When Tatiana completed the handover of a luxury residential complex in Brazil—one she had helped build as part of a university internship—she had a moment of clarity. Was this really what she wanted to do for the rest of her life? Was this the kind of impact she wanted to have? That realisation prompted a sharp turn in her career trajectory, one that would lead her to this very interview, which she gives from an ACCIONA office in Fargo, North Dakota. There, she is building a career aligned with the purpose she had always dreamed of.
In this interview, she tells us about her aspirations, the powerful influence of one of her engineering professors, and the world of opportunity she has found at ACCIONA—including her work on Line 6 of the São Paulo metro, the largest underground transport project in Latin America. This is the story of Tatiana Moura and her dreams.
Like Larissa Araujo, whom we recently interviewed, Tatiana is what you might call an iXPA girl—one of the young professionals selected for ACCIONA’s global talent programme. It is thanks to iXPA that she was able to make the leap to the Fargo-Moorhead project in the United States. "Having good working conditions in Brazil and being able to go live in another country and experience that is a rare privilege at my age. ACCIONA is helping many young people to be able to pursue their dreams."
This opportunity came soon after she began working on the São Paulo Metro. As part of iXPA, participants rotate through different roles and business areas—and often make friends along the way. "We talk about iXPA generations for every year. In my generation, some people went to the Philippines, Spain, Australia, Canada, and all over the place. I came here to Fargo, in the United States." It is likely, she tells us, that she will stay on as a full-time team member once her placement is complete.
Many of us at the iXPA programme became friends. It’s a different connection compared to a normal coworker.
Tatiana tells us about her childhood in Florianópolis, a coastal city in southern Brazil where she grew up by the sea. “It’s really pretty, it’s basically a big island. All my childhood was based around the ocean, the beach is therapy for me.” It was there that she first felt drawn to the construction industry. “I always had this idea that I wanted to construct something. I was never the girl that played with dolls. I was the girl that built the house for the doll” she says with a broad smile—one that rarely leaves her face during our conversation.
She also shares a few glimpses of the early influences in her life, particularly the role of her mother. “My mom used to always do working in different organizations or NGOs. For example, working for wildlife or child protection organizations.” Her mother, who also worked in property valuation, instilled in her a strong work ethic: “She always said like you need to learn fast. You need to learn as you're a kid so you don't struggle in life.”
That education was not just theoretical—it came with hands-on experience. “So since I was like 10 or 11 years old, I always worked going with her to visit real estate properties and taking notes on my little notebook. She never gave us easy money. So if I needed 10 bucks to go out, you're gonna work for the 10 bucks.”
Back then, the future felt like a blank canvas, and Tatiana often found herself imagining what might one day fill it. Would she become a chef? An architect? That is where the influence of another family member came into play.
Studying civil engineering was a mix of wanting to build something and doing something good for the world.
She had always loved the idea of building, but it was her grandfather—a civil engineer—who planted the seed. “He was like, ‘maybe you should become a civil engineer. What about that?’ And he put a little bug in my ear… and I realised that civil engineering was everything that I wanted in life.” She adds: “So it was a mix of wanting to build something and doing something good for the world, because I saw that in my mom.”
Before that path could begin, however, she had to grow up fast. At sixteen, due to family difficulties, she moved to Portugal with her sister and lived independently. “I had to learn how to be responsible and how to be an adult at a very early age. It was tough, it was rough, but it made me who I am today, and it really helped me to learn responsibility, learn how to fight and always try to see the positive side of life.”
After her time in Portugal—which also gave her a chance to explore Europe—Tatiana returned to Brazil to study the engineering degree her grandfather had suggested. Her family also had a lot to do with the choice of university. “I went to Mackenzie Presbyterian University, which is a renowned private university in São Paulo. I was the sixth generation of my family going to that college.”
Perhaps it was the sense of responsibility she had developed in Portugal that encouraged her to throw herself fully into her studies when she returned to Brazil, even joining extracurricular activities. “I was very nerdy at college. I was part of the Academic League,” she says—an association dedicated to the study, research and practical application of concrete technologies.
She also reflects on her experience as a woman in a STEM field. “At college we were around 70/30, with more men. I think my generation, in general, is a little more open-minded. They don’t care much about this kind of stuff. I did have more issues when I started working on a construction site with older men.”
And then one day, she came across a professor who sparked her love for transport infrastructure: “The first feeling that I had was the fact she was a woman. Being a woman in construction, in the science world, is not easy. We all know that. And when you have someone who is so respected by everybody in the college… she was a really good teacher and she became the Dean,” she tells us.
My professor was a very well-known, respected and strong woman, and I realised that this is what I wanted for my life, who I wanted to be.
Her name was Patricia, she points out, and she became a defining role model for Tatiana. “She was a very well-known, respected and strong woman, and I realised that this is what I wanted for my life, who I wanted to be.”
Her final-year dissertation was also linked to transport infrastructure: it focused on a new type of permeable asphalt for roads that would be more resistant to wear and tear. “Even though it didn’t work, we received a 10. Me and my group got the maximum grade as we detailed the need for this type of approach and the challenges involved.”
As part of her academic training, and before finishing her degree, Tatiana took on a intership that brought her to a luxury residential construction project. “I used to love my job and I really enjoyed what I was doing.” And what exactly did it involve? “In a residential construction site, your idea is to fix the problem, so you need to move this wall. Here you need to redo this. The client wants something different or a water pipe just blew up. I always loved this problem-solving side.”
Once the daily challenges were overcome and the company finally handed over the completed apartments, Tatiana had a moment of clarity. “When you deliver an apartment to rich people, to someone that doesn't need the apartment, it's very different than when someone needs the apartment. You can see very clearly when you're delivering an apartment to someone as their first home, someone who is building a family, not an investor with 10 homes.”
