Graduate Development Scheme - Innovation

About Us

National Grid Electricity Distribution is the new name for Western Power Distribution. This is a very exciting time to be part of the largest UK electricity transmission and distribution business. We’ve changed our name, but our people and focus on providing great service to customers remains unchanged. We connect 8 million customers across the Midlands, South West England and South Wales and serve a population of over 18 million people. We do this whilst maintaining safety, reliability and excellent customer service.

National Grid employs over 29,000 people worldwide. Our vision is to be at the heart of a clean, fair and affordable energy future and we are doing this in a fast-moving industry with an increasing focus on tackling climate change, exploring new energy sources which are renewable, low carbon, and improve efficiency to meet demand.

We are an equal opportunities employer. Our desire is to bring in more employees from diverse backgrounds to build further on our inclusive culture. We value and celebrate individual difference and we believe that an inclusive culture will help the business grow as a positive, strong and innovative company.

Job Introduction

There has never been a greater time to be a part of the energy industry, it is evolving like never before! We are innovating, planning and developing exciting new ideas and projects that aim to accommodate the network demands of electric vehicles (EVs), heat pumps (HPs) and low carbon technologies (LCTs) as well as the integration of distributed generation.

It is a great time to join the National Grid Electricity Distribution (NGED) Graduate Scheme where you will be able to be part of this fascinating and motivating industry. You will be based within the Innovation team whilst also attending placements across the business that range from on-site hands on experience to design and planning roles.

The Innovation team currently run and manage a vast range of projects that aim to achieve decarbonisation & net zero, address the challenges proposed by EVs & HPs as well as making the electricity network smarter and more intelligent. These projects vary from feasibility studies costing a few hundred thousand pounds all the way to multi-million-pound trials that do make a real change. From the very start, you will be able to make a difference in this unique, one-of-a-kind role.

We will support, guide and mentor graduates during the scheme where you will also have the opportunity to run and manage your own projects, gain the unique and sought-after skills and abilities that will enable you to develop professionally and eventually become future leaders in the industry.

We held a webinar on Tuesday 25th October to provide an overview of the scheme and tell you about some of the projects our current graduates are involved in.  You can watch the webinar here Innovation Graduate Webinar - YouTube

Base location will be discussed with successful candidates however Innovation has teams in Bristol and Castle Donington.

Please note, whilst we anticipate that the permanent position following your training will be based in the Innovation team, this is not guaranteed, and you may be required to apply for a substantive role elsewhere within the business.

Please only submit ONE application.  Should you wish to be considered for other National Grid areas this can be discussed at a later stage of the recruitment process.

If you are offered a position, you will be required to complete and provide a satisfactory basic DBS check that shows any unspent convictions or conditional cautions.

The Ideal Candidate

We are looking for recent graduates who are curious, forward thinking and want to be challenged in order to develop their skills and knowledge.

You will recently have achieved or be predicted to achieve a minimum of a 2:1 in one of the following subjects:

• Any Engineering discipline
• Maths
• Physics
• Computer Science

Are you looking to apply your degree to a career in an empowering, supportive culture?  If so you will discover that electricity distribution offers all the career-building challenges you are looking for!

As well as your degree you should also have excellent numerical, problem-solving and all round communication skills along with the capacity to develop your technical knowledge.

About The Company

If this is your opportunity to join us, you’ll find we offer a supportive, rewarding and friendly working environment where you’ll be empowered to build a career. Along the way, you’ll be invested in, be enabled by the latest technology and find that we’re always interested in evolving our systems and processes so that we get even better, every day.

In return, you’ll enjoy a package of benefits designed to reward your hard work and incentivise your ambition. In addition to your competitive salary, we offer a competitive contributory pension scheme where the company will double match your pension contributions up to a maximum company contribution of 10%. You will also have access, subject to eligibility criteria, to join our annual Share Save plan.

Recruitment correspondence is usually sent by email, so please do check your email account including spam/junk folders regularly after the closing date.

To enhance your candidate experience, we recommend using Google Chrome to complete your online application. Should you have any questions regarding this or require additional support to complete your online application, please email nged.recruitment@nationalgrid.co.uk