A decade in the Shoal, with Matthew Vella
This year, we celebrate a major milestone for Matthew Vella, who officially marks ten years with Shoal. Over the past decade, Matthew has grown from an early-career engineer into a senior systems engineer, applying his expertise across Shoal’s Defence and Space market sectors.
Matthew has not only brought engineering skills and an excitement for problem solving to Shoal, but a contagious sense of humour that binds every team he has been a part of – whether working alongside other Shoalers or embedded into a client’s team. As Matthew says, “You spend too much time at work to not have some fun along the way!” His ability to lighten the mood, while tackling complicated technical challenges is what has contributed to making him such a valued Shoaler.
“From the beginning, Matthew has brought not just technical expertise but also a strong sense of teamwork and leadership. His ability to thrive in complexity, invest in relationships, and bring enthusiasm to each project has made him a true asset to Shoal,” says CEO, Shaun Wilson.
Matthew is driven by a passion for the Defence mission and making a real impact to realising military capability for Australia. He has thrived at the intersection of deep technical expertise and operational needs, where engineers come together with operational end users and system stakeholders to create practical, mission-critical solutions. With this approach and aptitude, he has worked on some challenging and exciting Defence technologies in Australia.
Ten years ago, having gained a Bachelor of Engineering (Aeronautical Engineering), Matthew sought an engineering role where he could work on system-wide aspects of engineering – and he found it at Shoal. As we celebrate his ten years with Shoal, we had a conversation about his career, challenges and outlook.
Q. How did you first hear about Shoal?
Matthew. It was so long ago that Shoal was then known by a different name, Aerospace Concepts. The company, and especially Shaun, were very intertwined in the Australian space community. As a student, I got involved with my local chapter of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), where I attended chapter and national level events. Shoal supported Australia’s (then) smaller aerospace community, including undergraduate students through event sponsorship and speaker participation, and internship positions. I came across Shoal while co-chairing the 2012 edition of the student-led Aerospace Futures conference series.
Q. Can you recall your career aspirations at the time?
Matthew. Yes. While I thoroughly enjoyed aeronautics and engineering design at university, coming from a highly specialised discipline like aerospace left me wanting to explore the impacts and challenges of engineering at a bigger, system-wide, level. I also knew I needed to work on engineering problems as applied in the real world, as I did not find that much excitement in academic research.
I knew Shoal worked in Defence and Space and this was exciting to me. I wanted to apply what I had learnt, and, at the same time, I was expecting to learn lots as we didn’t really cover systems engineering well at university.
Separate from that, I’m highly motivated by Australian sovereignty and the Defence mission. The types of systems that the military employs are unlike anything else. Everything is bigger, faster, and just better!
Q. Tell us about your early experiences with Shoal
Matthew. I joined in 2015 as a systems engineer. At the time, I was the only other employee based in Canberra apart from the CEO. Given the company’s primary client was the Department of Defence in Canberra, this meant that I got involved in most of the client interactions, workshops and in-person design activities Shoal was a part of. It was a great learning environment and rare for such a young grad to get as involved in these types of client engagements.
It wasn’t long before I was deep into my own engineering projects, doing early-stage capability design. I learnt, and then used, my evolving model-based (digital) systems engineering skills on large and complex Defence acquisition projects. I loved getting involved early in the design process, where significant engineering decisions are more easily made. Even as a junior systems engineer, I had a clear and obvious impact on the direction of the design for the system.
Q. Share your journey, developing as a systems engineer across Defence projects
Matthew. I have developed my experiences and expertise as a systems engineer over the past decade. I have developed many operational concepts, system specifications and verification & validation plans for a range of Defence systems, including:
- The multi-service ADF defensive cyber operations capability for the Joint Capabilities Group
- The Counter IED capability replacement for Army
- A surface threat emitter training capability for air crew
- A space-based earth observation capability for the Australian Geospatial Intelligence Organisation
- The deployable force infrastructure replacement capability for Army.
