Summer Placement Software Engineer

Your impact

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

At Leonardo Newcastle, we’re looking for summer placement students who want to be part of something extraordinary—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.

Leonardo’s Summer Placement Programme offers you a paid opportunity (£26,228) to develop your current skillset in an innovative and practical environment that can lead to a place on our award-winning Graduate Development programme.

Come and join one of our multi-disciplinary integrated project teams, in Newcastle and contribute to the solving of real-life engineering problems on state-of-the-art avionics sensor systems, such as: the radar for the Typhoon fighter jet; the radar for the SAAB Gripen fighter; one of our family of Surveillance AESA Radars (Active Electronically Scanned Array); an IRCM (Infra–Red Counter Measures) system; or perhaps on one of our laser target designator or laser ranging systems.

The 13-week Summer Placement Programme

We have created a programme across our UK sites that not only increases your technical skills but gives you the opportunity to work on meaningful real-life projects, alongside experienced engineers and graduates across our business.

You will receive coaching and support to achieve your personal goals and work in multidisciplinary teams to gain as much experience across the product lifecycle from your time in industry as possible. Our ultimate aim is to see you through your undergrad years and successful placements may result in an offer to return for further placements or for an offer on our Graduate Development programme.

The programme will run from 1st June 2027 to 27th August 2027.

As a Summer Placement Software Engineer you will:

• Provide support to real projects.
• Be required to apply knowledge gained while studying in a practical way.
• Undertake activities including designing, testing, qualifying and supporting technology across our range of products. The challenging tasks will involve communicating with other team members to gain information before completing objectives and examining outcomes.
• Working as part of an established engineering community, and supported by a team of experienced engineers, you will be responsible for:
  • Delivering small packages of work to time, cost and quality.
  • Working within a team to achieve project targets, collaborate across multiple disciplines and solve problems.
  • Communicating with team members to share knowledge.
  • Completing tasks to a high standard in accordance with appropriate processes and procedures.
  • Using the opportunity to develop engineering skills. A supervisor will be available to provide mentoring whilst working as a fully integrated member of the team.
  • At the start of your placement, prepare a short presentation to introduce yourself and discuss what you will be working on to the Head of Software and the wider team.
  • At the end of your placement, showcase what you have learned and achieved during your time at Leonardo to the Head of Software and the wider team.

Particular emphasis will be placed on learning practical skills that may not be easily gained or experienced in the academic environment of a university.

What you’ll bring

• Our Summer Placement roles require a minimum of a predicted 2:2 grade in a relevant degree discipline e.g. Software Engineering, Computer Science, Physics, Mathematics or Electronic Engineering (BSc (Hon) / BEng (Hon) / MEng) to have the opportunity to experience a 13-week paid industrial placement working as a Software Engineer within Leonardo.

Competencies we look for:

• You should demonstrate an interest in Software Engineering in the area of real time development for avionic systems.
• You should have some experience of computer programming and be enthusiastic and passionate about designing software and writing code.
• Experience of an object-oriented programming language such as C++ and knowledge of UML (Unified Modelling Language) is an advantage but not essential.

A full statement of courses and projects studied at university and corresponding grades/marks/percentage should be included in your CV.

Applications are also welcomed from candidates who have completed a first degree and are looking to gain industrial experience prior to commencing a relevant higher degree (i.e. PhD, MSc).

Personal Attributes:

• Self-motivated with lots of drive and enthusiasm.
• Able to use own initiative to achieve overall objectives.
• Able to work under pressure and achieve challenging deadlines within an environment of changing priorities.
• Highly responsive with strong customer focus.
• Thorough, seeing job through to completion while maintaining high standards.
• Able to work flexibly and be readily adaptable to situational changes, in keeping with our custom working policy.

Why join us

At Leonardo, our people are at the heart of everything we do. 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: Our employees are entitled 25 days of annual leave plus bank holidays. As a Summer Placement student you will receive this allowance pro rata.
• 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.
• Never Stop Learning: Free access to 4,000+ online courses via Coursera and LinkedIn Learning.

Security Clearance

Many of our roles are subject to security requirements and, where applicable, export control restrictions arising from UK Government requirements and customer obligations 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.

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