July 9, 2025
Meet the team: Julia Smith-Vidal, Technical Operations Manager
Having the best technology out there and making sure it’s working right is critical to the success of our operations. Here we catch up with one of our TechOps Managers, Julia, to hear how she keeps our missions running like clockwork.
So you’re a Technical Operations Manager – how does that fit into what we do here at Skyports?
In a nutshell, my role is figuring out how we can make our projects come to life with the technology at our disposal, and then seeing it through to successful completion.
Let’s say we have a customer come to us wanting to inspect powerlines. It’s on me to find the right aircraft and payloads capable of capturing the data required by the customer, whether that’s RGB images, Thermal images, LiDAR data, Multispectral images or video.
Then, I need to figure out the flight parameters (altitude, flight line separation), capture parameters (photo interval) and camera parameters (exposure and focus settings) to achieve the detail and quality needed. The final step is working with data processing providers to conduct post capture analysis to extract key insights, such as power line defects or vegetation overgrowth, so our customer can take the appropriate action. I’m effectively building the full end-to-end technical stack.
And if there isn’t an immediate option available to solve those problems, I’ll get to work in finding what’s out there that can, sometimes even working with our hardware and software partners to make something bespoke.
Once the project’s underway, I’m then overseeing the whole thing, and making sure the technology’s working as it should and we provide the best service possible.
Talk me through your typical day/week
So I basically work across all inspection & surveillance projects end to end, meaning it’s a very collaborative role, working across a lot of the divisions in the business.
If our commercial team are consulting a customer on a potential project, at the start I’ll work closely on advising them on the best tools and accessories to set the project up for success, all whilst delivering the best value.
Once we’re planning for a project, I’ll work with our pilots at our drone hanger in Westcott to ensure they’re comfortable with the technology, so we can get what we need out of the technology once the project starts.
If there’s a live project, I’ll be sticking close to the Flight Operations and Project Management teams, sometimes travelling to the project site, to make sure the technology is behaving as it should. If it isn’t, I’ll help with troubleshooting and getting the aircraft flying at peak performance again.
What’s been your favourite/most memorable project at Skyports?
For me it was working on a vaccine delivery project in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It was such a tangible benefit we were providing to the community.
By road, the vaccines could take between 8 hours and a couple of days to be delivered. Our drones could do it in 30 minutes, and by the end we were making about 100 deliveries a month.
Of course, it came with its challenges. Whilst the drones were able to fly, regular phone signal and internet for the teams on the ground was close to non existent, meaning it was paramount that we kept extremely close oversight of the tech – meticulously managing maintenance and flight tracking.
Sourcing, delivering and replacing spare parts for the drones was also a challenge, but it was all worth it knowing the real difference we were making to peoples’ lives.
When you speak to your friends and family, what is the biggest misconception about the work you do?
So the main one is that people think I’m making the drones! So there’s always a bit of an education piece on what we actually do, and how we’re using drones to help solve complex problems.
The second one is not quite appreciating the size and capability of the drones we’re using. Initially people think we’re just using small drones for taking photos, but when I show them photos of aircraft like the Pyka Pelican, and explain that it can fly up to 200 miles with a cargo of up to 180kg, they’re pretty shocked! These things definitely aren’t toys.
What we’re doing at Skyports is on the leading edge of aviation and technology. How do you find working in this space?
I love how there’s constant development and a lot of growth and change. For me it feels amazing to be part of an industry where I have the potential to be influential in its development. We’re figuring out whole new ways of doing things, disrupting existing industries and challenging conventional approaches to solving problems.
What was your personal career journey that led you to working at Skyports?
So I’ve always had an interest in aviation, having studied aerospace engineering at university.
Once I graduated, I took up a role in asset management, specifically around investment technology. Whilst it was good in its own ways, I ultimately struggled with the limited impact that I could make in my day to day role. It’s a pretty established industry, and any impact I could make wasn’t going to be significant.
Urban Air Mobility was something that always interested me, and it felt like an area where there’s real potential to influence the direction of the industry. So I did a bit of research around the space and came across Skyports. Initially it was the Infrastructure side that pulled me in, but once I learnt more about Drone Services it just clicked.
I had a couple of conversations with Jef Geudens, our Head of Technology, where he ran me through what we are doing, and I knew that was where I wanted to be. And here I am!
What do you find most rewarding about working in the Advanced Air Mobility space?
For me it’s the undiscovered potential for the technology. We probably haven’t even uncovered the most interesting ways of using drones yet, and the technology is advancing all the time, opening these avenues further.
So many different use cases are going to become unlocked as the technology catches up. It’s really interesting to be in this environment where everything’s on the cusp of being possible.
That said, it has its challenges. Everything’s unpredictable, and quite often we’re doing things for the very first time. I’ll go to Google something and there’s literally no answer as it hasn’t been done before. That’s exciting of course, but it also means we’ve really got to get our heads to together to figure it out!
What would be your advice for anyone considering a career in Advanced Air Mobility?
If you’re someone who likes to do something new everyday, then this is the industry for you. There’s also a fair amount of opportunity to travel – I’ve been to Texas, Madagascar, Spain, and I’m sure there’ll be many more interesting locations to come.
You’re also working in a super passionate industry – everyone loves what they do and has a real drive to see it succeed. Working as a TechOps manager I mix with a great variety of people too – whether that’s customers, hardware manufacturers, and all the teams internally.
There’s an incredible amount of variety – different people, different clients, different locations, different technology. Basically, every day is different!
