Engineering Technician - Ocean Engineering Group

National Oceanography Centre, Southampton

Permanent

Full time

£36,382 - £40,016

Who are we?

We are the National Oceanography Centre (NOC) - the UK’s leading institution for integrated coastal and deep ocean research. Through our ground-breaking research, collaboration, and game-changing innovation we work to gain a deeper understanding of our ocean, helping every living thing on our planet flourish.

We are made up of a dynamic and vibrant community focused on solving challenging long‑term marine science problems, underpinning international and UK public policy, business and societal outcomes.

The ocean has the potential to provide the solutions to so many of the social, economic and environmental challenges we face worldwide. To truly harness the value of the ocean, we put ocean research, science and discovery at the heart of our culture.

Join us in shaping the future of oceanographic research and contribute your unique perspective to our organisation.

About the role

A fantastic opportunity has arisen for an experienced engineer to join the Ocean Engineering Group for an electrical/mechanical Engineering Technician. You will be joining a well‑established and highly skilled team who operate a large and diverse fleet of equipment and machinery used to obtain oceanographic data.

The shore‑based role will be based at the National Oceanography Centre (NOC) here in Southampton, and will involve the preparation, maintenance, testing and development of the ocean engineering group’s equipment. This includes coring and other physical sampling, air source seismic survey systems, handling equipment such as; winches, davits, launch and recovery systems and portable laboratory equipment. This is primarily a workshop‑based role but may see you working remotely on occasion as required.

The sea going role is primarily based on two vessels, the R.R.S James Cook and R.R.S Discovery but may see you working on foreign vessels as required. These are full ocean‑going vessels and as such operate all over the world, this will require the candidate to work alongside other engineering departments, ship’s crew and diverse scientific teams.

We appreciate that this role requires a wide variety of engineering skills and we will support the successful candidate with hands on training for the equipment we operate, as well as a variety of training courses through our approved providers. This will ensure that you can operate offshore with a strong knowledge of our systems and the correct engineering skillset required to maintain the equipment.

About you

The ideal candidate will have recognised qualifications in an engineering related discipline, preferably holding an engineering apprenticeship qualification to NVQ level 3 or equivalent as this is a hands‑on workshop‑based role.

They will need a broad knowledge of electrical and mechanical engineering and a willingness to progress and learn. They will need to be pro‑active, motivated, flexible, and able to identify issues and create solutions in sometimes isolated and challenging environments. They will need to be a contributing team member producing a high quality of work and be able to support this work with relevant documentation, designs and drawings.

This role will require you to commit to around 90 days per year at sea with an expedition ranging from 2-6weeks on average, this includes being able to travel globally.

Why NOC?

We offer a generous set of benefits, including:

• 30 days contractual annual leave, plus 3.5 extra closure days and bank holidays
• 10% employer contribution pension scheme (with a 15% NI saving on employee contributions made above 5%, if in the salary sacrifice scheme)
• Death in Service (3 times annual salary)…