Engineering Capability – Competency Acquisition (Senior Engineer) in Derby

Locations: Hybrid working with one of the following locations as primary: Derby, Warrington or Manchester.

The Business: Our mission is to deliver clean, affordable energy for all. Our Small Modular Reactor (SMR) provides a British solution to the global energy crisis. We are in pole position to become a world leader in SMRs and the UK’s premier green export technology.

The Team: The Engineering Capability function plays a central role in ensuring our engineering workforce has the right skills, behaviours, and support to safely and effectively design a first‑of‑a‑kind power station. Acting as a coordination hub, the team drives competency frameworks, skills assurance, development pathways, training prioritisation and capability data to meet organisational and regulatory expectations.

Summary: This is a high‑impact role focused on shaping and delivering the Engineering Competency Acquisition Strategy, ensuring engineering capability is aligned to business needs and regulatory requirements, and supporting ongoing growth of skills, behaviours, and professional standards across the organisation.

Key Responsibilities: We’ll need you to do:

• Strategy Delivery: Lead the execution of key activities outlined in the Engineering Competency Strategy, coordinating and tracking progress against immediate priorities and longer‑term milestones.
• Technical Training Oversight: Review and evaluate technical training requests to ensure alignment with engineering competency requirements and strategic priorities. Collaborate with stakeholders to prioritise training investments and maximise value for capability development.
• Professional Development & Early‑Career Pipelines: Support professional development across engineering, including professional registration uptake and alignment with organisational expectations. Contribute to the definition and delivery of early‑career pipelines (graduates, apprentices, interns), onboarding, mentoring, and emerging careers strategies.
• Stakeholder Collaboration: Build and maintain strong relationships with HR, Development & Capability and other enabling functions to ensure engineering needs are understood and embedded in relevant processes. Facilitate cross‑functional collaboration to support workforce planning, training, and succession initiatives.
• Skills Assurance, Data & Insights: Provide visibility of engineering competency status, trends, risks, and gaps through robust data, metrics, and KPIs. Use insight from competency assessments to inform prioritisation, workforce planning, development roadmaps, audits, inspections, and continuous improvement.
• Continuous Improvement: Identify and implement opportunities to refine and evolve the strategy based on feedback, business changes, and emerging needs. Promote a culture of learning, adaptability, and ongoing professional development.
• Reporting & Communication: Provide clear, timely updates to senior stakeholders on progress, risks, and outcomes. Develop materials that communicate the strategy’s purpose, progress, and impact across the business.
• Best Practice Adoption: Promote the use of best‑practice learning and skills tools within the engineering function, focusing on leveraging existing capabilities.

As you can see, this is a pivotal, high‑profile role supporting capability development across the entire engineering function. You’ll bring a collaborative mindset, strong communication skills, a passion for developing people — and although preferred, you do not need an engineering background. We are genuinely open to applicants from any profession if you have an interest in capability, skills, development and organisational impact.

Essential Skills / Qualifications: An engineering background is desirable but not essential, we welcome candidates from HR, learning & development, organisational development, consultancy, capability management, training, or any field where you’ve supported technical skills, frameworks, or professional development.

We’ll ask about your experience working with competency frameworks, skills assurance, training needs, career pathways, or cross‑functional capability initiatives. Strong ability to use data, insight and structured analysis (metrics, KPIs, workforce trends) to inform planning, prioritisation and reporting, plus familiarity with learning, development, or competency tools.

Location: We offer hybrid working, with attendance expected at one of our primary sites — Derby, Manchester or Warrington — depending on your chosen base location.

What’s in it for you?

Salary and Package: We anticipate paying a salary of between £48,000-£63,000. Bonus - Performance related target opportunity 7%. Benefits Allowance – £2,200 per annum, enabling you to create a bespoke package. Pension - 12% employer and 6% employee contributions. Holidays - 28 days holiday (+ public holidays) and the ability to buy or sell up to 4 days. Private Medical Insurance - BUPA single cover health care. Life Assurance - 6x pensionable pay. £250 - One-off payment for new starters for home office purchases.

Why Join Us? You’ll be joining a forward-thinking organisation that values transparency, fairness, and innovation. We offer:

• A flexible, inclusive, and supportive working environment.
• Opportunities for career growth in a rapidly scaling business.
• A culture that values diversity, innovation, and continuous learning.

We are an equal opportunities employer and welcome applications from all backgrounds. Inclusivity is important to us, and as a Disability Confident organisation, we are committed to fair, supportive, and continually improving recruitment practices that ensure everyone has the opportunity to thrive.

Confidence can sometimes hold us back from applying for a job. But we'll let you in on a secret: there's no such thing as a 'perfect' candidate. If you feel you meet 75% of the requirements for this role, we would love to hear from you. Also, if you are considering a career move or a sector-jump, please get in touch – we welcome applications from people with transferable skills.

Our Application Process: Due to the safety regulations within the nuclear industry, applicants will be required to participate in additional screening. These are:

• Obtaining Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) clearance
• Satisfactory completion of a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check
• Satisfactory completion of a basic financial probity check