Industrial Placement Intern - Engineering

Job Description:

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. 

The Industrial Placement:

Our Industrial Placement programme offers you the chance to spend a year with us at the Helicopter Division, working on meaningful projects alongside subject matter experts, within multidisciplinary teams, and across the product lifecycle. You’ll receive coaching and support from a dedicated team to help you achieve both your placement objectives and personal development goals. 

As one of the leading helicopter manufacturers in the world, Leonardo Helicopters is part of the multi-national Leonardo Group of world class engineering companies.  Leonardo Helicopters designs, develops and manufactures an unrivalled range of the most advanced helicopters, rotary wing technology, also developing mission and performance critical systems. Our helicopters are used extensively in civil and military roles worldwide. Primary operations are in the UK, Italy, Poland and the USA.

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 four days each week on site to integrate with your team and maximise your learning experience. 

As an Industrial Placement Core Engineering you will:

• Support the delivery of project work, ensuring tasks are completed to time, cost, and quality. 
• Collaborate across disciplines to contribute to innovative solutions and achieve project goals. 

• Apply your academic knowledge to real-world challenges in areas such as design, testing, qualification, or technology support. 

• Learn from and share ideas with your team, gaining insight into the business and industry. 

• Develop your skills with guidance from an experienced supervisor and the wider engineering community. 

What you’ll bring: 

Entry Requirements 

• On track for achieving a 2:1 bachelor’s degree in any STEM subject

Personal attributes: 

• Personal responsibility, resilience and ethics. Ability to be able to comply with health and safety guidance and procedures, be disciplined and have a responsible approach to risk.
• Work diligently at all times, accept responsibility for managing time and workload and stay motivated and committed when facing challenges.
• Work effectively and Integrate with the team, consider implications of their actions on other people and the business.
• Focus on quality and problem solving. Follow instructions and guidance, demonstrate attention to detail, follow a logical approach to problem solving and seek opportunities to improve quality, speed and efficiency.
• Continuous personal development. Reflect on skills, knowledge and behaviours and seek opportunities to develop, adapt to different situations, environments or technologies and have a positive attitude to feedback and advice.

Security Clearance

At Leonardo, many of our roles are subject to security and export control restrictions set by UK Government Security requirements and customer obligations.  As a result, and in line with the UK Government Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) requirements, all successful applicants will be asked to provide evidence of identity, eligibility to work in the UK, criminal record declaration information and employment and/or education history verification for the previous five years.

For staff operating in more sensitive posts, there is an additional range of personnel security controls referred to as National Security Vetting (NSV).  As part of this process, a range of factors may be considered, including an individual's background, travel history, nationality, previous nationalities held and other information relevant to the vetting assessment.

To be eligible for National Security Vetting at SC level, applicants will generally be expected to have continuously resided in the UK for the previous five years. For DV clearance, this is typically ten years.  In some circumstances, time spent overseas may be accepted, with additional overseas checks.  Additional vetting requirements may apply upon appointment.

For more information and guidance please visit: https://careers.uk.leonardo.com/gb/en/security-and-vetting

Why join us

At Leonardo, our people are at the heart of everything we do. 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).
• Rewarding Performance: All employees at management level and below are eligible for our bonus scheme.
• Never Stop Learning: Free access to 4,000+ online courses via Coursera and LinkedIn Learning.
• Refer a friend: Receive a financial reward through our referral programme.
• Tailored Perks: Spend up to £500 annually on flexible benefits including private healthcare, dental, family cover, tech & lifestyle discounts, gym memberships and more.
• Flexible working: Flexible hours with hybrid working options. For part time opportunities, please talk to us about what might be possible for this role.

For a full list of our company benefits please visit our website.

Leonardo UK operates a grade-based salary framework with broad bands. The salary range shown reflects the approved grade band for this role, or a narrower hiring range published within that band, and is benchmarked against the external market. Exceptions above the standard range are managed through governance controls to protect internal equity.

Leonardo is a global leader in Aerospace, Defence, and Security. Headquartered in Italy, we employ over 53,000 people worldwide including 8,500 across 9 sites in the UK. Our employees are not just part of a team—they are key contributors to shaping innovation, advancing technology, and enhancing global safety.

At Leonardo we are committed to building an inclusive, accessible, and welcoming workplace. We believe that a diverse workforce sparks creativity, drives innovation, and leads to better outcomes for our people and our customers. If you have any accessibility requirements to support you during the recruitment process, just let us know.

Be part of something bigger - apply now!

Primary Location:

GB - Yeovil - Lysander Rd

Contract Type:

Fixed term

Hybrid Working:

Hybrid