Penny grew up in London, and gained her first research experience as a WISE scholar in her sixth form at GEC. She read Natural Sciences at Newnham College Cambridge. She joined the Royal Armaments Research and Development Establishment – a Dstl predecessor-in 1993 after a short stint researching fuel cells with British Gas. She spent ten years as a researcher into novel armour systems, ending as the UK expert on electric and intelligent armours. She led several groups in Dstl’s Physical Sciences Department before taking over as the department manager in 2009. During this time she was appointed a fellow of the Institute of Physics and served as a member of their governing council. In 2012 she transferred to lead the Information Management department, beginning the focus on cyber and C4ISR which led to her appointment as division head of Cyber and Information Systems Division in 2015. Penny holds a visiting professorship at Southampton University in Electronics and Computer Science. She is also honorary treasurer of Wiltshire Wildlife.