Engineering Jobs Bristol

Engineering is a science, a discipline, an art form and a profession behind the scientific, technical and mathematical design of materials, structures, machines, devices, systems, and processes that safely realise their purpose. To practise engineering you need a license which makes you a qualified engineer, this is gained through a university degree, an apprenticeship or with enough work experience to allow you to specialise in a certain area.

Engineering is a broad discipline with several sub-branches although there is a considerable amount of overlap, especially in the scientific theories behind engineering such as chemistry, physics and mathematics. These divisions are categorised as follows:

• Aerospace engineering: aircraft, spaceships and related topics
• Chemical engineering: large scale chemical processing, inventing new fuels
• Civil engineering: roads, bridges, water supplies for private and public use
• Electrical engineering: electrical systems like transformers and electrical goods
• Mechanical engineering: engines, power trains etc
• Materials engineering: investigates materials at atomic and molecular scales

New branches develop continuously as technology develops. Some of the emerging sub-divisions include computer engineering, software engineering and molecular engineering. When these smaller branches become popular enough to be classed as a branch is disputed, although the common factor in their establishment is often when university departments are opened specialising in that particular field.

Bristol is home to many engineering firms including Arup engineering, Hyder Consulting Ltd, Ashdale Engineering, WSP group, Amag Engineering and panic Engineering. Between them they take on experienced engineers, apprentices and graduates so people of any age have the opportunity to get into engineering in Bristol. Building works, scientific projects and construction all take place in the city centre and its surrounding suburbs although there may be little chance for you to work as an aerospace engineer in Bristol.

You could however learn to become a space engineer at Bristol University, which boasts a large and dynamic engineering faculty, divided into more specialised departments. Schools in the city are also becoming specialist schools in the field of engineering with their pupils building vehicles, inventing machines and investigating science. Engineering is an inbuilt part of society as we use the creations of engineers on a daily basis, if not an hourly basis. As such it is a vital profession to the everyday workings of modern life, however there is little known about it by the general public and engineers can sometimes be considered ‘nerds’. We all know that is not the case however, with some of the most creative and inventive people on the planet working in engineering.

The salary for engineers is anything but nerdy. The average salary for an automotive engineer can start at anything upwards of £23,000 with managerial roles reaching in excess of £50,000. Similar salaries apply for mechanical engineers, with starting salaries rarely below £20,000 and senior professionals earning £50,000+. For civil engineers, if they reach the position of fellow of the Institute of Civil Engineers, you can earn in excess £80,000. These are just averages and there are opportunities for engineers to earn even more, especially if they work in very specialist areas.

In Bristol the average salaries correlate with these figures above and this makes for a comfortable living as Bristol is one of the less expensive cities in the UK.