Engineer Summer Placement - 2027 in Southampton

Southampton Placement No working from home possible

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This is a Summer 2027 placement only.

Applications closing date: Friday 6 November at 16:00.

Are you looking for a career where you get to use your full range of technical and problem-solving skills?

Life at MAC Ltd

MAC Ltd’s success is based on finding, training, and mentoring exceptional electronic engineers, building a team that’s able to take on and solve the most difficult engineering problems. We require a wide range of engineering skills and with our expert support you will be able to develop these across a diverse range of projects. You will be working as part of an elite team and you will actively participate in all phases of a project lifecycle.

Your Skills & Experience

We are looking for candidates with an interest in and enthusiasm for wireless technology, signal processing and embedded systems. You will be engaged on a project focused on innovative wireless technologies. This could include FPGA design, modelling using MATLAB and Simulink, digital signal processing on software defined radios, waveform development and artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Your degree course will be giving you experience in some or all of the following areas:

FPGA design, including experience in languages such as VHDL, Verilog and High-Level Synthesis
Modelling tools such as MATLAB and Simulink
Radio communications and Digital Signal Processing (DSP) techniques
Software Defined Radio (SDR) and RF techniques
Software Development
Development of communication waveforms
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine learning (ML)

And you’ll have a rounded skill set including:

Able to take a defined problem and solve with guidance from colleagues
Able to apply your course knowledge and demonstrate emerging technical competence
Good personal time management.
Demonstrable communication skills, able to explain technical problems to peers

Requirements

Must be in the penultimate year of an electronics degree from a university with a strong reputation for the subject studied.
Already have full eligibility to work in the UK.
Eligible for UKSV (SC) security clearance, including a minimum of 5 years permanent residency in the UK.

Benefits

The benefits of working at MAC Ltd include:

Opportunities to work on cutting edge technologies to make a real difference in a dynamic and agile environment.
Mentoring from talented and experienced world-leading industry experts.
Beautiful rural office setting at the University of Southampton Science Park (https://www.science-park.co.uk/), a short drive or bus ride from Southampton City Centre.
Competitive salary.

Security Clearance

Some of our work is in the security sector, so you must be eligible for security check (SC) clearance, including having been resident in the UK for over five years. For more information and guidance please visit https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/united-kingdom-security-vetting-clearance-levels.

Company Background

MAC Ltd was founded in 1986 by Professor Raymond Steele, one of the Founding Fathers of modern-day mobile communications, to tackle the engineering challenges of taking mobile communications from an expensive and luxury item, which was only accessible to business executives and professional users, to the smart phones that we see today that are accessible to everyone.

He achieved this by hand-picking, training and mentoring exceptional electronic engineers to build a world class team that were able to take on and solve the most difficult engineering problems. The current owners and senior leadership of MAC Ltd were part of this early team and we continue Professor Steele’s successful approach today.

Everything we do at MAC Ltd is focussed on the radio interface between wireless devices. This has included developing improved modulation and radio access schemes, improving the ability of devices to cope with increasing interference, developing radio spectrum sharing approaches and providing products to test and validate radio communication systems. We have worked on every generation of mobile phone technology, from the early analogue devices to today’s 5G smart phones. We have also worked across many sectors, including telecommunications, public safety, defence and security.

Our success is built on a culture of diversity and inclusion and bringing together people with different experiences, backgrounds, skills, perspectives and life experiences into a cohesive and supportive team. This is further demonstrated by converting to an Employee-Owned Trust (EOT) in March 2025.