Women in engineering – the story of Sarah Nau, project leader at Allinq GmbH
28 January 2025
Sarah Nau is a project leader at Allinq GmbH and is responsible for multiple projects throughout Germany. What makes her story interesting, is that Sarah is the only female project leader at Allinq GmbH. How does she hold up in a male-dominated work field and what (dis)advantages does it bring? To answer these questions, we went to Germany to visit Sarah at a project site, where we interviewed her about her views on her role.
Sarah Nau has been working at Allinq GmbH for seven years. Before the graduated geologist joined Allinq back in 2017, she was a site manager at a construction company. But after a few years, she was ready for a new challenge. Allinq GmbH offered her this opportunity, and she started as a site manager for home connections. After a few years, Sarah grew into her current role as project leader.
A busy schedule
Sarah lives with her boyfriend on a little farm close to Rheine. They have quite some animals, and are renovating the house. Combine this with a lot of travel time because of the widespread project sites and you can imagine Sarah has a busy schedule. When in search for a job as site manager, one of the reasons why Sarah started at Allinq was because it was closer to her home than her previous job. However, now that she has been responsible for multiple projects throughout the whole of Germany, her travel time has increased significantly. But that doesn’t matter for Sarah; she likes what she is doing, plus she can work from home regularly.
Flexibility is something Sarah really appreciates about Allinq: “Besides being able to work from home regularly, I can leave if it is needed, – for example due to unforeseen personal circumstances – if I notify the right people. And the people at Allinq are very open with each other; when something bad happens in your private life, you can share your sorrows with your colleagues.”
A woman in engineering
When we asked Sarah how she feels about being the only female in a male-dominated work field, she tells us that she feels that it does not really make a difference. Sometimes, people are surprised that the project leader is a female: “Recently, I spoke to a woman who was puzzled when I answered the phone, because she did not expect a woman to pick up the phone, since she wanted to talk to the project leader. I responded: ‘Yes, that’s me.’. But once you show them that you know what you are talking about, it is often not a big deal anymore.” Sarah herself has no problems with it either; she has worked in male-dominated positions for many years and has always enjoyed it.
Once you show them that you know what you are talking about, it is often not a big deal anymore."
Sarah Nau
Project leader, an important job
As a site manager, you overlook the project site, where the field engineers are at work. As a project leader, you are responsible for the whole project. Sarah explains: “You take care of the financials, and are the contact person for the involved parties, such as the customer and municipalities. When there are issues, such as permits not coming in, or discussions about digging a certain trench, you are informed and are responsible for solving these issues. Next to that, you also are responsible for providing materials and for talking with Procurement about what materials to buy. In a nutshell, you create and provide everything for your colleagues to work.”
As a project leader, you are the person who creates and provides everything so that your colleagues can do their work."
Sarah Nau
“Sometimes I’ll just jump into the crane myself!”
When asked what the best thing about her job is, Sarah firmly states; creativity. “Allinq is constantly trying to improve its structure. While this can cause confusion, it also gives space for your own ideas. And this is appreciated; Allinq is open to new ideas. For example, I feel that project leaders operate on their own islands; they all have their own project and are all over Germany. What I am trying, is to connect and bring them together to work on new technical projects that will help all of us. An example of this is for instance a new way of measuring.”
What makes Sarah unique, is that she is willing to hop in the crane or trench, even though it’s not her job. She tells us: “As a project leader, I feel everything is my job. When I have people to do it for me, yes please! But if there is nobody who can do it, – and in the end I just want to finish the project – then it can sometimes happen that I jump in myself.” An added benefit of this is that Sarah likes to know how things work: she is a practical person and learns best by doing it herself. And it helps her in her work: “When you know how something works, it helps you in conversations with subcontractors when they come to you with problems in terms of what is and what is not possible; you understand them better, and because you have done it yourself, you know what is and what is not possible.”
When you deal with subcontractors, it is sometimes really good to know what is and what is not possible."
Sarah Nau
Big projects
Sarah is leading long projects. Very long projects. Three years is not unusual. Sarah knows why: “In the rural areas in Germany, the internet connection is slow and there are not many options. Therefore, fiber optics is very much desired here.” As a result, Allinq GmbH is connecting entire villages and even cities. And this can take up quite some time: “I have worked mainly in the South and West of Germany; Salzkotten, Billerbeck, Ibbenbüren, Badbergen, Drensteinfurt. In Drensteinfurt, we had to lay down 400 kilometers of fiber optics. That takes a long time.”
Re-using materials
When the topic circularity and sustainability comes up, Sarah sees good initiatives at Allinq. “If we have a project for the same provider, we often try to re-use leftover materials from previous projects.”
The importance of good colleagues
We round up by asking Sarah what gives her the most joy in her work. Sarah: “For me, it is working together with my colleagues, and solve problems (encountered in projects, red.) together.” This is also what makes a day successful for Sarah; feeling that she has accomplished something or has made some impact within the company. But it is not all about results; it is also the team that brings joy to Sarah: “You can have a hard day, when it is really though. But when you have good colleagues, you get pleasure from coming to work.”