NUTCHAPONG WUTTISAK
“I feel a strong connection to our purpose, and that is very important to me—understanding why I do what I do.” Stacey, a production engineer at AWE, is talking about why she loves her job. One of the world’s leading nuclear technology and security companies, AWE’s purpose is to protect the UK through nuclear science and technology. Formerly known as the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment, its mission is to design and manufacture the UK’s nuclear warheads and provide nuclear services to meet the needs of defence.
Yet, for all its importance and its rich seam of expertise, it remains relatively unknown, including to potential employees. Stacey only heard about it by chance while attending a different job interview. “Another applicant had mentioned AWE and I thought, ‘Oh, what’s this place?’” she recalls. AWE has now embarked on an ambitious campaign to change this. It is recruiting a new cohort of talented individuals, particularly mid-career women, to the opportunities it offers. Its 9000-strong workforce includes roles ranging from logistics and management to physics and engineering.
AWE is recruiting a new cohort of talented individuals, particularly mid-career women
While many employees are STEM graduates, employees don’t need a science degree, or even a degree at all, to forge a path at AWE. There are entry points for all career stages, from early career apprenticeships to mid-career professionals looking for a new challenge. The company is keen to counter the nuclear industry’s image as stuffy, male-dominated and inflexible, instead offering a healthy work-life balance, flexible working, support for employees with family and caring responsibilities and improved representation of women at all levels.
In the 75 years since it was first established, AWE has played a central role in helping deliver the UK’s nuclear deterrent, from developing the UK’s first nuclear device in 1952 to building a series of warheads for the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy. The Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), which was adopted by the UN in 1996, ratified by the UK in 1998 and bans all live testing, has ensured that AWE’s mission has evolved. In accordance with the CTBT, the UK now invests in advanced science, engineering and simulation technologies to support the assurance of warhead safety and performance without undertaking nuclear explosive tests, to monitor international compliance with the treaty and to safeguard the UK from terrorist and radiological threats. AWE is working on the Astraea programme which will deliver the replacement warhead, and boasts world-class capabilities such the Orion laser and Vulcan supercomputer. It also makes advances in physics, materials science and high-performance computing.
AWE is home to Orion, one of the world’s largest lasers Image supplied by AWE
The two arms of AWE—nuclear technology and national security—both offer a wealth of rewarding roles. In nuclear technology, engineers work on everything from the warhead programme to maintaining and improving AWE’s sites. This work can involve using virtual reality, systems engineering, computer modelling and advanced mathematics as well as electronic, mechanical and manufacturing engineering. There are pathways in basic science too, with programmes researching plasma physics, hydrodynamics and materials science.
Meanwhile, in national security, there are roles developing new technologies to detect concealed radioactive materials and novel nuclear forensics techniques, as well as in advising government and emergency services about nuclear and radiological threats. AWE is also home to the UK’s centre for forensic seismology, where teams develop techniques to detect underground nuclear explosions, and provide expertise to support the Ministry of Defence and international partners in underpinning the CTBT. This complex network of teams and roles reflects the needs of a large modern technology company working at the cutting edge of science. But it also means there is plenty of scope for people from all kinds of backgrounds to carve unique career paths, united by the same core purpose.
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EMPLOYEE CASE STUDY: STACEY
Stacey first realised she had a passion for science as a teenager when one Christmas Eve, she found herself doing past exam papers in physics in front of the TV—for enjoyment. “I thought, ‘ I must find this interesting’,” she recalls.
Inspired by a charismatic science teacher, she pursued her interest as a career path, and more than two decades on, that path has led to her current position as production engineer at AWE. There, she leads a multidisciplinary team of scientists, engineers and project managers developing new materials for Astraea, the UK’s replacement warhead programme.
Her trajectory at AWE highlights the huge range of roles and opportunities within the organisation, as well as the training and support available to help employees achieve their ambitions.
Stacey joined AWE after graduating with a degree in physics. She started in the hydrodynamics department, where she worked on experiments to feed into computer models that explore the safety and performance of materials used in warheads. After a few years in this role, she moved on to nuclear threat reduction, which supports the UK’s work in counter-terrorism, counter-nuclear proliferation and in arms control. This involved innovating new technologies to detect nuclear materials for monitoring the UK border, and saw Stacey leading the team and managing the project to make sure everything was in place to make the research possible.
It was a role she found very rewarding. “Many times in my career, I thought, ‘Oh my God, I’m getting paid for this. This is fun’,” she says.”
After seven years working in nuclear threat reduction, Stacey spent a few years working in different roles to expand her skill set, including a stint as an operations manager setting up a new facility and a leadership role developing capability strategy in one of AWE’s technology centres. “I’m very curious and every role I needed to learn something,” she says. “I think it makes you a more rounded individual when you move around in your career.”
This range of experience made her an ideal choice for AWE to appoint as production engineer for the new Astraea programme. There, she oversees the development of new materials from design all the way through to manufacture. It’s a role where she deploys the problem-solving skills that originally engrossed her in physics to developing high-level strategies that keep Astraea on track. “I really, really enjoy my job,” she says.