Leonardo: new site for research on advanced military technologies. It will bring over 200 jobs to Newcastle, UK

Leonardo has started hiring in the region to boost its staff. There are currently 8.000 employees in the UK

The new posts mainly concern high-level scientific and engineering roles, including those related to emerging digital and information technologies

The opening of the eighth British site will contribute to the significant increase (+50%) of career opportunities at Leonardo throughout Great Britain. The company will hire an additional 300 people in 2023

Leonardo has announced a major investment in a new high-tech science and engineering center in Newcastle Helix (UK), an innovative 24-acre city center complex that brings together industry players, businesses and top researchers in a hub of international level innovation.

Leonardo plans to employ over 200 people at the new site, generating over £185 million in economic benefits to the region over the next ten years. This initiative will enable the recruitment of the best talent from across the North East of the UK and establish closer links with local small and medium-sized companies, many of which are already part of Leonardo's national supply chain.

Known, in particular, for its domestic production of military helicopters and state-of-the-art electronics installed on board Royal Air Force aircraft, Leonardo is one of the largest suppliers to the British Ministry of Defence. The company plays a central role in the Global Combat Air Program (GCAP), the Anglo-Italian-Japanese initiative aimed at producing a new 6th generation air system that will enter service in 2035. In addition, its Cyber ​​Security Division is The UK Government's trusted partner for decades to protect sensitive information.

The new center in Newcastle will be focused on research, development and prototyping of the new generation of Leonardo products in the field of sensors, safety and vertical flight. This will be done by leveraging a data-driven approach to design and manufacturing from June 2022 across all company sites in the UK, leveraging secure public cloud environments to put big data at the fingertips of engineers, with the goal of accelerating product development.

Dominic Johnson, Minister for Investments, said: “The North East has demonstrated once again how inward investment benefits local communities by increasing productivity, driving research and development, creating economic growth and supporting high-end jobs. value in priority sectors such as science and engineering. Leonardo's decision to increase its presence in the UK is another key step to level up the region and the country, further enhancing our ability to attract foreign investors, while strengthening ourselves as an international reference point for scientific research and technological innovation”.

Clive Higgins, President and CEO of Leonardo UK, said: “The UK aerospace and defense industry is an engine of economic growth, prosperity and security, representing world-class technological research and innovation, and providing excellent employment and career opportunities. to young people entering the world of work. Leonardo already employs 8.000 people in the UK and the new center in Newcastle will allow us to expand further, leveraging the science and engineering expertise of the North East region to develop next generation digital technologies. With an established track record of providing quality jobs across the country, Leonardo will generate a wealth of opportunities for young people with its new site in Newcastle. Well-paid, skilled high-tech jobs that will help resolve regional inequalities, ensuring a prosperous future for the whole of the UK."

Jennifer Hartley, Director of Invest Newcastle, part of the Newcastle Gateshead Initiative, commented: “This major investment from Leonardo is giving a major boost to the city's burgeoning aerospace and defense sector, and will bring millions of pounds to the local economy. These resources are an important testament to the strength of our ecosystem, the strength of research and the ability to attract and retain the best talent. Between the 200 jobs created by Leonardo and the commissioning of the Defense, Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) in Newcastle Helix, we now have a Defense Pole of national importance which will generate further investment, innovation and jobs of quality at all levels for the residents of our region. In the coming months we intend to continue working with Leonardo to maximize the impact of this investment on local communities".

Cllr Alex Hay, Member of Newcastle City Council's Resilient City Executive, said: “I am very pleased that Leonardo UK is settling in Newcastle creating 200 jobs. It is a highly regarded flagship company that will add luster to the city's growing reputation for its Defense industries. These jobs will not only provide excellent opportunities for a wide range of employees, from apprentices to technical and scientific staff, but will also boost the North East's economy, with £185m of economic benefits expected in the next decade. We want to create a city in which everyone has a chance of success, improvement and access to quality work and training. The company has recognized the strengths of Newcastle Helix as a state-of-the-art research and development center and will find a highly skilled and capable workforce to help it thrive in the defense sector."

Leonardo UK operates according to the "Custom Working" business model. This means that teams organize their own ways of working with a high degree of autonomy and, in many cases, this also affects the workplace. Therefore, not all North-East employees will always work at the site. There are, however, benefits to creating complementary research centres, and Leonardo's new site will benefit from its location alongside Newcastle University, the UK National Innovation Center for Data (NIC-D) and Defense Science and Technology Laboratories ( DSTL) Defense Artificial Intelligence Center – Experimentation (DAIC-X). The center is therefore in the ideal place to address and develop digital and IT technologies essential to realizing the vision envisioned by the Ministry of Defence. This is an example of the multi-domain integration approach, which aims to ensure that all the individual defense sectors cooperate with each other in a synergistic way.

At the same time Leonardo continues to increase early career opportunities across its UK sites, largely due to the company's central position in the GCAP programme. Leonardo will hire another 2023 apprentices, interns and graduates in 300, bringing the total number of young people enrolled in early career programs to 900. The opening of the Newcastle center follows the publication, in 2022, of a report by the "Purpose Coalition", a group aimed at improving social mobility in Great Britain. The study shows that Leonardo shares the coalition's priority goals, one of which is to create 'good job opportunities for over-2030s'. The report also highlights the commitment to inclusion and diversity and the ongoing transformation into a sustainable business, with Leonardo UK committed to achieving zero direct and indirect emissions for purchased electricity by XNUMX.

Leonardo: new site for research on advanced military technologies. It will bring over 200 jobs to Newcastle, UK