Atkins

The overview

Atkins is an engineering and design firm, specialising in planning, design and construction. The company provides engineering solutions for a variety of industries including aviation, buildings and urban development, defence, education, environment, information communications, marine and coastal, transport, and energy and utilities, including water.

Although headquartered in the UK, the company also operates around Europe, the Middle East, North America and East and Southeast Asia. It employs over 15,500 people worldwide and, in the financial year ending March 2011, reported revenues of £1,564.3 million.

Rankings and awards

• Listed on the FTSE 250 index.
• In 2011 it was ranked 123 in the Guardian UK300, a survey of the most popular employers among students, and took third place in the construction and civil engineering sector.
• Ranked 11 in Engineering News-Record's Top 150 Global Design Firms listing in 2010.
• Order of distinction in the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents’ 2011 awards ceremony for achieving at least 15 consecutive gold awards.

Local clients and projects

Atkins has a wide and varied client base including not only governments, both local and national, but also private companies across many different business sectors. UK-based clients include BAA, BP, the Metropolitan Police, Rolls-Royce and Transport for London.

Atkins is rumoured be working on a mosque that holds three million worshippers.

The company is an official engineering design services provider for the London 2012 Olympics and has been involved in the design of the Olympic park as well as several temporary venues, not only in London, but across the UK. It is also involved in the Crossrail programme, which will greatly improve rail transport across the east-west axis of London.

Expansion in the Middle East

Atkins recently won a £70m contract to develop transport and infrastructure in Qatar, including some work for the 2022 football World Cup. The deal will help strength the company's presence in the Middle East, as will the addition of a new office in Saudi Arabia, its third in the country.

Atkins has also been linked to plans for the expansion of the Haram Mosque in Mecca as part of an extension scheme instigated by the Saudi government. This is already the largest mosque in the world and it is rumoured that the design put forwards by Atkins will include increasing its capacity to more than three million.

Involved in power generation

Atkins is involved in projects that aim to generate energy in more sustainable ways, such as the Anaconda, a new submersible device that captures wave power, and it is involved in the design and construction of ITER, the experimental nuclear fusion reactor being jointly funded by China, Europe, India, Japan, South Korea, the Russian Federation and the USA. The aim is for ITER to use nuclear energy to generate electricity without creating the radioactive fission by-products that reactors up until now have produced.

Salary and benefits

Starting salary is dependent on qualification:

• Degree: £20,000–£24,000
• Masters: £22,000–£26,000
• PhD: £24,000–£28,000

Other benefits include:

• £5,000 ‘golden hello’ payment (paid in two instalments, half on joining, half on completing training for professional qualification)
• 25 days’ paid holiday per year, but with option to buy (up to 15 days) or sell (5 days) holiday
• Pension scheme
• Optional share ownership plan
• Employee car ownership scheme
• Discounted health club membership