Who is AWE and what do they do?

AWE plays a crucial role in national nuclear security. Working to support the defence of our country, we have a clear mission: to keep everyone, our environment, products and information, our sites and everything around us safe and secure. Our role in nuclear defence and the specialist expertise we provide to the government, is vital in the defence against the most serious threats faced by the UK. We are proud to play our part in developing the warheads for the UK’s nuclear deterrent. We are also proud to support the government with our unique technical assistance to arms control, nuclear security, and response to nuclear or radiological accidents and terrorism – a collection of specialised activities that we group together as ‘Nuclear Threat Reduction’. 

To do this, we conduct research and development to sustain these unique capabilities and take complex concepts through design to manufacture. We are the only nuclear defence laboratory in the UK; no one else can do what we do due to the collective capability and experience of our people and the nuclear site licences only we hold. We have some of the most brilliant people, working on some of the most complex challenges – working with research equipment that can simulate the temperatures and pressures at the heart of the sun; that can x-ray through lead a metre thick… using the most powerful computer in the UK. We have scientists and engineers who explore advance composite materials, and the use of advanced, 3D printing – making things of impossible precision. We also have some of the most unique buildings and state-of-the-art capital and construction projects – some of which have never been done before. 

Why work for AWE?

There has never been a more exciting time to join AWE. We are at the start of a once-in-a-generation – possibly two generations – programme to design and produce a replacement warhead for the UK’s continuous at sea deterrent. We are also managing one of the most important infrastructure programmes – delivering a cutting-edge, sustainable environment for the future – as well as effectively maintaining an estate that spans over 1,000 acres and has some unique buildings. 

We believe in supporting our people through long-term investment in learning and development. Alongside in-house and on-line training capabilities, we support membership of professional bodies. We also focus on building and developing leadership skills, in pursuit of our best-in class ambition. We do this through tailored leadership development programmes, accredited by the Chartered Management Institute, designed to equip our leaders with the skills to drive performance and bring out the best in their teams.