Senior Project Engineer

By 2050, the planet could be using twice as much electricity compared to today. Are you interested in contributing and helping to shape the future of the world's energy? If so, read on.

Fusion, the process that powers the Sun and Stars, is one of the most promising options for generating the cleaner, carbon-free energy that our world badly needs.

UKAEA leads the way in realizing fusion energy, partnering with industry and research for ground breaking advancements. Our goal is to bring fusion electricity to the grid, supported by tomorrow's power stations. In pursuit of our mission, UKAEA embraces core values: Innovative, Committed, Trusted, and Collaborative.

As an employee of UKAEA you will benefit from:

• Outstanding defined benefit pension scheme, details of which can be found at the end of this advert.
• Corporate bonus scheme up to 7% and a Relocation allowance (if eligible).
• Flexible working options including family friendly policies and the right to request flexible working from the start of your employment. 
• Employee Assistance Programme and trained Mental Health First Aiders, 
• Generous annual leave allowance starting with 25 days, plus 3 days Christmas closure and 2.5 privilege days, in addition to UK bank holidays
• Wide range of career development opportunities
• A vibrant culture committed to equality and being fully inclusive

What to expect in our recruitment process:

For a step-by-step overview of how we hire from application to offer please see our Recruitment Process page:

The salary for this role is £56,596 (inclusive of a Specialist Allowance). Onsite working is expected for 3 days each week, however, we actively support requests for flexible working. 

This role is based at the following site: Culham or Rotherham

This role requires employees to complete an online Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS), including The Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) checks for criminal convictions and possibly a search of open source data. 

The Role

We are seeking a skilled Technical and Project Lead to provide leadership on engineering projects of moderate scale and significance, driving innovation and influencing the direction of the organisation and its collaborators. You will manage and deliver complex engineering projects, from proposing and defining project scopes to leading multidisciplinary teams focused on enhancement programs, future fusion devices, and related technology applications. This role involves coordinating teams to develop technical solutions, designs, and resolving critical operational challenges, while providing expert guidance and direction throughout the project lifecycle to ensure successful outcomes.

If you have strong communication and technical writing skills, excellent interpersonal abilities, and experience supervising others, we'd love to hear from you.

Key Accountabilities:

• Provide technical leadership across UKAEA projects, managing medium-scale projects independently or leading sections of larger, complex initiatives while acting as a key technical reference for internal teams and external stakeholders.

• Ensure engineering excellence by developing and implementing high-quality technical processes, designs, and procedures throughout all project phases.

• Deliver successful outcomes by meeting project milestones, quality, scope, budget, and time objectives in collaboration with project and work package managers.

• Oversee technical analysis and reporting, ensuring designs are validated, reviewed, and well-documented through reports, presentations, and stakeholder communications.

• Lead and support teams by mentoring engineers, fostering collaboration, and maintaining effective communication across UKAEA and partner organisations.

Further details about responsibilities and requirements can be found in the full Job Description.

• A relevant engineering degree of equivalent
• Working towards or achieved Chartered Engineer status with a suitable professional institution
• Ability to perform exploratory design calculations using first principles  
• A good working knowledge of a broad range of engineering disciplines
• Experience with working to design standards

A full list of our benefits can be found here

UKAEA's mission is clean energy for all, and we welcome talented people from all backgrounds who want to help us achieve our mission.  We are under-represented from some groups and so want to encourage applications in particular from women in STEM, people from Black British Caribbean and African backgrounds and from Pakistani and Bangladeshi British backgrounds. Our Executive team, supported by our 'Head of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion' (EDI) and Wellbeing and our EDI Networks actively promote Inclusion and takes steps to increase diversity within our organization. We reinforce best practices in recruitment and selection and evaluate approaches to remove barriers to success.

UK Atomic Energy Authority is committed to being accessible. Please email [email protected] if you have any questions or require help or adjustments to compete on a fair basis, for example, changes to the way we interview or share information.  

Please note that vacancies are generally advertised for 4 weeks but may close earlier if we receive a large number of applications.