Reelwell
May 22, 2026
Start to Finish: From North Cape to the North Sea.
Cycling 2,500 kilometres from North Cape to Lindesnes takes endurance, resilience, and a willingness to keep moving forward when things get tough. It’s also a mindset Sean Monaghan brings to engineering.
Since joining Reelwell as a Senior Mechanical Engineer in August 2025, Sean has quickly become known for his hands-on approach, curiosity, and determination to see projects through from concept to completion.
With an MEng in Product Design Development and experience spanning oil tools, electric motors, renewable energy sensors, seismic nodes, and robotics, he brings a broad technical background shaped by working across industries and solving real-world engineering challenges.
For Sean, every role has been another stage in the journey. Today he combines a practical knowledge and problem-solving mindset to drive his work at Reelwell.
Drawn to the challenge
Preferring smaller, dynamic companies over large corporates, Sean likes an environment where he can own a project end-to-end and make a real contribution.
This made Reelwell a natural fit:
"It reminded me of the first company I worked for in 2012, starting with five employees and growing to thirty. The way to learn and improve is to do things yourself and get to understand the entire product lifecycle.”
The technology was also a major draw.
“Electrifying the drill string is something no-one else has done before. It has the potential to completely change what’s possible downhole and there are so many more tools you can make that simply weren't possible before.”
The Drilling Jar project
Sean's first major contribution at Reelwell was implementing the Drilling Jar tool into the Reelwell system. A Drilling Jar is a vital downhole tool placed in the drill string to deliver a sudden, high-impact blow to release stuck equipment, such as pipes, packers, or guns.
While the value of electrifying the drillstring has always been clear, integrating downhole tools requires these tools to evolve as well. For the Jar, this meant ensuring electrical current could pass through uninterrupted, something the original design was never built to do.
The project required as much problem-solving as engineering and included a few memorable lessons along the way, including the realisation (after a long day of product assembly) that the fully assembled tool was too long to move into position. Everything had to come apart and start over.
"Making that decision wasn’t easy, but sometimes you have to take a few steps back to go forward and make sure not to repeat it again,” Sean admits.
The experience reinforced something he believes is fundamental to good engineering – the gap between theory and real-world practice is where you are truly tested.
The DualLink powered Drilling Jar tool is now offshore on a test pilot run and Sean is joining the offshore team to see it in action for the first time.
AI and the future of engineering
Sean views AI as a useful tool for speeding up calculations and accessing information quickly, but not as a replacement for practical engineering experience.
"AI data is from the past and you can't predict the future from the past. AI can help you iterate on what already exists, but it can't create what comes next.”
For engineers early in their careers, Sean believes practical experience is more essential:
“If you want to be a mechanical engineer, you can’t spend every day sitting behind a desk and not getting your hands dirty. Practical experience makes you more diverse and versatile.”
Outdoor pursuits
Sean applies a similar proactive mentality to life outside work. In 2025, he won the Mandal Marathon and has cycled from North Cape to Lindesnes, the full length of the country from north to south.
Whether it's developing a complex drilling tool or covering 2,500 kilometres of Norwegian terrain, Sean Monaghan believes in seeing things through - from start to finish.