As Systems Engineering and Nuclear Safety Services Manager at Cegelec CEM, Alexia Favre combines technical expertise and astute management with a commitment to promoting roles for women in industry.
“The main barriers to diversity in the workplace, and in industry in particular, are all rooted in attitudes.” These are the words with which 37-year-old Alexia Favre, Systems Engineering and Nuclear Safety Services Manager at Cegelec CEM, a VINCI Energies business unit, generally begins her talks in schools and colleges to raise awareness of technical careers among young women and girls.
“Recruiting women in industry remains difficult,” she explains, “simply because there are still too few of them in the market. That’s why, since 2021, I’ve been attending meetings with the ‘Elles bougent’ association, which is supported by VINCI Energies, and open days at the Ense3 Grenoble engineering school, one of our Cegelec CEM partners.”
Alexia Favre knows what she’s talking about. In high school, she was initially considering a career in veterinary medicine, but a nuclear-focused chemistry and physics course drastically altered those plans. “I was literally fascinated by the subject. That was when I made the decision to work in nuclear.”
And this revelation became a vocation. She initially joined a preparatory class, but quickly realised that its ultra-competitive environment was not for her and moved during the year to the Annecy University Technology Institute. Technology degree in hand, her objective was clear: to become an engineer. She opted for the work-study path, enrolling with the Ecole nationale supérieure des Mines in Saint-Etienne, where she discovered a new specialism in engineering nuclear installations.
Germany: a career boost and greater autonomy
Alexia Favre completed her work placement with the Daher industrial group in Pierrelatte, just south of Montélimar in the Drôme department. Three years later, she was dispatched to Hanau, Germany, to oversee a Franco-German accreditation package relating to packaging for the transportation of radioactive materials. In 2012, she was recruited as a design engineer.
She arrived with absolutely no German, instead learning the language while in post. Two years later, she was project managing the development of new transport packaging, a mission she worked on for three years.
“The confidence that managers show in people has immense value.”
This cross-border experience has had a profound effect on her career. “Over there, I discovered a rigorous work culture, highly specialised but also offering a great deal of autonomy,” she says. “At Daher NCS, their confidence in me enabled me to grow very quickly, both professionally and technically. The kindness of my colleagues also made a huge difference.” She also learned that the nuclear sector’s extremely tight constraints can be a powerful intellectual stimulant for an engineer.
In 2017, keen to continue growing and to return to her native region, she embraced a new opportunity in Grenoble with Cegelec CEM, one of 28 VINCI Energies business units dedicated to nuclear. She was particularly taken with the diversity of its projects: new installations, decommissioning, specialist machinery and nuclear maintenance.
Employed as a technical manager, she immediately started on the ICEDA (activated waste packaging and storage facility) project at the nuclear power plant site in Bugey, 50 kilometres east of Lyon. Over three years, she developed solid technical expertise, particularly in the field of handling, while also discovering the realities of industrial operations. “On any site, the challenges keep coming, and you are constantly having to find practical solutions.”
Large-scale nuclear projects at Cegelec CEM
In 2020, Alexia Favre took on an especially sensitive brief: the Labgene project, part of the Franco-Brazilian ProSub programme. In early 2024, she was also appointed head of the Project Performance and Nuclear Safety Department, a team of seven people charged with creating new systems engineering and nuclear safety methodologies for Cegelec CEM’s activities.
Still fully invested in this mission today, and convinced of the essential role of nuclear in France’s energy independence, she is developing new procedures for nuclear safety management and overseeing the implementation of performance indicators for research activities.
Her team, comprising three women and four men, is a practical illustration of her commitment. “Management is now central to my role,” she explains. “Younger generations have different expectations, especially in terms of work-life balance. We therefore need to overhaul our organisational models, anticipate more, and imbue our missions with meaning. Dialogue and listening are essential.”
For Alexia Favre, autonomy remains a core principle. “The confidence that managers show in people has immense value. It encourages commitment and taking responsibility, and creates a real shared dynamic.”
10/14/2026
