Graduate Software Engineer/Mission Dev Engineer - London
Confirmed on the employer's own hiring board on Nov 9, 2026. First seen by Alion on Nov 9, 2026. Nominal scores A on the Alion truth index.
About Nominal
Engineers today are building some of the most ambitious machines humanity has ever seen. They should have AI that’s purpose-built for them.
Nominal is building the Hardware Intelligence Platform that gives engineers increased visibility into complex physical systems, helps them make better decisions, and ultimately gets their products into the real world faster. It brings together the systems, data, intelligence, and applications hardware engineering requires to meet the AI moment. Hardware engineering teams use Nominal to simulate, test, manufacture, and operate the physical systems that keep the world moving, from spacecraft and autonomous vehicles to next-generation energy systems and robotics.
Our customers span aerospace, defense, manufacturing, transportation, energy, and robotics. They include Anduril, Shield AI, Wisk Aero, Pratt Miller Motorsports, Antares, and Shinkei Systems, amongst others, alongside programs within the U.S. Air Force and Navy. Our team draws from SpaceX, Palantir, Anduril, Applied Intuition, Tesla, and other leading companies, united by a common mission: giving hardware engineers the tools to build the future with speed, safety, and confidence. We're a fast-moving team that owns problems end-to-end, works across disciplines, and thrives at the intersection of hardware and software.
Some of the world’s leading technology investors, including Sequoia, Lightspeed, Founders Fund, General Catalyst, Lux Capital, and Insight Partners, are backing Nominal’s ambition to change how machines are built and operated. We’re looking for engineers who want to take on hard problems and help make a new generation of world-changing hardware possible.
London is our newest office, and we're building the team that will grow Nominal across the UK and Europe.
Two tracks, one application
We're hiring final-year students graduating in summer 2027 into two tracks. Both are full engineering roles; the difference is where you spend your time.
Software Engineer. You build the platform every customer relies on. Most of your time goes into designing systems, writing code and solving hard technical problems, like storing, querying and visualising billions of data points from hardware tests. You'll still talk to users, but your focus is the product itself.
You might lean this way if you like going deep on one problem, care about how systems are designed, and get satisfaction from building something many people use.
Mission Development Engineer (forward-deployed software engineer). You work alongside customer engineering teams, often on site right next to where the hardware is built and testing. You immerse yourself in how they work and what they’re building, find the bottlenecks, and build software to fix it, then bring what you learned back into the core product.
You might lean this way if you like variety, enjoy working directly with users, and want to see your code change how a rocket or reactor test runs next week.
Not sure? Pick "open to both" when you apply. The interview process is largely the same for both tracks, and we'll help you decide before your final round.
What you'll do
- Work with high-frequency, high-volume hardware data from systems like rockets, nuclear reactors and supersonic aircraft
- Design and build features, integrations, data pipelines and applications, often working directly with users in the field
- Own projects end to end, from understanding the problem to building, deploying and supporting the solution, with mentorship from experienced engineers and domain experts
- Get working software in front of users early and iterate based on how they actually use it
- Help an early-stage team grow by onboarding new customers, expanding the product and shaping how we operate in London
Apply if…
- You're in your final year, graduating in summer 2027, and looking for a full-time graduate role
- You have strong core engineering skills and real hands-on experience, whether from placements, internships, personal projects, hackathons, societies or coursework
- You enjoy hard, open-ended problems and picking up unfamiliar systems quickly
- You want to see the people using what you build and know whether it's making a difference
- Your friends and coursemates would describe you as ambitious, resourceful and persistent
Benefits/Perks
- Unlimited PTO and sick leave
- Free lunch, snacks, and coffee
- Professional Development Stipend
- Annual company retreat
- Hardware sensor stipend
- Employee-friendly equity terms
- In-office 5 days per week
All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or national origin.
Compensation
The base pay range for this role is £86,000 - £120,000 per year.