Ground Engineering and Tunnelling Placement Scheme 2026 in Cardiff

Your window into a better future. We are AtkinsRéalis, a world-class engineering services and nuclear organisation. When you join us, you will help create world-class sustainable solutions that connect people, data, and technology. We are 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 36,000+ employees speak over 70 languages and represent 130 nationalities across six continents. Our work covers a variety of sectors, including transportation, infrastructure, environment, water, energy, defence, technology and aerospace.

Join our Placement Scheme where you will be trusted with complex work and supported by your peers, line managers and senior leaders. Through a combination of on-the-job learning and practical skills development within your chosen role, you will work on real projects from day one that offer scale and variety, collaborating with others and creating meaningful impact on the world around us. Reaching your full potential means being able to bring your whole self to work and feeling like you belong.

Where you could work: You could join the following business areas:

• Infrastructure: Help us reimagine our places and spaces, from transport hubs to university campuses, industrial facilities, and critical flood defence schemes - we touch every aspect of social and economic environments. The type of work will include creating specialist civils drawings, detailed tasks/design and client-facing roles on some of the industry's most complex civil engineering projects. You will be sharpening your skills on the latest digital technologies while pressing towards a carbon-neutral future.

Qualifications and Commitments:

• A passion for working in a consultancy environment.
• Championing a culture where everyone belongs.
• A desire to work collaboratively with a curious approach, challenging yourself to find new solutions.
• Enthusiasm and drive to develop your skillset and seek out development opportunities within a supportive team.
• Motivation to achieve professional accreditation (where applicable).
• Comfortable to embrace agile ways of working and learning new technologies.
• Commitment to spend a minimum of three days a week in the office or on client site (project dependent).

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 are rewarded for your efforts, we have 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 have done at least 8 weeks on placement with us) have the opportunity to be nominated onto our Graduate Development Programme. If you are nominated, you will bypass the standard recruitment process and be offered a place on the programme. Our placement salaries are between £24,570 and £28,808 depending on role and location.

Not sure if AtkinsRéalis is the right fit for you? Try our Match Me Tool before applying. It is a quick, interactive way to explore how your working style and preferences align with our culture. You will get instant feedback to help you decide whether to apply. Also check out our Connectr platform for tips and advice on applying – you can even message your questions directly to one of our mentors.

Our deadline for applications is Thursday 4th December 2025. However, as our placements are incredibly popular, apply early as some roles may close sooner.

This role may require a security clearance, and offers of employment will be dependent upon 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.