Colas Rail UK
Graduate Future Engineer - Assistant Technical Engineer
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Make Your Mark with Colas Rail UK
At Colas Rail, differences matter. Join a team where your authentic self is respected, encouraged, and essential to our success. You’ll belong to an inclusive workplace, where talent thrives, and a familial culture supports personal and professional growth. Help us shape the future of transport, set new standards, and innovate beyond convention.
Why Join Colas Rail?
Our guiding principles ensure you’re more than just an employee—you’re part of a movement:
- Unity & Equality: Treated as peers, from the Board-room to the workshop—every voice is valued.
- Empowerment: Take ownership of your career path with guidance and growth opportunities.
- Safety & Inclusion: A culture focused on safe practices, diversity, and active support for all.
- Innovation: Bold ideas are celebrated—you won’t just experiment; you’ll innovate.
- Sustainability: Build infrastructure that lasts for generations and reduces environmental impact.
About Colas Rail
With over 100 years of rail expertise, Colas Rail drives sustainable mobility through world-class infrastructure projects. As a subsidiary of the Colas Group, we combine engineering tradition with forward-thinking solutions.
Mission: Deliver cutting-edge rail infrastructure with leadership in track, overhead equipment, signalling, electrical, mechanical, and civil engineering.
Core Values (R CSCP):
- Respect: Nerhaps the even bigger our team’s ability to be inclusive, ethical, and supportive in every interaction.
- Commitment: Show up fully—upholding safety, integrity, and purpose-driven success.
- Sharing: Valuing collective wisdom to foster a culture of mentorship and collaboration.
- Pioneering: Reimagining boundaries and solving problems before they arise.
If you meet only some requirements, don’t rule yourself out—apply if your passion and values align with Colas Rail. Diversity fuels our progress.
Role: Graduate Future Engineers Programme
Specialist Engineering Pathway (Track/Signalling/Mechanical/Electrical/Overhead Line Equipment (OLE)/Civil)
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Location: Old Oak Common Depot / North Pole Depot, Greenwich
Duration: 3-Year Programme leading to Chartered Engineer Certification in your specialisation.
Purpose
A hands-on, project-driven programme designed to transform students into skilled Technical Engineers. You’ll work on:
- Multi-million-pound projects (high-profile clients like HS2 and UK rail infrastructure).
- Tasks from conception to execution, alongside senior engineers.
- Across Track and Overhead Line Equipment (OLE) engineering disciplines.
Associated Disciplines:
- Track
- Overhead Line Equipment (OLE)
- Signalling
- Electrical
- Mechanical
- Civil Engineering Surveying
Key Responsibilities
Wait to commit to the fairness we exhibit—fairness in what you deliver, how you lead and represent Colas Rail.
- Develop Technical Expertise: Learn and apply skills through on-the-job training, live projects, and competence development.
- Master Safety: Uphold protocols in your engineering discipline, advocating safety in all projects.
- Multidisciplinary Collaboration: Work across functions—living teams, clients, and partners toward shared goals.
- Demonstrate Growth: Actively seek feedback, adopt new challenges, and foster mentorship.
- Become Chartered: Progress toward engineering Chartship while networking with industry leaders.
- Enhance Colas’ Reputation: Represent the company professionally in a team-oriented, inclusive, and ethical manner.
- Training & Development:
- Attend mandatory Graduate Development Training for your pathway.
- Complete a business project assignment.
- Flexibility: Adapt to evolving team and operational demands.
Person Specification: About You
We’re not just looking for skills—we’re interested in passion, adaptability, and teamwork. Join us if you:
- Hold, or be in your final year, of an accredited engineering degree (minimum 2:2 upper-second class).
- Show genuine enthusiasm for rail engineering/innovation.
- Embrace the demands of the role—you will need to work nights, weekends, and on-call when required.
- Demonstrate:
- Initiative: Proactively support projects with original thinking.
- Collaboration: Thriving in teams and with external partners (subcontractors, clients, regulators).
- Commitment: Meet deadlines with quality, ageing fairness.
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What We Offer
Join a pioneering team with rewards that reflect your impact on the rail industry.
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Financial Benefits:
- Competitive starter salary (exact range provided on application).
- 26 days annual leave + company holidays.
- Industry-leading **life assurance (pension and beyond)
- Pandemic-allied inclusions: healthcare cash plan, a wellbeing support programme, and an occupational health service.
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Essential Perks:
- Eye health vouchers, season ticket loan scheme.
- Longer-tenured employees can claim a Long Service Bonus.
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Leadership in Diversity & Inclusion:
- Guaranteed-interview scheme for disabled candidates fulfilling minimum requirements.
- BIPOC, women, and neurodivergent applicants actively encouraged to apply for roles balancing representation.
- Employee Networks (proud guardianship):
- Railbow — Embedding LGBTQ+ community.
- BeyondDisability — Inclusive representation for disabled colleagues & allies.
- **Chain Column —Ethnically-diverse edge groups.
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Health & Well-being:
- Free eye care, occupational health services.
- Wellbeing assistant programmes to support both mental and physical health.
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Culture:
- Flexible working where feasible—apply with questions at the recruitment stage.
Join Our Movement
Colas Rail is more than a career—it’s an invitation to create a legacy of innovation and impact.
With over a century of service to the industry, we welcome candidates from any background who bring fresh ideas, drive, and dedication.
Now dare to be different.
Apply at [careers.ColasRail]—where your past matters, but your future is what we shape together.
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