Design Engineering Graduate Programme 2025

Are you ready to play a significant part in the UK’s sustainable nuclear future?

Join our Graduate Development Programme and be a part of Sellafield Ltd’s mission of creating a clean and safe environment for future generations. Experience two years of comprehensive support, providing you with a unique place to grow your career and reach your unparalleled potential. We are committed to nurturing your talents, building your confidence, and enriching your expertise.

Our commitment doesn’t stop after two years. On successful completion of the Graduate scheme you can be offered a permanent contract with us. We will be there to support you through chartership, with a dedicated chartership mentor and likeminded colleagues that will be with you every step of the way.

Who are we?

We are delivering against national safety, security and energy needs. In operating, developing, and decommissioning the Sellafield site, we are also delivering the largest environmental restoration project in Europe.

In short, we solve complex nuclear, engineering, and infrastructure challenges for the UK every single day.

In the past, we have been responsible for breakthroughs such as the world’s first full-scale commercial nuclear power station, and today we are helping to keep lights on across the UK by safely receiving and storing spent nuclear fuel from the UK’s fleet of power stations.

Sellafield is the only site in the country that can safely manage all forms of nuclear waste, with our teams finding new ways to ensure it is kept safe until a permanent disposal facility is ready.
We are also guardians of the UK’s largest stockpile of nuclear materials.

Our world-class engineers and nuclear professionals tackle these challenges with the same spirit of innovation that has always run through our organisation.

All our activities are driven by a single purpose: to create a clean and safe environment for future generations.

We deliver on that purpose while providing value to:

• Our people – helping them to grow, develop and flourish;
• Our communities – creating a positive social impact in West Cumbria, Warrington and beyond; and
• Our industry – supporting the nation’s nuclear infrastructure, completing our decommissioning mission, and shaping best-practice standards.

The Graduate Programme:

The Graduate development programme is a two-year continuous professional development scheme, providing you with a unique place to grow your career and empower the next generation of nuclear professionals. The scheme aim is to enable, develop and shape early career professionals into innovative specialists to support the delivery of Sellafield’s mission. Whatever your aspiration, the Continuous Professional Development (CPD) programme equips you for success as a nuclear professional and delivers the start of a career in lifelong learning.  

Structured Support: Our dedicated Graduate development team will provide guidance and resources to make a meaningful difference to your learning journey in development days and outward bound, plus many more. As well as support from your technical pathways, who can offer discipline specific advice and guide you in your future career development.

Diverse Placements: Gain exposure to various business areas through strategically designed placements. This experience will help broaden your perspective on the wider nuclear industry and enhance your skill set by exposing you to challenges related to safely remediating the Sellafield site. Allowing you to contribute to a sustainable future.

Personalised Growth: We believe in holistic growth. Our programme is designed to bolster not only your technical proficiency within your discipline but also your understanding of the broader business landscape. Throughout the two-year programme, we will guide you towards achieving chartered status and develop you into a diverse, multi skilled professional.

Skills Development: Enhance your professional conduct by focusing on the development of fundamental skills. These skills are crucial in enabling you to thrive in a dynamic work environment and enhance the longevity of your career.

Connected Community: Our thriving graduate community, overseen by elected representatives, fosters a sense of belonging. Engage in regular social activities that complement your hard work, develop your social impact with charities and fundraising or climb a wainwright, all as part of the graduate community. Whatever your interests there is a social event for it, if not, you’ve got an opportunity to get involved and set one up.  

Design Engineering: Risley, Warrington or Sellafield, West Cumbria

Do you want to be part of designing some of the most unique and challenging engineering work in the nuclear industry? Are you looking for a graduate programme that puts you at the forefront of engineering excellence?

Our nuclear heritage and mission to create a sustainable future provides unparalleled potential for our design engineers. There is no instruction manual for our mission. As a design engineer at Sellafield Ltd, you will part of a team that gets to create it.

From unexpected, on-plant situations requiring design support and advice, plant modifications on legacy facilities and infrastructure, to large multi-million pound new build projects, Design Engineering at Sellafield Ltd provides a great range of experience for graduates to get involved with.

Design Engineers at Sellafield Ltd face some of the most unique and challenging work in the nuclear industry, and our design engineering capability enables us to accelerate high hazard nuclear waste reduction in a safe, secure, environmentally responsible, cost effective and pragmatic manner. The individual work scope varies dependent on your discipline area; you will be expected to demonstrate your technical ability and engineering knowledge through the production of design deliverables. Alongside this, Design Engineers are also expected to exhibit the correct behavioural attributes, have a questioning attitude and a good understanding of the project lifecycles from concept design through to operation and decommissioning.

