Engineer Training Programme

Working in National Grid's substations on a range of  high voltage electrical equipment - including circuit breakers and transformers - you'll become an expert in the sophisticated engineering systems which play an essential role in "keeping the lights on", and to meet demands of new sustainable sources of generation to connect onto the National Grid.

Once qualified as a Substation Electrical Engineer, you'll be able to work on our extensive network of substations, responsible for the continued safe and reliable operation of the electricity transmission network through the efficient maintenance of substation assets.

These opportunities exist at substation locations across England and Wales. Substations, which operate between 132kV - 275kV - 400kV are connected via an overhead line transmission system. Each substation has a range of high voltage electrical equipment which you will become familiar with - circuit breakers, transformers, disconnectors, compressors, auxiliary supply systems etc. The entire transmission system is monitored and protected by an integrated control system, which you will specialise in as a Substation Electrical Engineer trainee. On completion of your engineer training programme you will go on to be involved in safely setting maintenance teams to work, and progress onto the commissioning of new equipment as it is installed within the substation locations in your area.

The focus is on planned maintenance and commissioning activities, but you may also be called to manage emergency equipment failures.

Recruiting people from their local communities is important to us and ensures you have a great support network both home and away.

This is a three year development programme.

Candidates will need to be able to distinguish between red and green colours clearly as these are safety critical roles and it is crucial in order to operate safely.  This will be tested at the Assessment Centre.

Candidates must hold a valid full current UK car driving license at least 3 months prior to the start of the programme and they must list any unspent endorsements.

If candidates do not reside within the postcode perimeter for the role then they must agree to self fund relocation.

Candidates must be happy to work at heights of up to 30 metres using an access platform.

Substation vacancies are now closed.

At our HQ in Warwick, you'll be involved in investigating the systems, designing and recommending solutions to faults, ensuring the money we invest in the system is spent as wisely as possible

The electricity we all depend upon flows from power stations to consumers through a sophisticated network of complex high voltage equipment, which we call the electricity ‘transmission system’. That system has been around for many years, but it needs continual renewal if it is to remain reliable and to meet the nation’s changing energy needs. This task requires a pool of highly skilled engineers to make this happen, and that is where you come in!

These engineers are involved in investigating the systems, designing and recommending solutions to faults, planning the work and making sure the system is safe for our field engineers to work on.  Our power system design team are based at Warwick and provide the vital engineering expertise to decide our investment programme.

We want you to join us to become a talented engineer and help provide these services in what is arguably the most important company in the UK. In doing so you could be doing one of these key roles:

Examining the best ways to fix or replace our old equipment that is getting close to the end of its life.

Investigating the different faults on our equipment, finding out what went wrong with it and recommending how to prevent it from maybe happening again to ensure it is as safe as possible.

Recruiting people from their local communities is important to us and ensures you have a great support network both home and away.

This is a two year development programme.

Candidates must hold a valid full current UK car driving license at least 3 months prior to the start of the programme and they must list any unspent endorsements.

If candidates do not reside within the postcode perimeter for the role then they must agree to self fund relocation.

Power System Design at Warwick vacancies are now closed

This role offers great variety and exciting challenges. No day within Work Planning is ever the same and you'll be given the opportunity to interact with many parts of the business on a range of tasks. This team is responsible for the planning, prioritisation and optimisation of all work activity (i.e maintenance and construction) on the electricity transmission system in the current year.

The team has to:

Agree High Voltage circuit outages with our Control Centre (i.e. they turn the power off so it is safe to work on)

Schedule time with the field force team (i.e. The Substations and Overhead Lines teams) to deliver the planned work when the outage is happening.

Identify who are the right people with the right skills in the right place and at the right time.

Monitoring all the work that has been completed, and then re-plan any work not completed (i.e. if there is a thunder storm our field force cannot work on the system.)

This task requires a pool of highly skilled engineers to make this happen, and this is where you fit in. As a planning team member you will be focused on the continual optimisation of the work plans to ensure the deliver of a safe, reliable and efficient transmission network.

