Graduate Optical Engineer

Are you ready to launch your career and make an impact on real-world projects from day one?   

At Leonardo, we’re looking for graduates who want to be part of something extraordinary - shaping innovation, advancing technology, and enhancing global safety. 

We are committed to developing our graduates into leading technical or business professionals, and as such we will also support you through your preferred route for professional development. 

Our 18-month Graduate Programmes give you the opportunity to work on exciting and challenging projects alongside industry leaders. 

As a Graduate Optical Engineer, you will manage your own development towards attaining Optical Engineer level through the Graduate Development Scheme over 18 months.

To achieve this goal, you will be placed in programmes responsible progressing different parts of a product life cycle:

• →New product introduction: tasked with learning the core concepts required to increase the manufacturing rate, such as modelling an existing to designs to identify root-cause analysis of observed problems and use of metrology to validate theories.
• →Detailed product design: responsible for developing or improving existing designs and supporting the transfer of optical models into a detailed optical and system requirements.
• →Novel concepts: to develop technologies both future and improvement of existing products.

Throughout these placements you will learn skills required to communicate technical concepts across a wide array of disciplines. You will be expected support optical procurement and the wider product team in the creation and changing of drawings, tolerancing and how to develop of experiments to prove capability of your designs. Finally, you will be tasked performing technical reviews to assess the limits on technical capability and for creating and conducting optical tests to lower the technical risks of novel EO-Systems and solutions identified as part of wider technological reviews.

• A minimum of a 2:1 master’s degree or a higher, such as a EngD or PhD.
• Relevant experience of photonics, such as summer placements, internships or research projects.
• Experience with technical writing and project planning.
• Strong analytical, modelling skills and laboratory skills.
• Evidence of successfully working in a team.
• Enthusiasm for photonics and an interest in developing your technical capabilities.
• Experience of modelling tools such as Ansys Zemax Optics Studio, Matlab, LabVIEW, and COMSOL (or equivalent) is desirable.

Many of our roles are subject to security and export control restrictions set by UK Government Security requirements and customer obligations.  As a result, and in line with the UK Government Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) requirements, all successful applicants will be asked to provide evidence of identity, eligibility to work in the UK, criminal record declaration information and employment and/or education history verification for the previous five years. 

For staff operating in more sensitive posts, there is an additional range of personnel security controls referred to as National Security Vetting (NSV).  As part of this process, a range of factors may be considered, including an individual's background, travel history, nationality, previous nationalities held and other information relevant to the vetting assessment. 

To be eligible for National Security Vetting at SC level, applicants will generally be expected to have continuously resided in the UK for the previous five years. For DV clearance, this is typically ten years.  In some circumstances, time spent overseas may be accepted, with additional overseas checks.  Additional vetting requirements may apply upon appointment. 

For more information and guidance please visit: https://careers.uk.leonardo.com/gb/en/security-and-vetting