Integration & Missile Validation Engineer - Summer Placement 2027

MBDA UK; Stevenage; On-site; GBP 120,000 - 130,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Pension: 14% total contribution

Overtime paid

5 days annual leave

Subsidised meals

Free car parking

Job summary

MBDA UK invites undergraduates to join the Integration & Missile Validation (IMV) team for a 10-week summer placement in Stevenage. You will gain real-world experience performing tests, data analysis and reporting across missile programs.

The role emphasizes teamwork, problem solving and hands-on work in a lab environment, with clear pathways to a graduate role. The package includes a competitive pro-rata salary and site facilities as described.

Qualifications

• Undergraduate student in Engineering, Physics, Mathematical Sciences, Technology, Computing or General Science.
• Willing to work onsite in Stevenage on a 10-week placement.
• Interest in missiles/defence sector and hands-on testing.

Responsibilities

• Support integration and verification activities across ground, flight and functional tests.
• Assist in planning, lab testing, offsite trials and data analysis.
• Contribute to writing technical documentation and reports.

Skills

Team collaboration

Problem solving

Lab experience

Technical communication

Education

Undergraduate in Engineering/STEM

Job description

Integration & Missile Validation Engineer – Summer Placement Programme 2027

MBDA develop some of the world’s highest performing weapon systems; but how do we demonstrate and prove this? Integration and Missile Validation (IMV) is an integral part to ensuring our weapon systems meet customer requirements and increasing the sovereign capability. Within this role, you will experience the many aspects of proving to become a well-rounded IMV Engineer.

Salary: £24,460 (pro-rata)

Dynamic working: You can expect to be onsite 5 days per week in this placement

Security clearance: British Citizen or a Dual UK national with British citizenship. Restrictions and/or limitations relating to nationality and/or rights to work may apply. As a minimum and after offer stage, all successful candidates will need to undergo HMG Basic Personnel Security Standard checks (BPSS), which are managed by the MBDA Personnel Security Team.

This role is scheduled to close for applications at midnight on Monday 4th January 2027 but may close earlier depending on application volumes.

What we can offer you:

• 10 week placement: Starting June 2027, that allows you to apply your university learning to real-world projects and technologies Perform well on your placement and you could secure a graduate role before your final year
• Pension: Maximum total (employer and employee) contribution of up to 14%
• Overtime: Opportunity for paid overtime
• Annual Leave: 5 days
• Facilities: Fantastic site facilities including subsidised meals, free car parking and much more…

The opportunity:

The Integration and Missile Validation (IMV) team are responsible for trials and testing activities undertaken to provide verification and validation evidence for all the missile programmes within the business. Whether it’s software, hardware, or an entire missile system, IMV engineers lead the real-world test and integration across the whole product development lifecycle. This includes planning, lab testing, offsite trials, data analysis, and reporting.

Examples of IMV activities you could be involved with include:

• Ground Trials: Testing the robustness of our products through various environments to ensure it can survive and operate within the real world. This can involve vibration, shock and climatic testing.
• Flight Trials: Integrating subsystems onto aircraft to simulate the behaviour of the missile during flight.
• Functional Integration: Demonstrating hardware and software of systems work together and respond as expected.
• Firing Trials: Final evaluation testing to ensure the full weapon system works and demonstrating the capability of the product to the customer.
• In-Service Support: Testing and monitoring in-service products with the customer.
• Support Trials and Test Equipment: Designing support test equipment and software to support proving activities.

As part of completing these activities, you will have the opportunity to learn:

• How to plan and design test strategies to support proving the capability of various missile systems.
• How to integrate various missile equipment to test rigs.
• To develop your problem-solving skills through debugging test systems.
• Strengthen software skills through generating test scripts.
• To develop confidence with handling various hand and power tools.
• How to design, develop and use test equipment to support overall proving activities.
• To increase confidence in the processing, analysing and forming conclusions from data, as well as writing technical documentation.

What we’re looking for from you:

• Current undergraduate working towards a degree in an Engineering, Physics, Mathematical Sciences, Technology, Computing or a General Science discipline.

Whether you are studying Engineering, Sciences, Maths or any STEM related subject, you will enjoy this role if you:

• Enjoy team collaboration and the opportunity to communicate technical information with a variety of teams.
• Like to find solutions to problems using creativity and new ways of thinking.
• Find exploring new experiences and developing new skills exciting.
• Are logical in the methods you use to prove.
• Are eager to get hands-on supporting work within a lab environment or offsite on a trial.

Our company:

Peace is not a given, Freedom is not a given, Sovereignty is not a given MBDA is a leading defence organisation. We are proud of the role we play in supporting the Armed Forces who protect our nations. We partner with governments to work together towards a common goal, defending our freedom. We are proud of our employee-led networks, examples include: Gender Equality, Pride, Menopause Matters, Parents and Carers, Armed Forces, Ethnic Diversity, Neurodiversity, Disability and more… We recognise that everyone is unique, and we encourage you to speak to us should you require any advice, support or adjustments throughout our recruitment process. Follow us on LinkedIn (MBDA), X (@MBDA_UK), Instagram (MBDA_UK) and Glassdoor or visit our MBDA Careers website for more information. What we do matters. Because defence matters. As a leading company in the defence industry we support our nations by delivering essential military capabilities, both for today and the future. We are proud to be an award-winning employer and are proud of the growing diversity of our workforce. Our people are the ones who drive our constant innovation and deliver against challenging targets. Whatever your background, we welcome your application to MBDA UK and look forward to speaking with you soon.