Why Digital and Data Advisory Services are the Doorway to Successful Digital Transformation: A Q&A with Cath Hill

We’re living in the era of digital disruption and we need bold digital and technology leadership now more than ever before. Leading this change demands knowledge, imagination, new thinking, an appetite to reinvent and the courage to challenge conventions.

In this series, we're celebrating our team of digital and technology experts and visionaries, spearheading the development and delivery of our technology-forward solutions for smarter working, and better living in Asia Pacific and the Middle East.

For this feature, we caught up with our Section Leader – Digital and Data Advisory, in the Australia & New Zealand (ANZ) region, Cath Hill, on her motivation to pursue a career in digital and data advisory and how it enables the path to a successful digital transformation journey.

Hi, Cath! Can you tell us how the work you do is helping deliver Jacobs’ strategy?

I am part of the Digital Solutions team at Jacobs, focusing on digital advisory delivery and leading the Digital and Data Advisory Section. Our services help guide, advise, simplify and support clients on their digital transformation journey and improve user outcomes.

What's your career background?

Over the last 25 years, I have held various roles delivering digital solutions, enabling digital transformation, designing new software products, testing and trialing emerging technology and developing new processes and policies to facilitate change. I joke that my midlife career crisis was the year I taught adults agile ways of working and adaptive leadership, which was incredibly rewarding and developed my skills in communication and influence. I have been very fortunate that my career has enabled me to work across many industries and countries, allowing me to work and live overseas. I love to constantly learn and get challenged, which is why I have pursued several career pivots to support this in my career.

As someone passionately focused on building solutions and products that improve user outcomes, what made you pursue a career in the field of digital? 

I studied land surveying at university as my first degree and loved the mix of data, technology and being outdoors. The final years of the degree focused on geographic information systems (GIS) and global positioning systems (GPS), and the applications of both technologies were transforming in Australia. When I finished my master's, my interest was in GIS technical application and implementation. I enjoyed the analysis and problem-solving that can be applied to any industry. I mean, who doesn't love a map?

When I started working for my business, my focus shifted to less technical and more strategy and advisory aspects. The user (aka the customer) needs to be central to your message of the "why." It doesn't matter how good your solution or proposed change is if you don't understand the "why" or can't communicate it. We must start with the "why" – never the technology, data or system. 

How do advisory services at Jacobs help guide, advise, simplify and support clients on their digital transformation journey? 

Our advisory services are grounded in delivering the practical activities required to help our clients transform. The Jacobs team in Australia and internationally have a deep domain experience in engineering delivery, social impact assessment, economic forecasting, environmental management, asset management and digital delivery – to name a few. We listen and assess which approach will lead to improved efficiencies and transformation for each customer. We then bring together domain experts across the company to provide unique advice and solutions. We work hard to understand their needs, for now and for the future, to find that sweet spot between what they want and what they actually need.

Can you give us some examples of projects you have most enjoyed? 

One of the most enjoyable projects for me at Jacobs has been developing a framework to assess internet of things (IoT) sensing and resultant data. The framework is IoT sensor and data agnostic and enables the organization to prioritize their data collection for asset real-time and prediction management.

We are also working on several projects where we influence the design to include digital plumbing throughout the design process. While other utilities such as water and electricity are being considered, we also evaluate what is required above and below ground to digitally enable the site and promote efficiency. This means that digital for the site is not thought about after but instead is baked in from the beginning. Exciting times!

What do you enjoy most about being part of #OurJacobs?

The ability to put together a team of domain experts from any geographic region to deliver excellence for our clients.