You will work in a dynamic environment, assessing and formulating work plans, understanding and discussing issues with other relevant parts of the business including close liaison with the Managers and Engineers responsible for the teams that deliver the work.

You will also be adapting the plans to fit changes in circumstances – sometimes at very short notice. Our work planning team is based at Warwick, some of the planning tasks are undertaken in the office environment, whilst others are undertaken whilst visiting our operational sites to discuss and finalise work plans with the work Delivery Managers and work Delivery Engineers.

Recruiting people from their local communities is important to us and ensures you have a great support network both home and away.

This is a two year development programme.

Candidates must hold a valid full current UK car driving license at least 3 months prior to the start of the programme and they must list any unspent endorsements.

If candidates do not reside within the postcode perimeter for the role then they must agree to self fund relocation.

We are recruiting for the Engineer Training Programme Power System Work Planning at Warwick.

Power System Work Planning at Warwick vacancies are now closed.

When you are working with electricity safety it is of paramount importance. Working in Safety Management you will be controlling and co-ordinating safety activities on the National Grid High Voltage (HV) Electrical Transmission system, to ensure that work on HV Transmission assets can take place without danger. 

To ensure we are operating a safely as possible our electricity Transmission system has an alarm system to draw attention to any faults on the network – we monitor approximately 500,000 alarms a year. Approximately 12 000 of these alarms result in work being carried out on site (around half of these are out of hours). The Response team co-ordinate a national roster of standby engineers for out of hours work and management of emergencies.   The Response Team work a 24 hour 3 shift pattern with an engineer and a technician present at all times.

Recruiting people from their local communities is important to us and ensures you have a great support network both home and away. We are recruiting for the Engineer Training Programme Power System Safety and Response at Warwick.

This is a two year development programme.

Candidates must hold a valid full current UK car driving license at least 3 months prior to the start of the programme and they must list any unspent endorsements.

If candidates do not reside within the postcode perimeter for the role then they must agree to self fund relocation.

The end role will require shift work and will therefore attract a shift allowance.

Power System Safety & Responce at Warwick vacancies are now closed. 

This team is focused around the Electricity National Control Centre in Berkshire. It is responsible for operating Great Britain’s electricity transmission network – planning and managing its live operation – they keep things running smoothly 24/7 days a year.

On finishing the two-year Trainee Engineer Programme, you will take up a post that will lead either to a role in Power System Planning or part of the Power System Control team.

In both of these roles, you will be using your newly acquired power systems knowledge to ensure the most secure and economic operation of the network. These are crucial jobs and because lights stay on 24/7, 365 days a year, the live Control role involves shift work. Liaising with internal departments and external stakeholders, such as Distribution Network Operators and Generators, your influence will be felt across the whole country.

As a Control Engineer, you could be on one of the transmission despatch desks where you’ll switch on/off the transmission system to allow the team on site to safely work on the system. Or you could work within energy scheduling where you’ll produce accurate operating programmes aimed at matching National Grid’s demand forecast with the supply data coming from the electricity generators.

As a Planning Engineer you’ll be optimising long term plans and looking at future developments across the UK to ensure our operational plan is as effective as possible and adapt the plan for any changes we encounter.
They are both exciting opportunities which give you a real insight into how we keep the country running!

Recruiting people from their local communities is important to us and ensures you have a great support network both home and away.

This is a two year development programme.

Candidates must hold a valid full current UK car driving license at least 3 months prior to the start of the programme and they must list any unspent endorsements.

If candidates do not reside within the postcode perimeter for the role then they must agree to self fund relocation.

Power System Operations at Wokingham vacancies are now closed.

These roles are based in our Gas National Control Centre (GNCC) in South Warwickshire, where you could be involved in controlling and balancing the Nation's gas demand with the supply we have in the pipelines across the country. Gas Operations ensure there is enough gas in the system when people get up and turn their heating on in the morning, they also help our field-based colleagues who are responding to emergency situations (e.g. a gas leak), to control the gas supply in the local area.

