Industrial Placement Electronics

Leonardo UK Ltd; Wickford; Hybrid; GBP 25,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading aerospace and defense company in the United Kingdom is seeking an Industrial Placement Electronics Engineer. This role offers hands-on experience on real projects, developing skills in electronics design. With a salary of £25,000, the placement encourages practical application of studies and could lead to a graduate position. The successful candidate will work closely with experienced engineers and gain valuable insights into the company's operations.

Benefits

Generous leave and flexi-days

Pension scheme with up to 15% employer contribution

Free mental health support and financial advice

Flexible benefits package including healthcare and gym memberships

Qualifications

• Experience with PCB design and simulation tools is highly desirable.
• Strong understanding of digital and analogue design principles.

Responsibilities

• Support the design and development of electro-optical and communication products.
• Interface with customers and engineers from other disciplines.
• Work under guidance to develop skills as a professional Electronics Engineer.

Skills

Electronics design

Analogue design

Digital design

Signal processing

Education

Currently studying an electronics-biased degree

Tools

PCB design and simulation tools

Job description

Job Description:

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

Our Industrial Placement Programme offers you the chance to spend a year with us, working on meaningful projects alongside subject matter experts, within multidisciplinary teams, and across the product lifecycle. You’ll receive a salary of £25,000, with coaching and support from a dedicated team to help you achieve both your placement objectives and personal development goals.

Successful completion of an Industrial Placement with Leonardo may also lead to an offer on our Graduate Development Programme.

During your placement, we encourage you to spend at least three days each week on site to integrate with your team and maximise your learning experience.

What you will do as an Industrial Placement Electronics Engineer

You will support the design and development of our world leading electro‑optical, communications and information system products under the guidance of experienced Electronics Engineering Leads.

You will be introduced to utilising state‑of‑the‑art methods, technology and tools to explore all aspects of the development lifecycle, including requirements analysis, design, implementation, test, acceptance and product support.

You will interface with customers (internal and external) on many factors within the design and liaise closely with Engineers from all other disciplines including Mechanical, Software, Systems, Supportability and Design Integrity. Electronics Engineers design, document, build and test electronics circuits and firmware designs to go into our various systems.

In Electronics Engineering, you might be involved in designing for mixed signal design, power supply design, DAC/ADC, FPGA, high‑speed serial interfaces and video/communication processing algorithms. The opportunity will be there to engage with all of these technologies across a diverse, interesting and exciting range of products including Thermal Imaging Cameras, Vehicle Camera systems, Counter UAV systems, Electronic Warfare products and Communication Systems.

There will be opportunities to develop expertise in the design of circuits, FPGAs and subsystems at various stages in the product lifecycle. This will include requirements capture, performance analysis, design, code, verification, validation and support to integration and qualification. You will gain exposure to other engineering disciplines and business areas.

Key Areas of Responsibility

• To learn the skills required to become a professional Electronics Engineer.
• Working to timescales.
• Work as a contributory engineering team member (with support).
• Undertake day‑to‑day engineering activities with some guidance and support.
• Ask for support where appropriate and learn from more experienced team members.
• Contribute to engineering team decisions and understand why such decisions are made and their relationship to project success criteria.
• Explore new experiences and opportunities to learn within the engineering environment.

Skills, Qualifications & Knowledge Required

Qualifications

All of our Industrial Placement roles require you to be currently studying an electronics‑biased degree including modules covering topics such as digital design, analogue design and signal processing with experience of using PCB design and simulation tools is highly desirable.

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) may apply, this could 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).
• 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!

Primary Location

GB - Basildon

Contract Type

Fixed term

Hybrid Working

Hybrid