This is a story about trains — not the kind that run on tracks, but the once-in-a-lifetime opportunities that come speeding by and must be seized without hesitation. Diego, who has spent his entire professional life in one way or another at ACCIONA, has made a habit of catching them all. “My philosophy was that when I must choose between two things, I choose the one that, if the train passes, I cannot catch it again. It’s usually the more difficult option, but the important thing is that I don’t regret it. I don’t want to say later that it passed and I didn’t get on,” he reflects.

Those “trains” have names: Upington, in South Africa, or Louisiana, in the United States, where he now lives. They are the opportunities that ACCIONA has presented to him over two decades of professional and personal growth since he joined the company in 2004. But aside from the metaphorical trains, there have also been tunnel boring machines, solar thermal plants and major motorways — and a few key lessons about learning from those who know the job best, whatever their title. This is the story of a nomadic engineer who has never forgotten where he came from.  

In his youth, Diego — born in Mejorada del Campo, close to the capital of Spain — had broad interests ranging from science and sport to economics and business. A military entrance exam seemed like the perfect way to combine them. “I liked many things and, after finishing high school, I tried to join the army. It was one of those things where you say: either I do it now, or I’ll never do it. I came close, but I didn’t make it.”

Yet the effort was not in vain. “Everything I prepared for the competitive exam — physics, chemistry, English, mathematics — helped me complete my degree quite quickly. It wasn’t my initial vocation, but I really liked it.” He pauses. “I didn’t come from a family of engineers, but my father and an uncle of mine, who worked in construction and is someone I'm very close to, suggested that I study Civil Engineering or Public Works.” He chose the latter.

“Large infrastructure, big projects — that was what caught my attention, and that was the branch I chose.” Looking back, he says that engineering was the ideal discipline for someone with varied interests. “I had never thought about it before, but engineering encompasses everything, even law, because nowadays we even act as lawyers.”

Soon after graduating, Diego began working for a joint venture that included Necso, which would later become part of ACCIONA. The project involved building the streets, bridges and avenues of a residential development that has since become one of Madrid’s key urban hubs. “At the time, there were quite a few options. One of them was to work on the Ensanche de Vallecas project. I think I made a good decision there too. It wasn’t the best offer in terms of salary, nor in terms of the profile,” he recalls, referring to the job description, which focused on health and safety.

That instinct was soon proven right. “On the first day, I sat down and the production manager said to me: ‘Come here, Diego, we’ve got a problem.’ I got in the car and it turned out that a very large pipe in the Isabel II Canal that supplied water to the whole of southern Madrid had burst,” he recalls, smiling at the memory. “He told me the A3 motorway was going to be flooded, and suddenly they started sending trucks and machinery. Imagine — I was in my early twenties and I was already in the middle of it. That, and learning to deal with so many people, was a way to grow.”

Beyond the adrenaline of that first experience, what he remembers most about those early days is the pace of learning. “Every day there was something new; you never got bored. In that first phase, I learned in one year what I would learn in ten of the following years.”

A year after starting, the manager he had been assisting handed him the reins to complete the rest of the work as production manager. And his former boss had yet another opportunity waiting for him.

Was he daunted by these colossal machines he had never dealt with before? “In the end, when you’re an engineer who’s just graduated, the TBM is like the ultimate machine,” he laughs. Fortunately, he was not alone in facing the challenge. “On these projects, there are two key figures: the chief engineer, and then there’s another figure — the site manager — who is very important.”

He still remembers one of the most valuable lessons he learned from that experience. “One of the most important things was to approach the site managers — people who were twenty years older than me, who could make decisions and say, ‘Hey, this kid is telling me what to do.’ You have to be humble, approach them and try to learn from these people who don’t have a degree but know a great deal about construction because they’ve been working for twenty or thirty years.”

Speaking of learning, Diego recalls how his fellow Public Works students encouraged him to continue his studies and pursue a degree in Civil Engineering. His work as a shift supervisor kept him occupied at weekends, which meant he could dedicate part of the week to his classes. So, he accepted the challenge — determined to grow academically while working full time.

There were also moments of camaraderie and solidarity. “I remember being in the tunnel boring machine when the shift was over and the site manager saying to me, ‘Hey Diego, go and study now.’ They cared about you; they wanted you to succeed. The site manager was always someone who looked after the younger ones, even if later you ended up above them in the hierarchy.”

