experience in building long-term engineering careers.
The short video in this article is taken from Hannah’s full CurrentTalks podcast episode on YouTube. In the episode, Hannah discusses her apprenticeship journey, career progression at Dale Power Solutions, and her current role in supporting BESS as a renewable, future-ready technology.
Watch the full episode on YouTube, or Contact Us to learn more about career opportunities and engineering innovation at Dale Power Solutions.