Being part of the Gas Operations team means working in a control room environment, which is likely to involve working shifts to ensure we keep the gas flowing at all times 24/7 - including through the night. As an engineer in the GNCC you will be at the heart of the decisions that are made and control all the actions that take place. Your first priority will always be the continued safe and secure operation of the gas transmission system whilst enabling and facilitating the changes to the new sources of gas entering the United Kingdom.

On the programme you will be exposed to new activities, deliver new services and innovative products to the gas industry to ensure you finish the programme ready to take your role in Gas Operations.

Recruiting people from their local communities is important to us and ensures you have a great support network both home and away.

This is a two year development programme.

Candidates must hold a valid full current UK car driving license at least 3 months prior to the start of the programme and they must list any unspent endorsements.

If candidates do not reside within the postcode perimeter for the role then they must agree to self fund relocation.

The end role may require shift working and if this is the case will attract a shift allowance.

We are recruiting for the Gas Network Control Centre at Warwick. Please click on the location below to apply.

Warwick

Grain Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) – is one of the world’s leading LNG importation and storage terminals - boasting the capacity to export up to 20% of the UK’s gas requirements into the UK transmission and local distribution network. A unique facility within National Grid - Grain LNG offers a variety of roles at one site. Chemical, Marine, Mechanical, Electrical, C&I and Civil Engineers all play an active part in operational, delivery support, Gas Quality or Commercial and Assurance functions.  You will be exposed to all aspects of project management, high pressure gas engineering design and operation, together with a structured training / mentoring programme.

With around £1 Billion of investment Grain LNG is critical to the current and future mix of energy provision in the UK. We lead the way in LNG importation in the UK and are in the envious position of being in a growing market with security of position and very strong potential for expansion and growth in the coming years. We can offer a long and varied career with ample opportunity for development and new challenges all within a very friendly and welcoming site.

Recruiting people from their local communities is important to us and ensures you have a great support network both home and away. We are recruiting for Liquefied Natural Gas at Grain, Kent. 

This is a two year development programme.

Candidates must hold a valid full current UK car driving license at least 3 months prior to the start of the programme and they must list any unspent endorsements.

If candidates do not reside within the postcode perimeter for the role then they must agree to self fund relocation.

Please click on the location below to apply

Isle of Grain, Rochester, Kent 

This role offers great variety and exciting challenges.  No two days are ever the same.

Within operations you will work from local depots and on site managing the teams working on the gas network.

This is a 24/7 activity covering a variety of tasks from responding to emergency calls and carrying out repairs through to replacing parts of the network with new pipes and maintaining pressure control equipment.

This task requires a pool of highly skilled engineers and managers to make this happen and that is where you fit in.

You will work in a dynamic environment, formulating work plans, designing engineering solutions and ensuring they are delivered by the teams working for you.  Working closely with the support teams in our central offices and experts from outside the organisation.

Gas distribution is the largest and most visible part of the company. Daily we deal face to face with some of our 10 million customers.  Our work to replace ageing gas mains takes careful planning and coordination to minimise disruption to the public. Running the network efficiently and safely demands that faults are responded to rapidly by staff with the right skills.  We respond to around ½ million emergency calls a year sometimes involving working with Police, Fire and other emergency services.

Some aspects of the work could require you to use breathing apparatus and your role after the training will require out of hours working including standby and callout.

Recruiting people from their local communities is important to us and ensures you have a great support network both home and away.

This is a three year development programme

Candidates must hold a valid full current UK car driving license at least 3 months prior to the start of the programme and they must list any unspent endorsements.

During the training some out of hours working will be required, however the end role will involve out of hours working including standby and call-out.

Some aspects of the work will require the wearing of breathing apparatus.

If candidates do not reside within the postcode perimeter for the role then they must agree to self fund relocation.

Gas Distribution Operations vacancies are now closed.

