From helping shape entire cities to adapting infrastructure to deal with the climate emergency, a career at Buro Happold presents the chance to make a difference. This exciting opportunity is for a current student to join our Energy team in either our Edinburgh, Leeds, Manchester or London office for an 8-week summer placement.
Join our Energy Consulting team
An exciting opportunity for an enthusiastic current university student to join either our Edinburgh, Manchester, Leeds or London team for an 8-week Summer Placement. This role will see you consulting on energy use in individual buildings through to national level energy strategy.
Our energy consulting work extends from single buildings and campus scale projects through to district, regional and national level assessment. We’re passionate about guiding clients towards low carbon, low-cost solutions that are suited to the challenges we face due to climate change.
The energy consulting team is multi-disciplinary with engineers, analysts, consultants, and geographers working together to develop solutions to problems that need imagination, deep knowledge of existing and new technology, design expertise and computational skillsets.
What sort of projects will I work on?
We are one of the few consultant Energy teams that offer opportunities to work at the full scale of projects both nationally and internationally, our service offerings including:
- Energy planning: helping clients build clear and robust strategic energy plans
- Net zero campuses: helping large organisations on the path to net zero
- Smart energy systems: integrating smart energy solutions
- Utilities strategy & commercialisation: building a robust utilities infrastructure strategy
- Energy system design & delivery: bringing sustainable energy to life
Example UK projects include
Leeds University Net Zero Carbon Pathway
In ascertaining how best to meet the net zero objective, Buro Happold’s energy reduction specialists undertook a technical, commercial and institutional feasibility review of the available pathways. We worked with our client to review existing information and collaborated on the emerging systems and approaches, ultimately creating a tangible implementation plan and set of tools. Selected via analytical rigour by our specialist team, a suitable approach could then be recommended with confidence.
Communiheat
How one rural community’s commitment to transition from oil to low carbon heating is fuelling the UK’s intention to reach net zero by 2050. CommuniHeat seeks to develop a roadmap and ‘write the book’ that will enable rural communities to switch from expensive and carbon intensive fossil fuels to low carbon heating over the next 10 years. With fossil fuel based domestic heating accounting for 18% of the UK’s carbon emissions, this would be a considerable victory in the struggle to save our planet. Our Energy team are working on a range of innovative first of a kind projects which will impact directly on not just the immediate client but also influence policy and thinking throughout the industry.
Olympic Park Energy Centre, London, UK
Legacy venues and infrastructure will deliver a reduction in operational carbon emissions of 50%+ versus a 2006 baseline (original target). Electrical utilities resilience assessments, including peak energy demand modelling for the site, venues and environs, and risk assessment management for all utilities, shaped the System Recovery Plans in case of critical failure. Buro Happold have continued to work on this truly amazing area of London, supporting existing and new development clients on optimized building systems, and with the energy company to further decarbonise and extend the system.
Cornwall Energy Island, UK
Energy is essential to provide our daily needs and power economic activity. However, our current energy systems are primarily fossil fuel based, contributing to more than 50% of global GHG emissions. Many places are reliant on imported energy, leading to a flow of wealth out of the local economy, as well as reduced resilience.
These dynamics are particularly visible in islands, where the technical constraints that islands face are often met with ingenuity and innovation. We wanted to explore how island thinking can promote creativity in a context which is not quite an island - the peninsula of Cornwall.
What will I do?
- Contribute to live projects and have real responsibilities and deadlines; preparing technical content for clients, and collaborating with engineers, architects and stakeholders
- Specific project exposure will include development of energy strategies and design solutions, including; district energy projects and masterplan development, considering aspects such as Energy Centre design, load calculations, low carbon technology sizing and coordination and network design
- Work alongside experienced engineering colleagues and attend client meetings
- Make an impact from the start and manage your workload
- Undertake testing, reporting and presentations to develop design concepts. Think 'outside the box' to demonstrate creativity and diversity when approaching engineering problems to arrive at workable solutions
- Engage in Energy team activities so you feel ownership for its success; being at the centre of our online presence and technical development.
About you
- You should be studying towards an Energy-related engineering degree (e.g. energy, mechanical, chemical, electrical, or civil), or environmental science with spatial analytical skills and energy considerations.
- Passionate about engineering design, sustainability, research and making a meaningful contribution to society
- Proactive in taking initiative
- Thrive in a team environment
- Good written and verbal communication skills
- Highly motivated and committed to professional development.
Application process
The recruitment timeline can vary depending on the role and team you are applying to. Successful applications are progressed to interview stage within 2-3 months from the closing date of the advert. We will endeavour to keep you informed throughout the time that your application is being considered, however, due to the volume of applications received and the size of our team, we are not able to respond to individual requests for status updates.
Please see our Early Careers Candidate Pack for further guidance and information.
This is a paid role for current university students for an 8-week placement taking place during Summer 2025. Exact dates can be flexible depending on candidate and team availability.
The annual salary for this placement will be in-line with the UK Real Living Wage.