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Mechanical Engineering Summer Placement

Manchester | Sheffield | Bristol | Derby | Whitehaven | Birmingham | Epsom

Your window into a brilliant future

Kickstart your career on a summer placement with AtkinsRéalis. You’ll develop valuable experience on real-world projects, supported by welcoming peers, line managers and senior leaders and be given real responsibility, empowered to contribute to projects that create a more sustainable future.

Our summer placements offer a combination of on-the-job learning and practical skills development to help you develop your career. Collaborating with others, you’ll work on a diverse range of projects, making a positive impact on people, communities and the environment.

We believe reaching your full potential means being able to bring your whole self to work and feeling like you belong. Find out more about our global programme Different Makes a Difference.

We are AtkinsRéalis, a world-class engineering services and nuclear organization. Here you’ll help create world-class sustainable solutions that connect people, data and technology. We're transforming infrastructure and energy systems, growing partnerships with our clients, and bringing the most complex projects across the globe to life. 

Our global team of 40,000+ employees speak over 70 languages and represent some 130 nationalities across six continents. Our work covers a variety of sectors, including infrastructure, power, transportation, environment, water, nuclear, technology, defence and aerospace.

Where you could work

Depending on your interests and location preferences, you could join one of our teams working within the Nuclear, Transportation or Water sectors, helping to deliver some of the world's most complex and rewarding projects.

Want to learn more? Follow the links above to explore each sector, the teams and types of projects you could work on.

Please note locations may close due to volume of applications. If your preferred location isn't available when you go to apply, please select an alternative.
Nuclear Transportation Water

Location

Various locations

Ref

PL-186

Salary range

£26,228 - £30,784

What you can bring

  • A curious mindset and enthusiasm for solving real-world challenges
  • A desire to champion a culture where everyone belongs
  • A collaborative working style and confidence building positive relationships
  • Enthusiasm and drive to develop your skillset and seek out development opportunities within a supportive team
  • Motivation to achieve professional accreditation (where applicable)
  • Comfortable embracing agile ways of working and learning new technologies
  • A commitment to spend a minimum of three days a week in the office or on client site (project dependent). Being together in person helps us build stronger relationships, collaborate more effectively, and accelerate your learning and development.
People discussing

Meeting your needs

Join our vibrant early careers community, with plenty of brilliant opportunities; from skill-building to social events, charity challenges, social clubs, and much more. Join any of our employee networks for social interaction, peer support and personal development.
We aim to promote a workplace which allows our people to perform at their best. As well as ensuring you’re rewarded for your efforts, we offer a variety of initiatives to create a healthy workplace and support your well-being including access to our Employee Assistance Program (EAP) providing you with immediate and confidential help for any work, health or life matters.

Each year, our top performing placement students (who’ve done at least 8 weeks on placement with us) have the opportunity to be nominated onto our Graduate Development Programme. If you’re nominated, you’ll bypass the standard recruitment process and be offered a place on the programme.

To view all our benefits, visit our Total Rewards portal. 

Our placement salaries are between £26,228 - £30,784 pa pro rata depending on role and location.

How do I apply?

Click "Apply" to start your application - you'll be taken to our vacancies platform, where you can explore specific placement roles that match your interests. On the platform use the search and filter options to narrow down roles by location, sector and other preferences, select the role you'd like to apply for and submit your application. 

Please note - you can only make one application per recruitment campaign.

For tips and advice on applying – and to message your questions directly to one of our graduate mentors - check out our Early Careers TalentConnector platform.

As a Disability Confident Employer we can make adjustments to support you to perform at your best during the recruitment process. To find out how we can support you please contact us confidentially at [email protected]

Our deadline for applications is 3 December 2026. As we review applications on a rolling basis, this vacancy may close earlier than the advertised closing date if we receive a high volume of suitable applications. We therefore encourage you to apply as soon as possible.

People discussing over Atkins

More about us

AtkinsRéalis is a world-class engineering services and nuclear organization. We design and deliver major projects on the built and natural environments all around the world. We believe that digitally enabled engineering has the power to radically improve the way we are all housed, connected, powered, and protected and can change our relationship with our communities and our planet for the better. We are committed to building a culture where everyone belongs – a place where you can all be yourself, thrive and reach your full potential. Join us and engineer a better future for our planet and its people. 

Additional information

This role may require security clearance and offers of employment will be dependent on obtaining the relevant level of clearance. If this is necessary, it will be discussed with you at the interview. The vetting process is delivered by United Kingdom Security Vetting (UKSV) and may require candidates to provide proof of residency in the UK of 5 years or longer. If applying to this role, please do not make reference to (in conversation) or include in your application details of any current or previously held security clearance.

Due to current Government immigration salary thresholds, AtkinsRéalis do not sponsor any skilled worker visas for our early careers programme as the Home Office's eligibility criteria would not be met. Given the length of our early careers programme AtkinsRéalis requires applicants to have the right to work in the UK (without sponsorship by AtkinsRéalis) for the duration of the programme. Applicants should ensure they can meet this requirement prior to making an application. For more information, please visit our International Students page

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