James Clarke joins Hawkins after graduating with a first-class honours degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Huddersfield in 2017 and subsequently working in as a fire engineer.
Since graduating, James has worked in a number of industry sectors across project management, mechanical engineering, and fire safety engineering. James’ degree covered a range of topics, including Mechanical Design, Manufacturing, Computational Fluid Dynamics, Finite Element Analysis, and Business Management.
When given the option to specialise, James focused on a live industrial dissertation subject covering asset utilisation and six sigma manufacturing techniques, coupled with technical assessment on the design and analysis of helicopter landing gear and the optimal design of trailer aerodynamic devices.
Additionally, within his final year, James captained the university’s formula student racing team. Having successfully managed the team, sought funding through sponsorship, and provided input to the design of the vehicle’s dynamics and chassis packages, James raced with the team in the UK and Europe.
During his time at university, James held a project engineering position with a Yorkshire based pharmaceutical company where he assisted with the development and introduction of new production and packaging facilities. James quickly developed the ability to assess both products and components involved in flammable and explosive environments, advising the internal engineering and Health & Safety teams.
As part of a summer internship, James continued in operations development with national telecommunications company Arqiva, to help increase efficiency in maintenance processes and data analysis. During this time, James generated a streamlining of the company’s Planned Work process and eradicated ‘waste’ from databases.
Having completed his degree, James joined Tarmac as an operations graduate continuing his work to streamline processes and management of engineering components. He also assisted with the development, rollout and trial of preventive maintenance software at various sites.
Since 2018, James has worked as a fire engineer with Arup. Having gained valuable experience in the management and operational development of companies in a wide range of sectors, James has brought this knowledge to the fire safety assessment and design of various building types. He successfully developed fire safety strategies for manufacturing facilities, offices, schools/universities and hospitals. James’ position has also provided the opportunity to conduct on-site and desktop assessments of existing buildings.
James is an Associate in our Leeds Office specialising in Fire Engineering.