Even though I primarily work in Defence, my project experiences have been diverse, from space-based observation, cyber warfare, electronic warfare, deployable infrastructure and training systems. I’ve worked with clients in the Army, Air Force, Defence Intelligence Group (DIG), Vice-Chief of the Defence Force (VCDF) Group and the Joint Capabilities Group (JCG). I got to work and learn from some incredibly talented engineers and leaders, a fantastic start to my early career. We have some terrific technical experts and mentors within Shoal. The most rounded engineering professional I have ever worked with was Dr Ian Brace, who provided me amazing leadership in those early days.
Since becoming a senior systems engineer, I’ve continued to execute technical roles on capability design projects I’ve been a part of, including an extensive stint working within the Force Integration Division, providing technical leadership on an exciting research, development, test and evaluation program. It was a program with strong support from Defence leadership and an absolute career highlight for me.
Now I’m working with a large group of talented Shoalers to introduce a new capability for Defence. Supporting this team achieve our engineering goals is incredibly rewarding. In this project, we’re a team of 12 Shoalers, distributed across Sydney, Adelaide, Melbourne, Brisbane and Canberra. It’s fantastic. A ‘first in class’ project for Defence, never been done before. But I’m really comfortable working in areas where there is a lot of uncertainty – that’s what Shoalers do. This is an area that some engineers can struggle but this is my happy place. Propose a solution, test and adjust together!
Q. What have some of your major milestones been throughout the past decade with Shoal?
Matthew. There have been quite a few!
- Being actively involved in major professional events like the Systems Engineering Test and Evaluation (SETE) conference and Australian Systems Engineering Workshop (ASEW), and the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) (2018) – are all great experiences. It’s exciting to be a part of these events, represent Shoal as a technical thought leader.
- Completing my Master of Systems Engineering degree, which Shoal supported me to do. I have since achieved CSEP (INCOSE), CPEng (Engineers Australia), and I really enjoy providing support to others Shoalers aspiring to achieve these same credentials.
- Achieving significant success on project goals is incredibly rewarding, and it was an honour to be recognised for these efforts too. In 2022, I received an Australian Defence Force Bronze Commendation. It was very special to be awarded this by MAJGEN Kathryn Toohey for noteworthy achievements while on contract within Defence’s Force Integration Division.
- Being a senior engineer and providing a leadership role to the Canberra office is an important role, leading and mentoring the team. I have also enjoyed supporting interns and graduates, particularly the 2020 cohort, where I was a GrAdvisor.
Q. What did you find challenging at the beginning of your career that you now find easy?
Matthew. Definitely presenting technical concepts or workshopping with project stakeholders. For workshops, I now focus on these interactions as more simply being a communication challenge, where everyone wants their ideas heard and understood. I’ve found that people are typically happy if there is a collective strive for the most agreeable way forward.
I did a ‘presenting with confidence’ training course, and took on mentoring tips from David Long, former INCOSE president, where he taught me that true content mastery was his key to presenting well. He was an absolute pro. It sounds simple, but I now make sure I really know my content, but I’ve also realised that even fantastic communicators can have flaws. I’ve come full circle in understanding the communication problem – the ebb and flow of compromise of positions, chaperoning the idea.
Q. What are you most proud of?
Matthew. I have found my work in the VCDF Groups’ Force Integration Division the most rewarding – a visible demonstration of my impact on an important program of work for Defence and Australia more broadly.
Congratulations on your ten-year anniversary, Matthew. We look forward to many years to come.
About Shoal
Shoal is complex systems design company. We use Systems Engineering combined with Modelling, Simulation and Analysis to help our clients define, analyse, decide, optimise, and deliver technology-intensive projects in complex environments across Defence, Space, Transport and Infrastructure.
More: shoalgroup.com
Media Contact
Shaun Wilson
CEO and Founder, Shoal Group
+61 438 394 288
[email protected]