Over the course of two years, design graduates are seconded to operating units throughout the business, enabling you to gain experience in a variety of aspects of engineering. You will be given real work and be responsible for ensuring delivery to the correct quality and timescales. You’ll get the chance to learn from industry experts, tackling challenges and finding solutions through innovation, and in doing so, reducing high hazards, making a meaningful difference to the environment. You can make a direct impact in the UK’s sustainable nuclear future.

To learn more about our Design Engineering profession, visit: https://careers.sellafieldsite.co.uk/graduates-placements/graduates/programme-areas/design-engineering/

We are looking for:

For our Design Engineering programmes we are looking for graduates who have studied the following degree disciplines:

• Chemical / Process Engineering
• Electrical / Electronic Engineering, Mechatronics, General Engineering, Building Services, Avionics, Energy Engineering

If that’s you and you achieved at least a 2:2 classification or above in your degree, then hit apply now.

• Civil or Structural Engineering (Masters level required and minimum of a 2:1 classification.)
• Mechanical Engineering (Masters level required and minimum 2:1);
• Building Services, Architectural Engineering & Environmental Engineering (Masters desirable, BEng level required and minimum 2:2).

Please note: Working at Sellafield Ltd requires you to achieve both security and medical clearance throughout the on-boarding process.

What you will receive in return:

• Our graduates start off with a 24-month fixed term contract, with an excellent starting salary of £40,802, rising to £41,721 in your second year with us. Following successful completion of your graduate programme and subject to there being a suitable vacancy you will be retained on permanent basis with us.

• On top your annual salary, you’ll have the opportunity to benefit from an annual bonus, linked to company performance, of up to £4000*

• If you’re relocating here from more than 30 miles away, we’ll support you with a relocation allowance of £1,400 and give you plenty of information on the best areas to live and how to find a place too. £1,400 can provide you with rent cover for up to 3-months in some areas of West Cumbria.

• We know that moving on from university isn’t always easy. That’s why all our graduates can also apply for an interest free loan of £2,000 which you pay back through your monthly salary over your 24-month contract.

• We aim to strike a good work/life balance by offering 30 days annual leave with statutory public holidays on top. There is also the ability to purchase an additional 2.5 days leave on top.

• We also offer an attractive defined contribution pension scheme – the company will match up to 13.5% for a 7% employee contribution!

• All of our employees can benefit from our 18 support networks, including the Nuclear Autism Support Network, oneLGBTQ+ Network and Gender Balance Networks, to name a few.

• Other benefits include paid sick leave scheme, cycle to work scheme, family friendly policies, welfare & employee assistance programme, employee savings & discounts, plus many others.

Key Information:

• Applications for our graduate programmes will close on 27th October 2024.

• You will be issued an assessment to complete, the date you receive this will depend on when you apply. You will be given a deadline to complete this by and will find out the result of your assessment mid-November.

• Video interviews will take place from 11th November to 1st December 2024.

• For Cumbria based schemes, face to face assessment centres will take place in Workington, Cumbria on 3rd, 4th, 5th & 9th February 2025.

• For Warrington based schemes, face to face assessment centres will take place in Risley, Warrington on 11th & 12th February 2025.

• We don’t want you to worry about getting to our assessment centre locations, financial support is available to those who may struggle to front the cost of travel upfront.

• *Please note, if you are unable to attend an assessment during these months you may be unable to complete our application process.

• Expected start date: 29th September 2025

• Sellafield has a proud vision of Diversity & Inclusion that aims to attract candidates into an inclusive and supportive workplace. We are honoured to be recognised as a Level 3 Disability Confident Employer. As users of the Disability Confident Scheme, you will be able to declare a disability when completing our application form or have the option to contact us directly should you require any assistance completing our application process.

• You are advised to regularly check your emails (including any junk mail/spam folders) for correspondence related to this post, including assessment or interview invitations and any other type of correspondence relating to your application.

Before you apply

Before you start your application, please complete our immersive, realistic preview into the life of a Graduate at Sellafield before you start your application. Completing this preview will take less than 10 minutes and will help you understand both the type of challenges you may encounter, and if you’re likely to enjoy working here.

Click below to begin our realistic scheme preview:

https://rjp.neurosight.ai/enc/GstpeCB9sNwskEQJLRjkleH9htp8BRlQ-SZZpMoxgd8

*Please note – requires an iPhone updated to at least iOS 14, or an updated Android device. Also accessible on tablets or laptops – Chrome is the recommended browser, although Safari also works on iO4 14 or better