Engineers are essential to building a sustainable and equitable future. But technical skills alone will not get us there. Now more than ever, leadership matters.
As climate pressures escalate, and society confronts widening gaps in equity and access, engineers are being asked to do more than design and deliver. They are being called to lead.
Leadership in this context means more than professional advancement. It means stepping into complexity with courage, engaging communities with humility, and shaping systems with foresight and responsibility.
A turning point for the profession
“The urgency is clear,” said David Cruickshanks-Boyd HonFIEAust, former National President of Engineers Australia and long-time advocate for sustainability and ethics in engineering.
“The world has already breached the 1.5°C warming threshold, and current projections suggest we are heading toward 2.5 to 3°C by the end of this century.”
Engineers are central to how we respond. From designing low-carbon transport networks to retrofitting flood-prone communities, they are responsible for building physical systems that underpin societal resilience.
But the next generation of engineering challenges can not be solved in isolation. They are entangled with politics, ethics, culture and economics. Engineers must be prepared not just to solve technical problems, but to influence how problems are framed and whose voices are included in the solution.
As Cruickshanks-Boyd puts it: “Leadership with purpose is no longer optional. It is the price of relevance.”
Read more: How to get more engineers into leadership positions
Listening to the next generation
Next week, Engineers Australia will bring together emerging and established leaders at its annual Climate Smart Engineering (CSE) conference to reflect on exactly these challenges. A series of interactive sessions will explore how engineers can lead boldly in a warming world while advancing equity, inclusion and intergenerational justice.
One of the key voices in these conversations is Neil Greet FIEAust CPEng EngExec, a humanitarian engineer and former Australian Defence Force senior officer whose work spans conflict zones, disaster recovery and policy reform. Greet holds a deep belief that we should look to engineers to lead on the big issues.
“Doctors save lives,” he said. “Engineers save communities.”
Greet has spent years advocating for stronger engineering involvement in national resilience planning and equitable infrastructure development. He argues that engineers must extend their communication beyond the client’s brief, beyond project scope and into the societal implications of their work.
“Too often, engineering advice is sidelined because it is not understood or because it challenges political narratives. We must become better advocates for the public good, even when it is inconvenient.”
Climate justice starts with engineering justice
This call for advocacy is not abstract. One CSE workshop looks to tackle the three most difficult but critical questions:
- How can intergenerational climate justice solutions be engineered?
- How should Indigenous and marginalised communities be engaged to avoid energy poverty and climate harm?
- How can engineering avoid reinforcing structural inequalities?
“The aim is to challenge engineers to reflect on their roles in systems that have often excluded or disadvantaged certain groups. It is about moving from passive acceptance to proactive design for justice,” Cruickshanks-Boyd, who is the workshop’s co-convenor, explained.
These discussions will be grounded in collaboration, with early-career and experienced engineers working together.
“Young engineers own the future, but are left a legacy by those before. A generational exchange of ideas will help and inspire actions by all engineers.”
A profession guided by courage
Leadership also means creating space for difficult conversations. In the second workshop, participants will be encouraged to confront the reality that incremental change is not enough. The world is already beyond safe limits. Now, engineers must lead in building resilience while pushing for deep systems transformation.
That includes engaging the public with clarity and honesty, motivating clients to align with sustainability goals, and creating platforms for cross-sector knowledge sharing.
The workshop will ask engineers to “build forward wiser”, not simply to rebuild or retrofit, but to rethink how we design for a world in flux. Tyler Hill, the keynote speaker for this session and a rising leader in sustainable civil engineering, will bring a focus on circular economy, climate adaptation and asset life-cycle planning.
Redefining what leadership looks like
For engineers, leadership is rarely about command-and-control. It is about service, insight and influence. It involves using expertise to elevate others, protect communities and contribute to long-term resilience.
This also means being visible and vocal. Engineers can no longer rely on quietly getting the job done. They must be part of public conversations, legislative reforms and educational reforms. That includes shaping procurement systems to support innovation, questioning outdated standards and ensuring future infrastructure aligns with social and environmental values.
Greet is clear on this point. “You don’t have to be a CEO to lead,” he said. “Every engineer has agency. We all have the power to ask better questions, listen to more voices and speak up when it matters.”
Building the future, together
Engineering leadership in the 2020s will not be defined solely by new technologies or advanced modelling tools. It will be defined by how boldly the profession responds to crises, how inclusively it designs and how ethically it behaves. These are all human behaviours, requiring human judgement.
From classrooms to boardrooms, from drought-prone towns to decarbonised cities, engineers will be central to shaping what comes next. The challenge is not whether they are ready, but whether they are willing to lead.
“Courage and authenticity are the qualities that I believe enable engineers to be great leaders,” Cruickshanks-Boyd said.
It is this kind of leadership that the profession now demands: humble, values-driven and future-focused.
“We must be better storytellers, better advocates and more courageous actors,” Greet added. “Engineers are not just builders of things. We are stewards of society.”
Explore courageous leadership in practice at Engineers Australia’s Climate Smart Engineering 2025 workshops.
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Leadership in Engineering has always been a weak point in industry. Engineers rarely become CEOs or even upper management in corporations. And we avoid politics like the plague. (When was the last time you saw a politician with an Engineering background – they all seem to be ex-lawyers!). I mention this as big decision making that often has large engineering ramifications is routinely done by people who have no engineering background.
I think the points you raise in your article are spot on. We need to be courageous to speak truth to authority, and resist the urge to keep our heads down “just to keep our jobs”. We need to get out there and be vocal, both within our organizations and in public spaces.
For many, many decades, a “good” engineer was a guy who said “yes” to whatever the bosses said, and acted like a task master towing the company line. And these engineers received the spotlight, awards, and accolades. The new generation of engineers must change this perception and culture. Thankfully, there are many platforms online that engineers can bolster each other and discuss ideas and effective ways to champion progress. That is how agency of change is fostered. As well, I feel that senior engineers must also support and mentor the next generation of engineers to embody this true leadership. That is our role.