Of course, alongside his studies and work on the tunnel boring machines, there was another major change. “That’s when we switched to ACCIONA. I remember the day they sent us a memo saying that from that moment on, everything was ACCIONA. The next day, all the signs already had the new logo on them.” It was 2006, he recalls clearly.

Diego also looks back fondly on the friendships he forged during that period — especially the healthy competition that developed between the different TBM crews. “This production thing with the tunnel boring machines was a bit addictive because you wanted to produce more and more. Everyone wanted to set the record, whether it was in metres advanced or rings placed.”

Although it was common at the time to stay in Madrid, Diego continued to seize every opportunity that came his way, moving between projects and even sectors. First came a hospital project in Castile and León, in the heart of Spain.

Then, a new challenge that marked a turning point in his career: a solar thermal plant in Extremadura, western Spain, for ACCIONA Energía. “The first plant was in Badajoz, in Alvarado. As it went well, we did another one in Cáceres, Majadas del Tiétar, and then another one in Badajoz, Orellana. It was something very new that really caught my attention.”

After a brief spell in Santander, Diego joined a “small but intense” project at Madrid’s Barajas airport, where deadlines were tight and the team had to work at night to ensure everything was ready by morning. At that time, he was still living in Mejorada del Campo, where he could hear the planes flying over at dawn. “I would wake up automatically and couldn’t get back to sleep until I heard them land.” Not long afterwards, Diego himself would be boarding one of those planes — this time to begin a new chapter in his career abroad.

In previous interviews in this same series, other ACCIONA professionals like Andreu Hernández have described how the company has evolved over the last two decades. For Diego, who has witnessed that transformation first-hand, the shift has been monumental. “During this time, I have gone from an ACCIONA that was 80% domestic and 20% foreign to just the opposite,” he explains. The company’s global expansion and strong commitment to renewable energy have defined this new era.

One day, someone in the office approached him with a proposal: “Why don’t you go to South Africa to help with a solar thermal project study?” It was an opportunity that would once again change the course of his life. Not only did the project go ahead, but it also meant that Diego and his family — by then, he was married and expecting his second child — would move to the Northern Cape region of South Africa, near the border with Namibia. “My wife has always been as adventurous as me and said, ‘OK, let’s go there.’”

A smile spreads across Diego’s face as he recalls that first international experience. “We were there for three years, from 2012 to 2015, and it was an experience that left a mark on all of us.” His third child was born there shortly after they arrived.

“I arrived a bit like a parachutist, being one of the first. I had to prepare everything for myself and for those who came after me,” he says. “Luckily, the company supported me in everything. There has never been a problem they haven’t solved for me.”

From there, Diego starts mapping the next stops in his globe-trotting career. After South Africa came the construction of tunnels for a mine in Navarra. Then Dubai, where he worked on a metro line for the 2020 World Expo — right after the birth of his youngest daughter, the fourth in the family. “People used to joke that we were having children by destination,” he laughs.

He speaks fondly of his time in New Zealand, where he worked on a road linking the north of the North Island with Auckland, the capital. “New Zealand is the place for children — they had a wonderful time. My wife said, ‘Hey, let’s live like settlers; I don’t want to live in the city, I want to live in the countryside.’ And there we lived in a house with a huge meadow, a sheep and some chickens.” It was there, too, that they were caught by the pandemic and unable to leave the country for several months.

When they eventually returned to Madrid, Diego began preparing another project in South Africa — one that ultimately did not materialise. And then came the next call: how would he feel about moving to Louisiana? “I’d already worked in Africa, Europe, Asia and Oceania, so the only continent left was America. The opportunity ACCIONA gives you to travel the world, learn about different cultures and do completely different things is something few companies in the construction sector offer,” he says.

Does he miss Spain? “Although we like many other places, our base of operations is still our home in Madrid. It’s that smell of home when you open the door,” he explains. His family and friends are also there — his wife, like him, is from Mejorada del Campo.

And that, for now, is the latest chapter in Diego’s professional journey: an engineer born in a small town on the outskirts of Madrid who has had the opportunity to work across five continents and gain first-hand knowledge of the world of infrastructure and renewable energy.

All thanks to those trains — the ones that passed by and that he decided, instinctively, to jump on. And perhaps, as you read this, another of those trains is waiting for you — ready to depart among ACCIONA’s international job offers.