Working for UKAEA
Source: gov.uk (2025-04-25)

Find jobs, benefits information, and workplace policies at the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA).

Vacancies

We’re recruiting for scientific, engineering and technical roles to support our European and UK fusion energy programmes.

We offer:
- professionally accredited training for graduates and apprentices
- PhD placements through our university partnerships
- professional development and mentoring
- a final salary pension scheme
- an annual bonus scheme
- flexible working
- help with moving costs
Find all our job vacancies on the UKAEA careers website (https://careers.ukaea.uk/).

Benefits

Annual leave

You’ll receive:
- 25 days annual leave (increasing to 28 days after 5 years, and 30 days after 10 years)
- 10.5 days for bank holidays and privilege days
- no need to save leave for Christmas to New Year (we cover this with a revised working week)
- the option to carry over up to 10 days leave to the next year
- the option to gain time off in lieu instead of overtime pay (with your manager’s agreement)
Pension

When you join UKAEA, we automatically enroll you in the UKAEA Combined Pension Scheme (CPS). This is a final salary pension scheme that provides:
- a pension and lump sum at age 60
- the pension is calculated as: years’ service × final earnings × 1/80
- a lump sum of 3 times your annual pension
- options to convert between pension and lump sum
- early or partial retirement options
- death in service benefits
- spouse and dependent pensions
- ill health benefits
- an Additional Voluntary Contributions scheme
The CPS will close in the future as part of public sector pension reforms. Most UKAEA staff will then join the Civil Service pension scheme (alpha), which is a Career Average Revalued Earnings (CARE) scheme.

Benefits you’ve earned in the CPS will be protected when this happens.

Find out more about the:
- UKAEA pension scheme (https://myukaeapension.equiniti.com/)
- alpha pension scheme (https://www.civilservicepensionscheme.org.uk/members/alpha)
Bonus scheme

You may receive an annual bonus of up to 7% of your salary, based on company performance.

Moving costs

If you need to move home to take up a job with us, we may help with your moving expenses up to £8,000.

Flexible working

All our roles can be considered for:
- job sharing
- part-time working
- flexible hours
Family support

You can request time off to deal with unexpected problems involving a family member. Depending on the situation, some of this time may be paid.

Pregnant employees who qualify for contractual maternity pay receive:
- normal pay during the 26-week ordinary maternity leave period
- statutory maternity pay for the first 13 weeks of additional maternity leave
- unpaid leave for the remaining 13 weeks
We also offer adoption leave and paternity leave.

Learning and development

We support your professional development through:
- engineering apprenticeship schemes recognised by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) and Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET)
- graduate schemes certified by IMechE and IET
- PhD and MSc opportunities
- Culham fellowships
- professional development schemes
- a mentoring programme
We’ve been awarded the Athena Swan Bronze award for supporting women’s careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

Health and wellbeing

We offer:
- free occupational health services
- an employee assistance programme for support and counselling
- a cycle to work scheme (you can borrow up to £1,000 for a bike and accessories)
- free parking across our site
On-site services

Our Culham site has:
- restaurants and sandwich shops
- a Costa Coffee
- a social club that organises theatre trips, Christmas parties and other events
- sports clubs and societies
- staff fun days
Health and safety policy

At UKAEA, we make safety, health and environmental management a priority. We aim to cause no harm to people, property or the environment.

We:
- comply with all legal obligations and standards
- require everyone who works for us to follow our safety systems
- provide healthy and safe workplaces, equipment and procedures
- prevent pollution and protect the environment
- consider safety, health and environmental impacts in all our work
- set and review safety targets each year through our Assurance Improvement Programme
- use safer and cleaner technologies and procedures
- create a responsible working culture
Every UKAEA employee is responsible for maintaining these standards in their work area.