Graduate Engineer role at SWJ Consulting Ltd. Oxfordshire

About SWJ Consulting

SWJ is a rapidly growing, award-winning, highly respected Structural Engineering Practice based in West Oxfordshire. Our developing client portfolio presents challenging, varied, often extraordinary schemes and the directors require additional help to allow us to deliver these schemes to the standards that we have set ourselves. Hence, we are seeking a graduate structural engineer.

We are now an established team of 10 individuals and our rapidly developing client portfolio continually presents challenging, varied and often extraordinary schemes. We are the perfect fit for a graduate engineer who is looking for a challenging role, in an attractive location, to help us deliver schemes to the high standard we set ourselves.

Our mission and purpose as a company are clear; to become one of the UK’s leading Structural Engineering companies and to be our client’s first port of call, whenever they are challenged and in need of support. We work hard to maintain a culture that encourages excellence through support, learning and opportunity.

We know that there is strong competition for good structural engineers and so we have structured salary, bonus and benefits packages to attract the best the industry has to offer. On top of that, we are looking to support our team’s well-being; this includes the opportunity to drive your career forward whilst offering a flexible working structure. Again, the heart of our philosophy is collaboration and we know the business will only be as successful as the individuals within it.

Why SWJ Consulting

Our Vision

Our vision is to be a leading structural engineering consultancy, recognised as a centre of engineering excellence by the industry and an authority in the use of digital construction techniques.

Our Values

Our values can be summarised as follows:

1. We are committed to treating every project on its individual merits and to putting forward solutions that are specifically engineered to meet the project’s needs.
2. Accuracy and attention to detail are central to everything we do, and we hold a total commitment to producing work that is correct the first time of asking.
3. We demonstrate our respect for our clients and the structure by ensuring that we always deliver the service irrespective of the scale of the project.
4. We will continuously innovate and push the boundaries that can be achieved with the knowledge and tools at our disposal.
5. We will be the best engineers and technicians that we can be and never settle for mediocrity.

What We Ask Of Our Employees

Be Inquisitive

There is nothing wrong with asking the question “why?” and not accepting the answer “because it is”. Some of the greatest advancements that humanity has made has been by people asking the right question and not being afraid of the consequences of challenging the status quo.

Communicate Your Ideas Clearly

As a consultant, we are paid to think and provide solutions to our clients’ problems. The successful implementation of those ideas depends on our ability to communicate those ideas in a clear and unambiguous manner. We need engineers who speak clearly, write concisely and are comfortable with presenting ideas to a group.

Read more about why we think communication is so important in structural engineering

Be Able to Have an Argument

We aren’t talking about hurling crude abuse at another individual at a distance of six inches. What we do need are engineers and technicians who can arrive at a position based on their knowledge and skills, and are able to defend that position when called upon to do so using reason and logic.

Be Accountable

We do not indulge in the blame game but do undertake project debriefs to look for opportunities to improve.

We expect our employees to take responsibility for their actions and when something does go wrong to ask the question “what else could I have done to avoid this?” or “how could this be done better?”.

Don’t Be Afraid to Fail

It is important to try new ideas, new techniques, and new software within a safe environment so that we can improve ourselves as individuals and thereby the quality of the service we offer our clients. Adopting this approach means that we will, on occasion fail to deliver what we wanted but that is how we learn and improve.

Read more about our approach to encouraging excellence through failure.

What Do We Provide Our Employees in Return?

The directors of SWJ recognise the contribution that our team make to our success, and we understand that without our team we do not have a business, we have well-paid jobs. So, what else do we offer our employees other than a salary, bonus, pension, and holidays?

Our aim is to provide our employees with an environment in which they can thrive both professionally and personally during their time with us.

Family Environment

Our team is a small and close-knit team, the majority of whom have known and worked with each other over the last three years giving us a sense of camaraderie and friendship that has allowed us to support each other through the trial and tribulations of the last twenty-three months. We have tried to create an environment that is fun for our staff to be part of by injecting humour wherever we can into what can be a very dry and serious profession. If you don’t snigger at the thought of preparing a “safe erection sequence” drawing, then we’re probably not for you.

Flexible Working

When we set the business up, we wanted to create a business that allowed us to work around the needs of our families/dependants and that is what we want for our staff as well. Life is short and there are more important things than work.

Even before the pandemic arrived, we allowed people to work from home or alter their hours to suit their needs and by trusting our team to get the work done, our faith has been repaid many times over.

Continuous Learning

One of the benefits of having a small team is that the Directors of the firm will be personally involved in your training and development. Not only are we able to offer a combined 55+ years of experience working on a variety of building structures and the use of digital construction techniques we also have Professional Reviewers working in house that are able to guide your development towards membership of the ICE and IStructE at the level of your choosing.

We supplement the individual mentoring by the Directors and senior staff with dedicated training courses, in house training through an online portal and lunchtime CPD seminars.

Successful candidates will be able to:

1. Support the Directors’ of SWJ by undertaking the design of structural elements in all common materials, i.e. steel, concrete, masonry and timber
2. Use and adapt a number of software packages and understand how they can best be leveraged to provide a quality design and make best use of your time.
3. Prepare sketches illustrating the design intent and size and disposition of the structural members for circulation to the design team
4. Check drawings, prior to approval, against preliminary sketches for accuracy and identify opportunities to refine and improve the design
5. Check reinforced concrete schedules against the general arrangement drawings and calculations.
6. Communicate clearly and be confident in presenting your ideas and concepts to both your colleagues and other project stakeholders.
7. Demonstrate a highly motivated and positive attitude towards productivity, engaging and aligning with the company’s vision, values, purpose and culture.
8. Embrace our culture of encouraging excellence by taking the time to challenge, guide and develop others within the team
9. Demonstrate a passion for continuous learning and development, both personally and professionally

Within three years you will be:

• Ready for Professional Review – i.e. Obtain Chartered Status
• Be the point of contact for prestigious projects and be responsible for the design from concept to completion
• Starting to develop your own portfolio of clients
• Overseeing the professional development of junior colleagues
• Assessing various computer design packages for their potential to improve the level of service that the business is able to offer and make recommendations to the Directors for their adoption

Apply If:

You have an MEng, BEng or MSc engineering degree and can demonstrate passion, ambition and attitudinal ability needed to meet the profile and grow into a future leader.

To apply – send your CV with a covering letter to recruitment@swjconsulting.co.uk

Hollie Saunders – Graduate Structural Engineer

Hollie joined our team at SWJ Consulting at the start of September 2021 for a year’s placement as a Graduate Structural Engineer before she left for a year travelling and working in Australia. She is a recent Civil Engineering MEng graduate from the University of Bristol.

“I have really enjoyed my time at SWJ. I love living so close to Oxford, but being in the countryside at the same time. I have really developed my knowledge and skills during my time at SWJ and that is a credit to the directors and the team who take the time to support me, challenge me and ensure I am developing in both skills and confidence. I would recommend any ambitious graduate apply to work alongside the directors here at SWJ.”

Bertan Ates – Graduate Structural Engineer

Bertan joined SWJ as a graduate engineer from Coventry University. He worked with us for 18 months before moving closer to his family in London and progressing his career.

“I have enjoyed working and learning at SWJ, every day I am able to deploy new skillsets that I have learnt to overcome unique engineering complications because of the support and training I have received from the team.”