Industrial Process Engineering Apprentice - Level 6 Manufacturing Engineer in Templecombe

Location: Templecombe, United Kingdom

Thales is a global technology leader with more than 83,000 employees on five continents. With over 7,500 people in the UK, operating across defence, space, aerospace, and digital security, we help build a future we can all trust.

Thales supports the security and stability of our nation by providing extraordinary technology to our customers, as well as delivering social value to the UK with our products and services.

Start Date: 6 September 2027

Salary: £24,000 per annum

Employee type: Permanent

Working Schedule: Monday – Thursday, 37 hours a week (9.25 hours Monday – Thursday)

Are you passionate about engineering? Do you have an inquisitive mind? Are you looking for an employer who will sponsor you through a degree, whilst providing valuable and exciting on-the-job experience within a global, innovative and industry-leading organisation?

Benefits of the programme:

• Earn a salary while studying for your degree
• Gain hands-on experience in a real engineering environment
• Receive job-specific training and development
• Achieve a recognised engineering qualification
• Secure a permanent role from the start of your apprenticeship
• Have your tuition fees fully paid

About the Role:

The role will develop your engineering skills to become a confident, positive and flexible industrial process engineer with well-honed technical knowledge gained from both the academic commitments and on-the-job training. You will be part of a team that provides manufacturing solutions in support of our customers’ requirements.

This will provide many opportunities to experience the various aspects of engineering such as:

• Defining and optimising manufacturing documentation, tools and workflows for manufacturing
• Performing manufacturing readiness reviews
• Contributing to technological innovation to reduce costs and workflows, whilst guaranteeing the feasibility and reproducibility of the process

What You Will Learn:

• Develop an understanding of the required behaviours and codes of practice of a professional engineer
• Understanding complex systems by working on different tasks on ongoing projects
• Assessing Manufacturing Readiness Level (MRL) of products by reviewing the product maturity with project teams to identify and minimise risk
• Define, set up, prepare and optimise manufacturing processes and tooling for a defined area or product line
• Contribute to Health, Safety and Environment processes
• Define and optimise manufacturing documentation, tools, workflows for manufacturing and inspection based on the information supplied by upstream R&D engineering departments
• Attend Material Review Boards and Configuration Control Boards on behalf of manufacturing, actively manage failures and changes
• Implement test & control plans for manufacturing equipment

Apprenticeship Programme:

You will study towards a Level 6 Manufacturing Engineer with Yeovil College. Manufacturing Engineers help take products from design to manufacture, ensuring that they are launched on time, at cost and to the right quality. This programme will provide a strong foundation across mechanical, electrical, digital, materials, product design and advanced manufacturing.

This is a 5-year programme delivered via an in-person delivery model on campus. Over the first 4 years you will attend college on a day release basis to complete your academic studies and will embed your learning in the workplace through your day job. Year 5 will be 100% work-based and will focus on the completion of your End Point Assessment. At the end of the programme you will have achieved a BEng in Engineering, as well as a Level 6 Manufacturing Engineer Apprenticeship and will roll-off the scheme into an Industrial Process Engineer position in our Underwater Systems business.

Entry Requirements:

• A Levels: 2 A Levels Grade C or above in Maths and at least one additional STEM subject.
• Or 90+ Credit BTEC Diploma in Engineering (MM)
• GCSEs: Minimum of 5 GCSEs at Grade 4/C or above, must include English Language and Mathematics.

Please note that applicants who already hold a relevant degree will not be eligible for this programme.

Benefits:

• Competitive salary of £24,000 per annum
• Performance-related pay uplifts
• Holiday entitlement of 201 hours a year (plus a company day and bank holidays)
• Contributory Company Pension
• Health Care Cash Plan
• Hybrid/flexible working options
• Employee assistance programme
• Learning and development support
• Employee discounts and wellbeing initiatives
• Life Cover
• 80 Hours Volunteering per year (first two years)

Please note, assessment centres for shortlisted candidates will be held between February - May 2027. Induction week for all Graduate and Apprentices will take place from Monday 6 September - Friday 10 September 2027.

Closing date: Our applications will close at 11.59pm on Wednesday 17 February 2027. Please note, we will be in contact by the end of February 2027 with details of next steps.

Please note that roles may close earlier than the advertised deadline if we receive a high number of applications. We encourage you to apply as soon as possible to avoid missing out on this opportunity.

Because of the work we do at Thales, all roles are subject to security requirements. To be considered for this position, you must have the permanent right to work in the UK and be able to successfully complete and maintain UK Government security checks, including Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) screening and Security Clearance (SC), which is a government background check, before starting employment.

To be eligible for SC clearance, you will typically need to have lived in the UK continuously for the last five years. As part of the vetting process, you will be asked to provide evidence of your identity, right to work in the UK, any time spent overseas during the last five years, and your employment and/or education history.

In addition, this role supports a UK Eyes Only programme and is therefore subject to government-mandated nationality restrictions. To satisfy the security clearance requirements for access to highly sensitive information, applicants must have been British citizens from birth and must not hold any other nationality.

Thales is an equal opportunities employer and diversity, and inclusion are integral to the success of Thales. At Thales, we ensure equal opportunities, pay and working conditions for all.

If this role isn’t quite right for you, we encourage you to join our talent community where your details will be shared with our recruitment teams for other potential opportunities.

Join Thales in the UK – Innovate with us and shape the future!