About
About Lipika
CEng MIET. Chartered Engineer registered with the Engineering Council, Member of the Institution of Engineering and Technology, and STEM Ambassador for STEM Learning UK.
I'm Lipika Naidu, a Chartered Engineer whose chartership was awarded by the Engineering Council, with professional registration through the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET). My career has spanned the full breadth of the industry: from nimble start-ups and specialist SMEs, through mission-driven R&D and public sector organisations, to some of the world's largest technology companies. That range has been deliberate. Each environment taught me something the others couldn't. The agility of a small team, the rigour of grand-cause research, the scale and ambition of big tech. Across all of it, my technical home has been the intersection of controls, software, hardware, robotics and automation: systems that sense, decide and act in the real world.
Career journey
A career built across every scale of engineering
Small companies and specialist SMEs
Where I learnt to wear many hats, move fast, and take real ownership. Small teams build generalists, and generalists build better engineers. Patent technologies finding their way to global markets.
R&D and public sector
Working towards grand-cause problems: safety-critical systems, national infrastructure, research with genuine societal impact. Where intelligence and innovation multiply, and cutting-edge technology is made possible for the future.
Big tech
Operating at global scale, with the resources and ambition to tackle problems that matter at a systems level. A different kind of challenge and a different kind of growth, attacking the realistic problems of the present.
Technical expertise
Controls. Software. Hardware. Robotics.
Controls
Designing systems that behave predictably and safely, from classical control theory to modern model-based approaches.
Software
Writing code that runs in the real world, where correctness and reliability matter more than elegance.
Hardware
Understanding the physical layer, because the best systems engineers know what happens when software meets silicon.
Robotics and Automation
Building machines that sense, decide and act. The discipline that brings controls, software and hardware together.
STEM Ambassador · STEM Learning UK
Inspiring the next generation
As a STEM Ambassador for STEM Learning UK, I work with schools, colleges and community organisations to bring engineering to life for young people, especially those who might not yet see themselves in technical careers. I believe representation matters deeply. When a student sees someone who looks like them doing the work, something shifts. That shift is worth every school visit, every panel, every conversation. My goal is simple: to make the path into engineering feel possible, welcoming and worth taking.
Connect on LinkedInPrinciples
What I believe in
Inclusion
Engineering is richer and more effective when it draws from the full range of human experience. Diverse teams build better systems.
Curiosity
The best engineers never stop asking why. Curiosity is not a personality trait, it is a professional discipline.
Confidence
Building it in others is as important as having it yourself. Confidence is contagious and it starts with being seen.
Giving Back
If you have had opportunities, help create them for others. That is not optional, it is part of the job.