Placement Systems Engineer — Radar & AESA Design

Are you ready to make an impact and gain hands‑on experience working on real‑world projects from day one? At Leonardo, we’re looking for industrial placement students who want to be part of something bigger — 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.

A 6 month – 1 year Industrial Placement Programme offers you the chance to spend your placement with us, working on meaningful projects alongside subject matter experts, within multidisciplinary teams, and across the product lifecycle. You’ll receive a salary of £25,000, with coaching and support from a dedicated team to help you achieve both your placement objectives and personal development goals. Successful completion of an Industrial Placement with Leonardo may also lead to an offer on our Graduate Development Programme.

During your placement, we encourage you to spend at least three days each week on site to integrate with your team and maximise your learning experience. We are looking for highly motivated individuals who are willing to take on a challenge to complete a placement, and we will demand a high degree of customer focus and work performance from you in order to meet our operational challenges. If you are willing able to commit to giving your best performance, you will find Leonardo a very rewarding place to work!

What you’ll do

Systems Engineers are involved in all aspects of design and development; from initial product design through to in‑service support. They look at the big picture, determine how the system needs to operate and collaborate to produce the required overall operational behaviours. They also dive into the deepest level of detail – taking the system piece‑by‑piece and defining its design to the finest point. Our Systems Engineers can also actively engage in R&D, developing new concepts and conducting fundamental research into our future technologies.

As a Summer Placement Systems Engineer, you will work on real engineering problems within either the Radar or the Advanced Targeting business area. You will have the opportunity to be involved in supporting a wide range of tasks across multiple projects/products, such as:

• The radar for the Typhoon fighter jet
• The radar for the SAAB Gripen fighter
• Our family of Surveillance AESA (Active Electronically Scanned Array) radars
• An IRCM (Infra‑Red Counter Measures) system
• Our laser target designator or laser ranging systems

Core activities within Systems Engineering include:

• Requirements capture, design documentation, verification and validation.
• Algorithm design and test.
• Performance modelling; building physics‑based models to test our designs through computer simulation.
• Data analysis; end‑to‑end systems analysis using synthetic and ‘real world’ data.
• Applied research; from product improvements to blue‑sky thinking.

You will work with an experienced engineer who will provide day‑to‑day guidance and on‑the‑job training. You will be introduced to systems engineering processes, methods, technology and tools, with particular emphasis placed on learning practical skills that may not be easily gained or experienced in the academic environment of a university.

What you’ll bring

All of our Industrial Placement roles require you to be studying a relevant degree discipline such as Physics, Mathematics, Engineering, or other STEM subject degrees. This should be a minimum of a Bachelors level degree.

Be a self‑motivated individual, willing to take on new challenges and drive continuous personal development. Strong communication skills across a variety of mediums i.e. written, verbal, digital, etc. The ability to develop effective working relationships with peers and stakeholders. Adaptable to the ever‑changing demands that will be encountered within the role. Offer novel ideas and methods for solving technical problems, drawing on personal experiences and knowledge learned during academic studies.

In addition to this, we would be interested in hearing from you if you have experience in:

• Coding/programming.
• Relevant project work and/or placements in industry.
• Solving problems as part of a team.
• Applying your science and technology knowledge to solve a real‑world problem.

Security Clearance

This role is subject to pre‑employment screening in line with the UK Government’s Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS). An additional range of Personnel Security Controls referred to as National Security Vetting (NSV) will apply, this could include meeting the eligibility requirements for The Security Check (SC) or Developed Vetting (DV).

Why join us

At Leonardo, our people are at the heart of everything we do, our teams are key contributors in shaping innovation, advancing technology, and enhancing global safety. 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: Enjoy generous leave with the opportunity to accrue up to 12 additional flexi‑days each year.
• 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 (Enable, Pride, Equalise, Armed Forces, Carers, Wellbeing and Ethnicity).
• Tailored perks: Spend up to £500 annually on flexible benefits including private healthcare, dental, family cover, tech & lifestyle discounts, gym memberships and more.

We are committed to building an inclusive, accessible, and welcoming workplace. We believe that a diverse workforce sparks creativity, drives innovation, and leads to better outcomes for our people, communities and our customers. If you have any accessibility requirements to support you during the recruitment process, just let us know. Be part of something bigger - apply now!

Primary Location GB - Edinburgh Contract Type Fixed term Hybrid Working Onsite