Where I can learn, grow, thrive, and be my true self
- Oyinkansola, R&D Project Lead.“I feel developed, valued, and intellectually fed at Shell.”
What attracted me to Shell?
I’ve liked science and math from an early age. This love for learning and curiosity eventually led me to a PhD in Chemical Engineering – but, deep down, I knew I didn’t want to become a strictly academic professor. Instead, I wanted to work on scalable, real-world research and development (R&D) projects in industry and the opportunity to do this kind of applied R&D work is what attracted me to Shell. In grad school, you tend to be deeply focused on and enveloped by one open-ended research project for many years. At Shell, I can wear many different hats while upskilling and building my competencies in multiple development areas.
My contribution to sustainable energy solutions
I’m currently an R&D Project Leader on the B2B Industrial Lubricants team. My work has real commercial impact while also enabling our customers to have access to better, differentiated industrial product offerings and solutions that are sustainable or energy-efficient without compromising on performance. I work on projects that align with my personal passions, skills and ambitions.
This keeps me motivated to show up to work as my true, best self.
In addition to my core work,, I serve as a Health, Safety, Security and Environment (HSSE) coordination lead at Shell Technology Center Houston (STCH) where I constantly improve my safety awareness and learner mindset. On the digitalization front, I’m a co-product owner of an exciting AI tool that helps turbo-charge our lubricants R&D efforts via access to years of historical performance data and virtual experimentation capabilities.
In my first 16 months at Shell, I was also engaged in multiple long-range research projects and initiatives in the CO₂ electrolysis/conversion space due to my strong technical background in that area.
My tenure at Shell so far has been marked by a broad range of exciting experiences and opportunities while getting to know and regularly interfacing with many diverse and inspiring colleagues from across the organization and around the world. I’ve found that all these roles and activities are quite synergistic and they all help to broaden and deepen my competency and technical expertise in my day-to-day core work.
Sustainability in my private life
Having all this commerciality, sustainability, and digitization exposure has become a big thing for me. Even in my personal down time, I look for ways to do things with a more sustainable, efficient, and techy mindset. For instance, I’m on a never-ending quest to find ways to creatively combine unlikely ingredients, resurrect leftovers, and minimize waste – while optimizing for taste! – in my cooking and meal prep.
Everyday learning, everyday thriving
Shell encourages curiosity and a learner mindset and I’m constantly learning along with everyone else on my team every day. In our development work, we need to test new products extensively to make sure they meet strict external and internal brand performance and safety standards. As one of my current major projects, I’m in charge of developing over 50 different product formulations across three different programs – and counting. This involves countless hours of testing, coordination, data analysis, reporting, and communication with multiple technology, operations, and business stakeholders in marketing, supply chain, and legal. We’re all working together to build collective knowledge, collaborate while inspiring and energizing each other, and deliver lasting, tangible value for Shell and our customers.
I believe I can genuinely thrive here because no one is afraid to bring their expertise, insight, experience – or their humility or curiosity – to the table.
I hope to continue being in a place where I feel valued and intellectually developed. I’ve found Shell to be that place – and I think it fits me like a glove.