Industrial Placement Electronics Engineer in Southampton

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.

Our Industrial Placement Programme offers you the chance to spend a year 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.

You will support the design and development of our world leading electro‑optical, communications and information system products under the guidance of experienced Electronics Engineering Leads. You will be introduced to utilising state‑of‑the‑art methods, technology and tools to explore all aspects of the development lifecycle, including requirements analysis, design, implementation, test, acceptance and product support. You will interface with customers (internal and external) on many factors within the design and liaise closely with Engineers from all other disciplines including Mechanical, Software, Systems, Supportability and Design Integrity.

Electronics Engineers design, document, build and test electronics circuits and firmware designs to go into our various systems. In Electronics Engineering, you might be involved in designing for mixed signal design, power supply design, DAC/ADC, FPGA, high‑speed serial interfaces and video/communication processing algorithms. The opportunity will be there to engage with all of these technologies across a diverse, interesting and exciting range of products including Thermal Imaging Cameras, Vehicle Camera systems, Counter UAV systems, Electronic Warfare products and Communication Systems. There will be opportunities to develop expertise in the design of circuits, FPGAs and subsystems at various stages in the product lifecycle. This will include requirements capture, performance analysis, design, code, verification, validation and support to integration and qualification. You will gain exposure to other engineering disciplines and business areas.

Key Areas of Responsibility

• To learn the skills required to become a professional Electronics Engineer.
• Working to timescales.
• Work as a contributory engineering team member (with support).
• Undertake day‑to‑day engineering activities with some guidance and support.
• Ask for support where appropriate and learn from more experienced team members.
• Contribute to engineering team decisions and understand why such decisions are made and their relationship to project success criteria.
• Explore new experiences and opportunities to learn within the engineering environment.

Skills, Qualifications & Knowledge Required

All of our Industrial Placement roles require you to be currently studying an electronics biased degree including modules covering topics such as digital design, analogue design and signal processing with experience of using PCB design and simulation tools is highly desirable.

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) may 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.

Primary Location: GB - Southampton

Contract Type: Fixed term

Hybrid Working: Hybrid