{"id":2833078,"url":"https://alion.io/job/leonardo-graduate-optical-engineer","title":"Graduate Optical Engineer","company":{"id":54177,"name":"Leonardo","domain":"leonardo.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/leonardo-com","size_band":"5000+","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Workday","truth_index":{"grade":"A","score":91,"open_postings":19,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":0.579,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":21,"computed_at":"2026-10-20T05:45:00Z"}},"role":"Industrial Engineering","role_family":"Industrial Engineering","seniority":"junior","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"hybrid","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Edinburgh, United Kingdom"],"countries":["GB"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":34000,"max":null,"currency":"GBP","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":45320},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":null,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":true,"technologies":[{"name":"MATLAB","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-10-18T00:00:00Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-18","last_verified_at":"2026-10-20T10:33:56Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":2,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":2},"description":"Job Description:\nYour impact\nAre you ready to launch your career and make an impact on real-world projects from day one?\nAt Leonardo, we’re looking for graduates who want to be part of something extraordinary - shaping innovation, advancing technology, and enhancing global safety.\nWe are committed to developing our graduates into leading technical or business professionals, and as such we will also support you through your preferred route for professional development.\nOur 18-month Graduate Programmes give you the opportunity to work on exciting and challenging projects alongside industry leaders.\nOn joining, you will receive a starting salary of £34,000 per annum, plus a £1,000 welcome bonus. You’ll also be eligible for a £1,000 exit bonus upon successful completion of the programme. In addition, you may be eligible for a Temporary Accommodation Allowance (TAA), subject to specific criteria.\nWe encourage you to spend at least three days each week on site to integrate with your team and maximise your learning experience.\nWe have a fantastic new opportunity for a graduate to join the Advanced Targeting line of business as an Optical Engineer. Your role as a Graduate Optical Engineer will be solve real-world engineering challenges, designing and developing mission-critical solutions that power some of the world’s most advanced defence and security systems under the guidance and support of experienced Optical Engineers. The Graduate programme will offer you 18 months of development, with placements in three phases of the product life cycle. You will learn how to use state-of-the-art tools and technology to explore all aspects of the development lifecycle, including requirements analysis, concept design, and design for manufacture, implementation, test, build and product support. \nWhat you’ll do as a Graduate Optical Engineer\nAs a Graduate Optical Engineer, you will manage your own development towards attaining Optical Engineer level through the Graduate Development Scheme over 18 months.\nTo achieve this goal, you will be placed in programmes responsible progressing different parts of a product life cycle:\nNew product introduction: tasked with learning the core concepts required to increase the manufacturing rate, such as modelling an existing to designs to identify root-cause analysis of observed problems and use of metrology to validate theories.\nDetailed product design: responsible for developing or improving existing designs and supporting the transfer of optical models into a detailed optical and system requirements.\nNovel concepts: to develop technologies both future and improvement of existing products.\nThroughout these placements you will learn skills required to communicate technical concepts across a wide array of disciplines. You will be expected support optical procurement and the wider product team in the creation and changing of drawings, tolerancing and how to develop of experiments to prove capability of your designs. Finally, you will be tasked performing technical reviews to assess the limits on technical capability and for creating and conducting optical tests to lower the technical risks of novel EO-Systems and solutions identified as part of wider technological reviews. \nWhat you’ll bring\nA minimum of a 2:1 master’s degree or a higher, such as a EngD or PhD.\nRelevant experience of photonics, such as summer placements, internships or research projects.\nExperience with technical writing and project planning.\nStrong analytical, modelling skills and laboratory skills.\nEvidence of successfully working in a team.\nEnthusiasm for photonics and an interest in developing your technical capabilities.\nExperience of modelling tools such as Ansys Zemax Optics Studio, Matlab, LabVIEW, and COMSOL (or equivalent) is desirable.\nSecurity Clearance\nMany 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.\nFor 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.\nTo 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.\nFor more information and guidance please visit: https://careers.uk.leonardo.com/gb/en/security-and-vetting\nWhy join us\nAt Leonardo, our people are at the heart of everything we do, key contributors in shaping innovation, advancing technology, and enhancing global safety.\nWe 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.\nTime to recharge: Enjoy generous leave with the opportunity to accrue up to 12 additional flexi-days each year. \nSecure your future: Benefit from our award-winning pension scheme with up to 15% employer contribution. \nYour wellbeing matters: Free access to mental health support, financial advice, and employee-led networks championing inclusion and diversity\nRewarding performance: All employees are eligible for our bonus scheme. \nJoin in our success: Our annual Employee Stock Ownership Plan provides you the opportunity to own shares in Leonardo. \nTailored perks: Spend up to £500 annually on flexible benefits including private healthcare, dental, family cover, tech & lifestyle discounts, gym memberships and more. \nFor a full list of our company benefits please visit: https://careers.uk.leonardo.com/gb/en/company-benefits\nWe 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, communities and our customers. If you have any accessibility requirements to support you during the recruitment process, just let us know.\nStart your extraordinary career - apply now!\nPrimary Location:\nGB - EdinburghContract Type:\nPermanentHybrid Working:","description_format":"text","description_chars":6835,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":null,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"master","optional":false},"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":["Gym membership","Hybrid work","Professional development"],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"United Kingdom","iso":"GB","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["C4ISR","Defense Manufacturing","Aircraft Manufacturing"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-10-19T04:04:02Z"}],"visa":[{"country":"GB","licensed_sponsor":true,"evidence":"Licensed UK visa sponsor (Secondment Worker, Senior or Specialist Worker, Skilled Worker)","filings_12m":null,"filings_prev_12m":null,"green_card_filings_12m":null,"median_offered_wage_usd":null,"route":"Global Business Mobility: Secondment Worker; Global Business Mobility: Senior or Specialist Worker; Skilled Worker","cap_exempt":false,"checked_at":"2026-10-20T06:21:30+00:00","sources":["UK Home Office: register of licensed sponsors (workers)"],"filings_for_role_12m":0}],"liveness":{"score":63,"band":"ok","label":"Likely open","p_open":1,"p_active":0.632,"p_room":1,"age_days":2,"expected_fill_days":21,"reasons":["conf:0","stale_co","velocity","win:early","comp:junior,brand"],"computed_at":"2026-10-20T05:45:00Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":45320,"is_top_pay":false},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/leonardo-graduate-optical-engineer","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/leonardo-graduate-optical-engineer.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-20T12:06:58Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":13418,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-21T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":54177},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=54177"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fleonardo-graduate-optical-engineer"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fleonardo-graduate-optical-engineer"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fleonardo-graduate-optical-engineer"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/leonardo-graduate-optical-engineer\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fleonardo-graduate-optical-engineer"}]}