At my first job I was feeling empty. I wanted to do more for the community and for myself, I wanted to travel the world and visit new places.
That was the turning point. “I was feeling empty. I wanted to do more for the community and for myself, I wanted to travel the world and visit new places. So I realised that I needed to do something else.”
Let us return to that pivotal moment when the keys to the luxury apartment complex were handed over and Tatiana found herself at a crossroads. That was when the words of Patricia, the professor who had inspired her at university, came back to her. “I did some research with her, like a little project research. And she told me about ACCIONA because she was a professor in infrastructure. And she knew that I really love this area of infrastructure—of roadways and everything. And she said, hey, maybe one day if you want to do something else or do something related to this, check about ACCIONA.”
ACCIONA combined all my main goals of living in another place, having a different experience working in infrastructure, and making a difference in the world.
So she sat down at her computer and began browsing the company’s website. “I didn’t want to be an intern again, but I saw that iXPA provided training and then an experience in another country. First it would be working in the metro line in São Paulo and then going to another project afterwards.” She pauses, then adds: “So it combined all my main goals of living in another place, having a different experience working in infrastructure, and making a difference in the world. I thought, this is mine.”
She also came to another realisation: “I felt like ACCIONA was the best of two worlds, a private company caring for the public good.” So she applied. And as she puts it with a smile, “the rest is history.”
Tatiana uses the example of a legacy transport infrastructure to highlight the contrast with a company like ACCIONA. “What happens a lot, principally in São Paulo, which is a really big city, is that the infrastructure work there starts and it does not finish.”
Until ACCIONA arrived, completing infrastructure in São Paulo had always been a struggle.
She gives a concrete example: “The works for the other metro line that it has there and passes through my university started when my grandpa was in college, and not even my sister, who is 30 years old, could use it. I was the first one in my family to be able to take it to my classes. Completing infrastructure in São Paulo has always been a struggle.” ACCIONA now gave her the opportunity to make a real impact while building a career.
That impact became tangible with Line 6 – Laranja, where she was introduced to the world of tunnel boring machines (TBMs), working alongside the cost control team as an assistant. These were projects that could shorten commute times to university—or where segment factories for tunnel construction employed a 70% female workforce.
It’s beautiful when someone understands that, thanks to your work, they will be able to travel to college in thirty minutes instead of two and a half hours.
“We carried out a volunteer work there from ACCIONA, going to public schools around the project to tell them about the importance of the project, to explain what we were doing. It was really beautiful when they understood they would be able to travel to college in thirty minutes instead of two and a half hours.” So were you something of an ACCIONA evangelist, we ask? She laughs at the comparison.
What did that first job entail? “I used to work with the TBM control team as the trainee for the engineer that worked with the costs and materials for the TBM. I learned a lot about TBMs, and it was really nice because it was a problem-solving job. It was always what others needed. What do you need me to buy? What do you need me to find? And I really enjoyed that.” Her work on Line 6 also gave her the opportunity to explore the architectural side of infrastructure, contributing from the office as well.
Tatiana speaks with energy, expressiveness, and a contagious passion. So much so that over an hour into our conversation, she suddenly exclaims: “I just realized we haven’t even talked about Fargo yet!” It is time to move on to the second phase of her iXPA experience, in which she is currently immersed. After a year and a half working on the São Paulo Metro, the time came to pack her bags and head to the United States—to the town of Fargo, North Dakota.
The Fargo-Moorhead diversion canal is a monumental infrastructure project designed to prevent the flooding caused by the occasional overflow of the Red River, which flows across the plains between North and South Dakota. The canal is being created by excavating millions of tonnes of soil, which will then be used to build two containment embankments. These will be covered with trees and shrubs so that the structure blends into the landscape and supports local flora and fauna. “You also have to build some drains so the water flows and you have to build some bridges and roadways,” she adds.
People tell me, ‘If I am a Fargo person and I live in the flood area, I pay more insurance. Every year I can lose my house.’ There’s a lot of stories like that here.
So what is her role here? “Here I'm a technical engineer working with designs in the tech office. What I basically do is I take what is built on site and make sure that is what they asked on the design. I'm also very happy with the boss that I have. My manager is a woman, it's a privilege to have a female boss.”
Once again, Tatiana returns to the idea of positive impact: “People tell me, ‘If I am a Fargo person and I live in the flood area, I pay more insurance. Every year I can lose my house.’ There’s a lot of stories like that here.”
To the economic losses caused by floods, of course, one must also add the human toll. The contrast with the luxury apartment complex she left behind in Brazil could hardly be more striking.
In this new chapter of her life, Tatiana has not lost sight of the kind of volunteer work her mother and grandmother used to do. “I’m currently helping in a dog shelter,” she tells us.
What she has found most challenging is the climate shock—winter temperatures can drop to -30°C. Together with her partner, also a civil engineer who moved with her to the city and supported her career, she was determined to make the most of every moment from the start. “When we arrived it was on summertime, and we knew that in the winter we were going to struggle with staying at home and everything. So we needed to do everything outside that we could.”
I always embrace things in my life and for me, ACCIONA is a way of embracing adventure.
And she certainly followed through: “So we didn't spend a second in our house. Every day we find something, we go play volleyball in the park, we're going to play tennis, we're going to go camping. We're going to go visit a city that is three hours away. We're going to find something to do. I always embrace things in my life and for me, ACCIONA is a way of embracing adventure.”
So what comes next? “The more you grow inside the company, the more you can do so, of course, I would love to do more in a higher position, to be able to continue doing good, being a good engineer in construction. And who knows, maybe one day even participate on the Homeward Bound programme.” It would certainly be a fitting next step in her journey—to have a global impact through a network of women committed to STEM careers.