Natalia Duarte Fernandes

PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT ENGINEER IN SCHUYLKILL HAVEN, USA

I am from Belo Horizonte, Brazil, where I grew up and I went to college. I completed my bachelor degree in Industrial Engineer at Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais on July 2013.

In 2014 I started my career at Prysmian, as part of the Graduate Program. For the first year, I spent some time in R&D, Sales and Operations, where I learned about products, processes and the company culture.

In 2015 I moved to Pennsylvania (USA) for my international assignment, where I stayed for 2 years working in Product Development focused in Special Cables. During this period, I had a chance to work with great people that taught me a lot and helped me improve my technical knowledge and my project management skills.

After the second year, I had the opportunity to extend my international assignment in USA, so I moved to North Dighton, where I was still working with Product Development. In North Dighton, I got exposed to different products and applications, which gave me the opportunity to connect with other areas in the company and increase my network.

Now I have been offered a position to go back to Brazil as a R&D Manager for Industrial Specialties in the LATAM region. It is a big challenge, but I am excited for it. I will be more involved with product strategy and working on business cases for new products. In addition, I will interact more with customers, which is something I always wanted. For me the biggest challenges will be the size of the area and to make sure that the whole team is aligned and working together.

I am motivated by continuous learning, so this is the perfect opportunity for me. Being part of a growing organization, that is currently going through an integration process is exciting and I am sure I will learn a lot.