OXFORD INSTRUMENTS

As a Design Engineer degree apprentice, you’ll be joining our Mechanical Design team and helping to bring new products to life, as well as redesigning existing products. You’ll learn engineering principles and how to use CAD, as well as how to manage and control product design changes and create the supporting documentation that your colleagues will need to manufacture your designs.

Why not kickstart your career working in the thick of exciting, evolving technology at a global manufacturing business driving solutions across microchip technology, quantum computing, biomedical devices, renewable energy, battery-powered cars, and much more?

Rather than desk-defined duties and repetitive routines, we’ll embrace your curiosity and tenacity and empower you to engage and problem-solve. We’ll drive your learning and career development by supporting your active engagement in meetings, teamwork, and tangible problem-solving. As an example, a Manufacturing Engineer apprenticeship at Oxford Instruments Plasma Technology in Bristol will put you in a team of 12, with 50% of your time spent in meetings and liaising with colleagues. You’ll see engineering drawings, be involved in discussions and be empowered to query and question. Adding ideas and knowledge to our design process and manufacturing ability and our operational practices and techniques, you’ll soon be a proactive, autonomous, and hands-on contributor to the productionisation of semiconductor tool manufacturing.

You can progress to HND/HNC level and become a fully-fledged Manufacturing Engineer.

Manufacturing apprenticeships are also available at our NanoScience base in Oxfordshire.

Interested in marketing but not sure if university is right for you? Why not consider joining our level 3 marketing apprenticeship? You’ll gain a firm grounding in the core aspects of marketing, including key digital marketing skills, such as social media, email and web design, as well as traditional skills, including audience research, event management, compiling briefs for external suppliers, and data analysis and results reporting.

You’ll join a team of marketing communication professionals with a great breadth of knowledge and experience available to provide support and guidance. Based in one of our business units, you’ll also have the opportunity to interact with other marketing teams across the organisation, as well as working with a variety of departments beyond marketing.

This not only means that two days are rarely the same, it also provides a variety of potential future career development routes within Oxford Instruments.

The ideal candidate will have good English and Maths at GCSE, and you’ll find this role particularly rewarding if you have an interest in science.

As an Apprentice Technician at Oxford Instruments High Wycombe, you’ll work in a team of 26 Manufacturing Technicians, manufacturing our products ready to ship to customers, ensuring an effective and efficient operation to meet agreed quality, timescale, and cost objectives. As an Apprentice Technician, you’ll attain the skills and qualifications required to function as a competent Manufacturing Technician at Oxford Instruments.

You’ll be working within a team of operations professionals, and will have exposure to each area of Operations, working closely with the Manufacturing Engineers. We’ll give you all the support you need to develop your career, earning a good salary while studying for key qualifications.

After completing your Level 3 Apprenticeship, you’ll have the opportunity to move into a permanent role within the production team at Oxford Instruments, or to look at completing further qualifications while continuing to work with us. This could include completing your Level 6-7 Apprenticeship, which is a degree-level apprenticeship. Throughout your apprenticeship with us, you’ll also have opportunities to explore other departments within the business (for example Electrical Engineering within the Product Development team) to look at what routes you may like your career at Oxford Instruments to take, as well as continuing to move through the manufacturing career path.

Mechatronic Engineering unites the principles of mechanics, electronics and computing. As a Mechatronics apprentice at Oxford Instruments Andor in Belfast, you’ll combine mechanical engineering problem-solving and design skills with developing expertise in digital electronics and computing systems. As part of your learning you’ll gain practical skills in the production of advanced products and systems, and learn about automation and the use of robotics.

Over the course of three years you’ll spend a day a week at South-Eastern Regional College, taking modules on areas including CAD techniques, electrical and electronic fundamentals, analogue and digital electronics, alongside building up your professional skills, and learning and implementing production processes.

You’ll need 2 A-levels or a Level 3 vocational qualification in Engineering, together with GCSE Maths and English at the equivalent of Grade C or above.

As a software apprentice at Oxford Instruments NanoAnalysis in High Wycombe, you’ll join a team of 35 software developers, working to an Agile process. You’ll experience life in a high-tech business and get a real feel for the world of work.

Our engineers work up through a full software stack in C#, from the direct instrument control layer that turns parts of an instrument on and off, through another layer that takes in the signals from the hardware and starts turning it into information, through to the business logic that decides what to display on the screen and when, right up to the user interface (UI) layer that creates what the user actually sees. This desktop application supports thousands of scientists and technologists around the world, so it must be accurate, robust, and as easy to use as technical software can be.

The teams use the Azure DevOps tool to control work items and bugs in four-week cycles (sprints). A sprint begins with planning the work items and understanding the requirements, before writing the code and performing testing. Next comes a code review with another developer, and then, once approved, it’s over to the software quality assurance team for formal testing.

During your time here you’ll have the opportunity to experience development at each layer in the stack to see which interests you most. You’ll be supported, coached and mentored by engineers with decades of experience.