Summer Placement Systems Engineer

The opportunity:

Do you want to work on real-time projects alongside leading scientists and engineers within a globally renowned company?

Leonardo is an international leader in electronic and information technologies for defence systems, aerospace, data, infrastructures, land security and protection, and sustainable ’smart’ solutions. We are a continually expanding company, offering exciting opportunities to talented individuals who want to work at the forefront of technology. With the majority of our engineers having chartered status, you can look forward to working with highly skilled professionals that are passionate about their work.

Leonardo’s Summer Placement Programme offers you a paid placement to develop your knowledge and skills in our innovative and practical environment. In addition to working with our highly skilled engineers and business professionals, successful completion of a Summer Placement can often lead to an offer for a permanent graduate position and securing your place on our industry leading Graduate Development Programme.

A 13 week Summer Placement Programme

Our Summer Placement Programme is designed to offer you the opportunity to develop your knowledge and skills you require to become an engineering or business professional of the future. On our programme you will engage with challenging and exciting project work, and deliver innovative business or technical solutions as part of a team of subject matter experts. Throughout the programme you will receive coaching and support from your team to achieve your objectives as well as your personal development goals. You will gain a wide array of experience on your placement that you can apply to your academic studies and future career.

At Leonardo we value individuals who continuously demonstrate a dedication to their personal development, and successful completion of a Summer Placement with Leonardo can lead to an offer on our Graduate Development Programme. We are looking for highly motivated individuals who are willing to take on a challenge to complete a summer placement, and we will demand a high degree of customer focus and work performance from you in order to meet our operational challenges. If you are willing able to commit to giving your best performance, you will find Leonardo a very rewarding place to work!

What you’ll do as a Summer Placement Systems Engineer

Systems Engineers are involved in all aspects of design and development; from initial product design through to in-service support.

They look at the big picture, determine how the system needs to operate and collaborate to produce the required overall operational behaviours. They also dive into the deepest level of detail – taking the system piece-by-piece and defining its design to the finest point. Our Systems Engineers can also actively engage in R&D, developing new concepts and conducting fundamental research into our future technologies.

As a Summer Placement Systems Engineer, you will work on real engineering problems within either the Radar or the Advanced Targeting business area. You will have the opportunity to be involved in supporting a wide range of tasks across multiple projects/products, such as:

• The radar for the Typhoon fighter jet
• The radar for the SAAB Gripen fighter
• Our family of Surveillance AESA (Active Electronically Scanned Array) radars
• An IRCM (Infra-Red Counter Measures) system
• Our laser target designator or laser ranging systems

Core activities within Systems Engineering include:

• Requirements capture, design documentation, verification and validation.
• Algorithm design and test.
• Performance modelling; building physics-based models to test our designs through computer simulation.
• Data analysis; end-to-end systems analysis using synthetic and ‘real world’ data.
• Applied research; from product improvements to blue-sky thinking.

You will work with an experienced engineer who will provide day-to-day guidance and on-the-job training. You will be introduced to systems engineering processes, methods, technology and tools, with particular emphasis placed on learning practical skills that may not be easily gained or experienced in the academic environment of a university.

What we need from you:

All of our Summer Placement roles require a minimum of a predicted 2:1 grade in a relevant degree discipline. For technical roles please note that our preferred degree disciplines include Physics, Mathematics, Engineering, or other STEM subject degrees.

All successful candidates must be returning to university after their Summer Placement, i.e. not in their final year.

In addition to this, we would be interested in hearing from you if you have experience in:

• Coding/programming.
• Relevant project work and/or placements in industry.
• Solving problems as part of a team
• Applying your science and technology knowledge to solve a real world problem

Life at Leonardo

With a company funded benefits package, a commitment to learning and development, and a flexible approach to working hours focused on the needs of both our employees and customers, a career with Leonardo has never offered as many opportunities or been more accessible to as many people.

• Flexible Working: Flexible hours with hybrid working options. For part time opportunities, please talk to us
• Company funded flexible benefits: Access to private healthcare, dental schemes, Workplace ISA, Go Green Car Scheme, technology and lifestyle options (£500 annual allowance)
• Holidays: 25 days plus bank holidays, option to buy/sell leave and to accrue up to 12 additional flexi leave days per year
• Pension: Award winning pension scheme (up to 10% employer contribution)
• Wellbeing: Employee Assistance Programme with access to free mental health support, financial wellbeing support and network groups to demonstrate our ongoing commitment to diversity & inclusion (Enable, Pride, Equalise, Reservists, Carers)
• Lifestyle: Discounted Gym membership, Cycle to work scheme
• Training: Free access to more than 4000 online courses via Coursera
• Referral Incentive: You can earn a reward for successfully referring a friend or family member
• Bonus: Scheme in place for all employees at management level and below

Please note that in order to apply for this opportunity you must be eligible for UK Security Clearance. Normally this is to the level of Security Check (typically known as “SC”) for our business which includes having a minimum of 5 years permanent residency in the UK.

At Leonardo, we are strongly committed to supporting all our people, and, as society and the environment we work in changes, our approach to Inclusion and Diversity continues to evolve and adapt to reflect this. A culture of inclusion goes on to create an environment for greater collaboration, innovation and opportunities to develop as an organisation. If you are willing and able to commit to giving your best performance, you will find Leonardo a very rewarding place to work!

Primary Location:

GB - Edinburgh

Contract Type:

Fixed term

Hybrid Working:

Onsite