Graduate Engineer - Controls and Electronics

Overview

Role: Graduate Engineer - Controls and Electronics

Location: Shoreham-by-Sea, West Sussex (near Brighton)

Start Date: 7th September 2026

Role ID: 2025-3211

Our vision is to create a safe and sustainable world.

Ricardo, member of WSP, is a global strategic, environmental, and engineering consulting company. With over 100 years of engineering excellence and employing close to 3,000 employees in more than 20 countries, we provide exceptional levels of expertise in delivering leading-edge and innovative cross-sector sustainable products and solutions. Every day, we enable our customers to solve the most complex and dynamic challenges to help achieve a safe and sustainable world.

Global Graduate Scheme – Ricardo Automotive & Industrial

This is a permanent role in our Controls & Electronics team starting with our 2-year accelerated development programme including technical and soft skills development in a consultancy environment. Our scheme is accredited with the IMechE and the IET and we encourage progress to CEng/IEng; we provide an in-house mentor and cover professional fees.

Do you want to use your passion for engineering to create innovative solutions to some of the world’s most complex challenges?

Ricardo is looking for the next generation of engineering graduates to join our global automotive and industrial team. You will be using your specialist skills in electrical, electronic, embedded software, mechatronics, mechanical, automotive, controls or aerospace engineering to consult with our clients to come up with innovative solutions to their requirements. You will be applying your specialist knowledge to a broad range of market sectors including passenger car, heavy duty and commercial vehicle as well as marine, defence, off-highway and aerospace.

Our Control and Electronics group is responsible for the specification, implementation and validation of electronic control systems for a wide range of complex, clean propulsion and energy systems, including: xEV powertrains, power electronics, motors and drives, engines, transmissions, battery management systems, advanced thermal systems, and fuel cell systems.

Our work covers the full spectrum of:

• Electrical integration for complex control systems, from architecture definition and component selection, through to production harness and electrical distribution
• Electronic circuits and PCB design, from initial schematics to PCB assemblies, including circuit analysis, simulation, test and troubleshooting
• Control and software development, from core algorithm development, through to fully validated production control software (including safety software).

As a Controls & Electronics graduate, you will have the opportunity be involved with a wide range of activities, including:

• Development of control algorithms for projects related to vehicles, transmissions, electric motors, power electronics, batteries, fuel cells, combustion engines, cooling and heat transfe
• Development of embedded real-time software for microprocessor
• Development of electronic circuits and PCBs for embedded systems, including Battery Management Systems, Power Inverters, DC/DC converters and Control Board
• Electrical integration of components to create complex control systems, contributing to definition of system architecture, sensor and actuator selection, wiring harness and communication
• Commissioning and testing of the above systems on bench rigs, on testbeds, and on-vehicles

What we can offer you?

• A 2-year accelerated graduate development programme with a focus on developing Controls & Electronics skills, through exposure to a broad range of projects within the C&E group.
• Meaningful and fulfilling engineering projects across a range of market sectors.
• Opportunity to continue your professional development and work towards your CEng or IEng qualification with fees covered and mentorship provided.
• Technical and soft skills development in a consultancy environment.
• Recognition and celebration of your success including six-monthly performance and salary reviews during the 2-year scheme.
• Opportunity to become a STEM Ambassador and inspire the next generation of Engineers.
• Collaboration across a global graduate community and opportunity to grow your professional network.
• Potential to support overseas project work on a rotation

We are looking to recruit graduates with a strong desire to work within our industry that have a achieved a minimum of 2:1 from the following engineering disciplines: Electrical & Electronics, Controls, Mechatronics, Computer Science related, Mechanical, Automotive, Aerospace or Software related.

It would be beneficial for candidates to have:

• A master’s degree in an engineering or related field.
• Relevant work experience.
• Interest in a mechanical or electrical engineering hobby such as motorsport, restoration projects and/or formula student.

We will be scheduling face to face assessment centres in February and March with an opportunity for those invited to meet our Engineering management team and our current cohorts of graduates.

To learn more about our global graduate programme, click here: https://www.ricardo.com/en/careers/early-careers/graduates/automotive-graduate-scheme

Note that in addition to this Controls & Electronics Graduate role, we are also recruiting for graduates who will specialise in Test Engineering as well as our wider graduate programme, where your technical development is broader and includes technical placements around the business, these placements can include C&E and Test Engineering.

Applications for all 3 graduate roles are reviewed by the same team. Please only apply for the specific roles above if you have a keen interest/skills in this discipline do not apply for all roles.

Working here

You will be warmly welcomed into our workplace where every voice matters. We are diverse thinkers and doers, coming together to create a culture of inclusion. We will support you to find your place.

We will encourage you to use your passion and expertise to make a positive impact through the projects you work on. Your knowledge and desire to bring about change will be invaluable in helping deliver innovative solutions that support communities across the globe in becoming safer and more sustainable.

Work life balance

We offer flexible approaches to work, whether that is working from home, being in the office, or as a hybrid worker. We're happy to discuss flexible working arrangements. Wellbeing is at the core to our culture, allowing employees to flourish and to achieve their full potential.

Benefits

We want you to know how much you are valued. Your remuneration and benefits package will reflect that. You will receive a range of benefits which include support for your physical and mental health.

Our core benefits include 25 days' annual leave, plus 8 flexible bank holidays, a competitive company pension scheme, life assurance and professional subscriptions reimbursement. We also offer a wide range of flexible benefits to suit your lifestyle.

Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion statement

We are an Equal Opportunity Employer, we believe in each person's potential, and we'll help you reach yours. We have an ambitious diversity, equality, and inclusion approach as explained here. We value diversity; recognising that a more diverse workforce creates a richer and more varied working environment. Diversity also drives innovation, by allowing us to offer our clients the best consultancy service that we can. As part of our commitment to engage positively and pro-actively with all our employees and to ensure an inclusive culture, we are a recognised as a 'disability confident' employer.

Visas and Sponsorships

In light of recent updates to UK Government immigration salary thresholds, Ricardo is currently unable to offer sponsorship for post-study work or Skilled Worker visas as part of our early career programmes.Whilst this means we are unable to support visa applications under the current criteria, we remain committed to reviewing our approach in line with any future changes to immigration policy. We value the diverse talent that international graduates bring and will continue to monitor developments closely.

Next steps

Once you have submitted your application a member of our Recruitment Team will be in touch. Please be aware that the timing can vary dependent on the volume of applications that we receive for each role and in some cases, we may start to review applications prior to the closing date.

Ricardo is a Disability confident employer please advise the recruitment team via recruit@ricardo.com if you require any adjustments to support you throughout the recruitment process.

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