Your impact  

Are you ready to make an impact and gain hands-on experience working on real-world projects from day one?  

At Leonardo, we’re looking for industrial placement students who want to be part of something bigger—shaping innovation, advancing technology, and enhancing global safety.  

Our placements are designed to help you apply your studies in a practical setting, develop your technical skills, and gain valuable insight into how our business operates.  

Our Industrial Placement Programme  

We have an exciting opportunity for a Systems Engineering Industrial Placement to join our team within the Customer Support and Service Solutions (CS3) line of business. The CS3 line of business operates across the UK, providing innovative and invaluable support solutions to our customers. We help to ensure the availability of front-line capability wherever and whenever required. 

During our 12-month Industrial Placement 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. You will be part of a team working alongside leading engineers, using new technology to solve customer problems. You will be engaging with a wide variety of stakeholders to understand their needs at all stages of the engineering lifecycle. 

There are several Systems Engineering Industrial Placement roles available in CS3 – your role will cover one or more of the following areas: 

• Support Solution Design: Conceptual design and development of new support solutions and services, including those for Typhoon and Team Tempest. 

• Technical Support: Hands-on testing and repair of some of our in-service equipment, across helicopters and fast jets. You will be able to work on electronic-based systems, as well as associated test equipment. 

• Digital: Development, maintenance and support of digital tools used by customers. These tools help customers in areas such as asset and logistics management and decision-making. Capabilities include data processing, reporting and visualisations. 

• CS3 Engineering Capability Development: Carrying out cross-cutting activities to improve the services that we can offer to customers. This may include new technologies, data and information exploration, and developing different approaches to support. 

As part of the application process, you will have the opportunity to explore which area would be the best fit for you. Alongside your main role, you will also have the chance to take part in a project with other early careers individuals. 

Throughout your Industrial Placement, you will receive coaching and support from your team, including our dedicated CS3 Early Careers Manager, 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.  

There will also be opportunities to get involved in STEM activities with local schools and universities. 

This role can be based at either our Luton or Edinburgh site. It is likely to include travel, both within the UK and possibly also abroad, to provide in-person support to our customers.  

Leonardo also operates a Custom (hybrid) working model that allows our employees to split their time between attending the workplace and working remotely. 

As an Industrial Placement Systems Engineer, you will: 

Dependent on the specific role, you will do a combination of the following: 

• Use technical expertise to solve problems, generate ideas and be pro-active within the team. 

• Develop practical skills in engineering design, development and verification for complex solutions, understanding key processes and technologies. 

• Develop and apply your academic knowledge to undertake various activities across the engineering lifecycle, delivering to agreed performance targets, including cost and schedule. 

• Work closely with engineers across multiple disciplines. 

• Visualise and understand customer problems. 

• Capture and manage customer requirements. 

• Data analysis, modelling, visualisation and dashboard development. 

• Complete tasks to a high standard and in accordance with appropriate processes and procedures. 

• Take an active role in engineering process improvement. 

This is not an exhaustive list, and we are keen to hear from you even if you might not have experience in all the above. The most important skill is a good attitude and willingness to learn. 

What you’ll bring 

We would like to hear from you if you have a combination of the following: 

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

• Passionate about engineering. 

• Self-motivated with an aptitude for problem solving and an ability to drive difficult issues to conclusion. 

• Able to work with minimum direction or supervision on complex tasks. 

• Able to apply big-picture thinking to look at problems as a whole. 

• Strong collaboration and inter-personal skills, and the ability to interact with subject matter experts regarding a range of technical and operational topics. 

• Confidence and ability to challenge and respond to technical or process issues. 

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, including experience of creating documentation and presentations. 

• Able to plan, prioritise and deliver high quality work. 

 Security Clearance  

This role is subject to pre-employment screening in line with the UK Government’s Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS). An additional range of Personnel Security Controls referred to as National Security Vetting (NSV) will apply, this would include meeting the eligibility requirements for The Security Check (SC) or Developed Vetting (DV). For more information and guidance please visit: https://careers.uk.leonardo.com/gb/en/security-and-vetting.  

Why join us  

At Leonardo, our people are at the heart of everything we do, our teams are key contributors in shaping innovation, advancing technology, and enhancing global safety.   

We offer a comprehensive, company-funded benefits package that supports your wellbeing, career development, and work–life balance. Whether you're looking to grow professionally, care for your health, or plan for the future, we’re here to help you thrive.  

• Time to recharge: Enjoy generous leave with the opportunity to accrue up to 12 additional flexi-days each year.  

• Secure your future: Benefit from our award-winning pension scheme with up to 15% employer contribution.  

• Your wellbeing matters: Free access to mental health support, financial advice, and employee-led networks championing inclusion and diversity (Enable, Pride, Equalise, Armed Forces, Carers, Wellbeing and Ethnicity).   

• Rewarding performance: All employees are eligible for our bonus scheme.  

• Join in our success: Our Employee Stock Ownership Plan provides you the opportunity to own shares in Leonardo. Remove speaking with Craig they won’t be able to really be in this due to it being annual buying of the shares.   

• Tailored perks: Spend up to £500 annually on flexible benefits including private healthcare, dental, family cover, tech & lifestyle discounts, gym memberships and more.  

For a full list of our company benefits please visit: https://careers.uk.leonardo.com/gb/en/company-benefits   

We are committed to building an inclusive, accessible, and welcoming workplace. We believe that a diverse workforce sparks creativity, drives innovation, and leads to better outcomes for our people, communities and our customers. If you have any accessibility requirements to support you during the recruitment process, just let us know.  

Be part of something bigger - apply now!