Melissa Trapani wasn’t trained to build railways.
She was trained to understand how molten metal moves through a furnace.
With a PhD in chemical engineering focused on industrial tapholes, she began her career at Olympic Dam in South Australia. As a FIFO metallurgist, she managed research and development projects inside a live operating environment where failure had consequences and performance was visible in real time.
It was technical, demanding and sometimes unforgiving.
It was also where she learned how to lead.
Delivering projects meant more than solving equations. She coordinated discipline experts, negotiated with suppliers and trades, secured executive backing and carried accountability for time, cost and outcomes.
“Early in my career, I relied heavily on my own technical ability. I believed that if I understood the problem deeply enough, I could solve it,” she says.
Then she realised something critical: the biggest problems are rarely technical alone. They are human. Commercial. Political. Strategic. And they rarely sit neatly inside one discipline.
Her move into transport was almost accidental. Looking for a Melbourne based role, she applied for two project management jobs and was offered both. She chose the one that was easier to cycle to. It happened to be with the Department of Transport.
She had no rail background or insider language.
“I said in my interview that managing infrastructure projects in operating environments was the same whether it involved trains on a track or fluid in a pipe,” she says. “At a high level, that is true. But there was a steep learning curve.”
She asked questions. She listened. She adapted.
And she stayed.
Today, Melissa is a Project Director at VIDA Rail, part of the Regional Rail Revival Program, one of the largest rail infrastructure programs in regional Victoria’s history.
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The work is visible. It reshapes towns, improves safety and leaves behind new stations, open spaces and playgrounds. The connection to community is immediate.
Level crossings that once caused congestion and near misses are gone. New stations rise above rail trenches. Public spaces open where traffic used to dominate. Regions get more frequent and reliable services. These are not abstract upgrades. They change how people move, how safely children cross roads, how long families spend commuting.
That visibility raises the stakes.
“In public infrastructure, there is a direct connection between what we build and the lives people live,” she says. “You feel the responsibility differently.”
Her role now sits at the intersection of competing forces. Engineering constraints. Community expectation. Operational continuity.
“My favourite part of this role is bringing together the technical, stakeholder, commercial and strategic dimensions of our challenges and turning that into forward momentum.”
The shift from technical expert to integrator has defined her leadership.
Instead of being the person with the answer, she brings together the people who hold different parts of it. She challenges assumptions. She tests logic. She holds tension when priorities collide.
That evolution did not happen by accident. It happened because she stepped outside her discipline.
“You do not have to be a civil engineer to manage a public infrastructure project. And you do not need 20 years of construction management experience to direct one, ”she says.
What you need is judgement. Resilience. Relationship management. The ability to zoom out when everyone else is deep in detail. The confidence to admit what you do not know and the discipline to learn fast.
Across more than 16 years in public infrastructure delivery, she has seen how growth mindsets, secondments and structured development open doors for people from non traditional backgrounds. She has also seen the quiet power of women backing other women in high pressure environments.
She is clear about one thing. The conversation cannot only be about how women adapt.
“Many workplaces were designed by men, for men, or were not designed at all. We need to change the system so we do not build a monoculture.”
That is why partnerships with WORK180 matter. Transparency around flexibility, progression and policy signals that leadership in infrastructure does not belong to one mould.
VIDA Rail itself is evolving as projects progress. For Melissa, there is a quiet satisfaction in recognising how far she has come. The engineer who once needed rail terminology translated is now shaping how a major public organisation delivers value to Victoria.
Her path was not linear. It was not predictable. It was not traditional.
It was powerful.
If you are a woman in leadership or operations wondering whether you belong in complex project environments, consider this proof.
You do not have to start in rail to lead it.
Explore VIDA Rail’s WORK180 employer profile and see how your path could shape the next generation of infrastructure.
