Madeleine joined the South African Navy in 2001, where she completed both basic and officer training. This included practical courses in maritime damage control, firefighting onboard vessels, and sea survival. She was stationed in Simon’s Town at the Naval Engineering Bureau, where she conducted feasibility studies and technical investigations for engineering changes on military vessels.
In 2009, Madeleine left the Navy as a Sub-Lieutenant to join the Armaments Corporation of South Africa (Armscor). She worked in the Fluids and Mechanical Engineering Group (Flamengro) as Chief Engineer. Her primary responsibility was to develop, maintain and expand experimental and computational mechanics capabilities for the development and testing of weapon systems and subsystems, such large calibre canons, missiles, rocket nozzles and warheads.
Madeleine graduated with a PhD degree in Mechanical Engineering from Pretoria University in 2017. She has both national and international experience, applying her skillset across military, defence, academia, and oil & gas sectors. Following this, she relocated to the UK and joined Northumbria University as an Assistant Professor. She lectured at post-graduate level in Thermodynamics, Fluid Mechanics, Statics and Design Optimisation. Her research focus shifted towards waste-to-energy solutions for which she was awarded a grant from the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy to investigate hydrogen production from waste wood.
Her work led her to DNV Spadeadam, which she joined in February 2023. DNV Spadeadam is a research and test facility specialising in fire and explosion hazards, full-scale hydrogen testing, CCS and natural gas infrastructure qualification, and safety awareness training. As Principal Consultant and Engineering Team Lead, Madeleine was responsible for the design, build and commissioning of complex test rigs for full scale testing. In this role she gained experience in explosion chamber design and maintenance, gas explosions, pipeline ruptures, dense phase CO2 testing, pigging operations and general welding and pressure systems construction.
Madeleine is a Chartered Engineer and a member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. She joined Hawkins as an Associate in October 2025 and will based in our Glasgow office, also covering Cumbria and the surrounding regions.
 
