Career Returner - Senior Electrical Engineer

​Are you looking to step back into a professional role after a career break?

It takes phenomenal people and great teamwork to welcome 200,000 passengers every single day and to achieve our vision of giving the best airport service in the world. Our teams bring together a variety of experiences and perspectives, so that our colleagues can challenge the status quo, innovate and push each other to be better every day. As Heathrow grows, we’re on a journey to grow our people too, with inspirational leaders and role models at  every level of our organisation.

The Heathrow Career Returners Programme is a path back into a professional role for men and women who have taken a career break. You will bring your established skills to Heathrow, as you take on a role within our operations or corporate functions. Through a structured six-month placement starting in November 2018, you will complete meaningful work in a supportive environment, whilst exploring opportunities for continuing a career at Heathrow. You will receive specialised coaching, together with mentoring and training support.  

This opportunity is open to anyone who has been on a career break for two or more years. This could consist of a period of continuous absence from the workplace, or a period where you have been working outside of your established professional career following a period of absence from the workplace.

At Heathrow we value diversity and this programme will provide the platform for you to mature your own diverse strengths. We want leaders who embrace diversity and are willing to drive Heathrow to be ever more inclusive. We embrace agile and flexible approaches to working, and welcome conversations around how we can support your work-life balance.

Engineering at Heathrow

It takes talented teams working behind the scenes to keep our airport running smoothly. It’s meaningful, wide- reaching work. From water to energy, rail to roads, our engineering and asset management teams work across the airport on a huge range of development, construction, facilities management and maintenance projects; from our automated transport pods to our biomass energy plant.  

Our Chief Engineers team are the people that provide a ‘Centre of Expertise', ensuring that we deliver high quality safety, technical and engineering leadership to the business. The team set asset management and system design strategy, policy and technical standards.

If a great engineering role with flexible working hours is what you are looking for, then this could be the role for you.

You will be supporting the business with technical investigations, as well as leading the engineering acceptance of products and materials. You will address internal and external recommendations and complete audit actions, as well as conducting strategic reviews. Your role will involve identifying opportunities for technical and business improvement, driving innovation and developing business cases and investment papers. 

Principle accountabilities     

• Own the development and upkeep of Asset Plans and Asset Standards that reflect the Asset System Strategies
• Develop a thorough, quantified, “real world” understanding of how our assets perform in terms of life cycle cost, service performance and risk
• Build and deliver continuous improvement plans for our assets, improving performance and shareholder value  
• Communicate our strategies, plans and standards, ensuring that they are being effectively applied within the business
• Provide expert engineering support to the Development and Maintenance teams to ensure the assets, as designed and operated, are fit for purpose

​What are we looking for?

While our Returners Programme will support you into the role, ideally you would bring most of the following skills and experience:      

• A degree qualification in a relevant discipline, or demonstrable equivalent experience and expertise.  
• Be an Incorporated Engineer in a relevant discipline, or expect to achieve Incorporated status within 12 months of appointment
• Good knowledge and strong experience of maintenance practices, methodologies and strategies, with knowledge of whole life cost principles and their application
• Strong analytical skills, with proven ability to use data to drive continuous improvement
• Proven experience developing contingency plans and resilience analysis within large operational and infrastructure organisations
• Experience of developing business cases, with the ability to translate data and technical knowledge meaningfully to demonstrate business benefits

​Knowledge of the airport’s operational environment is desirable, but not essential. We will work with you over the six-month programme to help bring you up to speed on the latest developments and bring out your existing talents.

Application Process

You will be required to include a CV and covering letter in your application.

If you are successful you will be invited to a telephone interview in week commencing 24th September, before a final in-person assessment on 10th or 11th October 2018.

If you have any questions about this opportunity, please contact Lana Gilbert at lana.gilbert@heathrow.com - Please note that applications will not be accepted via email. All applications should be submitted through our careers site.