These roles are based in our Gas Distribution Network Control Centre (DNCC) in Hinckley, Leicestershire, where you could be involved in controlling and balancing the gas demand with the supply we have in the pipelines across 5 Distribution Networks covering the central part of the UK from London up to the North West and across the Midlands.  DNCC ensure there is enough gas in the system for when people get up and turn their heating on in the morning, be there when they want to cook their dinner or provide power to industry when it’s needed.

Being part of the DNCC team means working in a control room environment, which will eventually involve working shifts to ensure we keep the gas flowing at all times.  We are a 24/7 – 365 day operation.  As an engineer in the DNCC you will be at the heart of the decisions that are made, you will forecast the gas demand and control the actions that take place. Your first priority will always be the continued safe, secure and efficient operation of the gas network high pressure systems and storage assets. You will be involved in all aspects of the physical and commercial conveyance of gas through our pipelines and will be a key player in our ongoing maintenance plans.

On the programme you will be exposed to new activities, be involved in developing new ways of working to improve services and will collaborate with the wider National Grid teams to ensure you finish the programme ready to take your role in DNCC.

Recruiting people from their local communities is important to us and ensures you have a great support network both home and away.

This is a two year development programme

Candidate will need to be able to distinguish between red and green colours clearly as these are safety critical roles and it is crucial in order to operate safely.  This will be tested at the Assessment Centre.

Candidates must hold a valid full current UK car driving license at least 3 months prior to the start of the programme and they must list any unspent endorsements.

During the training some out of hours working will be required.  The end role will require shift work and will therefore attract a shift allowance.

If candidates do not reside within the postcode perimeter for the role then they must agree to self fund relocation.

Gas Distribution Network Control Centre vacancies are now closed 

Network Strategy is at the heart of the Gas Distribution business and carries out work that includes controlling how we safely operate our gas distribution network.  We also determine how and when we replace or maintain 132000km of gas pipe and 700 installations that control the flow of gas through the network.  There are six parts to the Network Strategy team. 

The Distribution Network Control Centre (DNCC) controls the operation of the gas network to help ensure that gas gets to our customers safely.  Our team in the control room remotely operate about 700 installations to control the pressure and flow of gas around the country.

The Network Design team ensures that the pipes in our network remain fit for purpose and have sufficient capacity for the gas that our customers need. This includes adapting to meet climate change objectives and we lead on helping customers in the exciting “renewables” sector to develop new processes to connect sources such as Biogas to our network.

The Asset Strategy & Investment team is responsible for ensuring that all of our assets (pipes and pressure control installations) have the investment they need to keep them properly maintained, safe and efficient.  This includes making long term predictions about how much gas our customers will need and providing business cases to secure the funding needed to maintain, replace or build new assets. 

The Network Integrity team is responsible for the integrity and safe operation of our gas network and the specification of the gas that flows through it.  We manage the “Safe Control of Operations” which ensures that all of the work carried out on our network is done by competent people and according to the correct procedures.

The Engineering Policy team sets technical and engineering standards for gas network management and ensures that they keep up with the times in terms of technology, environmental considerations and modern construction methodologies.  We also liaise closely with the Health and Safety Executive and keep in touch with technical organisations throughout Europe and across the world.

The Innovation Delivery team coordinates the introduction of new ideas and technology into Distribution to make sure that we make the most of the benefits that innovation brings and that we stay at the forefront of the ever changing energy industry.

Network Strategy delivers asset management capabilities to Gas Distribution. Our primary objective is to optimise the balance between risk, cost and performance over the lifecycle of our assets.

We need to make sure we know where our assets are, what we want from them, get the best value from them and be confident they are safe and reliable for our customers.  We can provide opportunities to be involved in the day to day control of our network or at the forefront of asset investment, technical innovation, or the development of new and renewable sources of gas.  Network Strategy is also a great place from which to meet and work with people from right across Gas Distribution.

Some out of hours working may be required when you move into the permanent role after your training.

Recruiting people from their local comunities is important to us and ensures you have a great support network both home and away.