Electrical Systems Engineer

An electrical systems engineer designs, tests and troubleshoots the electrical and electronic parts of a larger product or installation - things like the wiring, power distribution, control electronics and sensors in a vehicle, aircraft, machine, building or energy asset. The "systems" part means you're usually responsible for how the electrical bits fit together and work with mechanical and software parts, rather than designing a single component in isolation. Typical employers are manufacturers, engineering consultancies, defence and aerospace firms, automotive and rail companies, energy and utility businesses, and building services contractors.

Starting salary: £28k–£36k
Live graduate jobs: 7 open now
Main way in: Graduate schemes at large engineering employers (aerospace…
They usually ask for: A degree in electrical, electronic, or electrical and…

Approximate graduate salary

Typically somewhere around £28,000–£36,000 to start, though this varies widely - large defence, aerospace, energy and automotive graduate schemes and London-based roles tend to sit at the upper end or above, while smaller firms and some regional manufacturers start lower. Pay generally rises noticeably once you move off a graduate scheme and again around chartership.

What you'd actually do

Producing and updating design documentation - circuit schematics, wiring diagrams, cable schedules, load calculations and block diagrams showing how subsystems connect - usually in CAD or specialist electrical design software
Writing or reviewing requirements: turning a customer's or system engineer's statement like 'must operate down to -20C on a 28V supply' into specific electrical parameters a design can be tested against
Sizing and selecting components - cables, circuit breakers, connectors, power supplies, motors, sensors - and justifying the choice against cost, weight, availability and standards
Lab or test-rig work: building up a prototype, taking measurements with oscilloscopes, multimeters and power analysers, running functional tests and writing up the results

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Fault-finding on hardware that doesn't behave as designed, which often means working out whether the problem is electrical, mechanical, software or just a bad connection
Sitting in design reviews and cross-discipline meetings with mechanical engineers, software engineers, manufacturing and suppliers to agree interfaces and resolve clashes
Handling change: responding to a supplier obsoleting a part, a test failure or a late customer requirement, and assessing what else in the system that affects

How graduates get in

Graduate schemes at large engineering employers (aerospace, defence, automotive, rail, energy, consultancies) - the most common route, usually opening in autumn for the following September, often with rotations across design, test and manufacturing
Direct entry into a junior or graduate-titled engineering post at a small or mid-sized firm - very common in electrical engineering and often faster to real design responsibility, but with less formal training structure
A degree apprenticeship or sponsored degree where you are already employed and study alongside - you convert straight into an engineering role at the end; increasingly common in defence and utilities
A placement year or summer internship that converts into a graduate offer - this is a strong route and many employers prioritise former placement students

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Conversion from a related discipline: mechatronics, aerospace, physics, general engineering or even physics-heavy maths graduates do move in, usually where the employer runs its own training; a pure non-STEM conversion is unusual for this role
A master's (MSc or integrated MEng) in power systems, control, embedded systems or electrical engineering - helpful for specialist areas like high-voltage power systems, less necessary for general design work

What employers ask for

A degree in electrical, electronic, or electrical and electronic engineering is the standard ask. Mechatronics, aerospace, general engineering, control systems and sometimes physics are commonly accepted. The subject genuinely matters here - unlike many graduate jobs, employers expect you to already know circuit theory, power and electronics
Most larger employers ask for a 2:1; some accept a 2:2 with relevant experience, and smaller firms often care more about what you built or tested than your classification
An accredited degree (accredited by the IET or another professional institution) matters if you want to work towards chartered engineer status later - an MEng usually covers the academic requirement for CEng, a BEng typically needs further learning
Practical evidence that you have actually handled hardware: final-year project, Formula Student, robotics society, placement, repair work, hobby electronics. Employers are wary of graduates who have only ever simulated circuits

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Security clearance eligibility for defence, nuclear and some aerospace work, which generally requires a period of UK residency - check this before applying as it can rule roles in or out
Some employers ask for familiarity with specific standards or tools (IEC/BS 7671 wiring regulations in building services, ISO 26262 in automotive, DO-160/DO-254 in aerospace), but these are usually taught on the job rather than expected on entry

Skills that matter

Circuit and power fundamentals you can apply without looking them up

You need to estimate voltage drop, current ratings, power dissipation and thermal limits quickly in meetings and reviews, not just derive them in an exam.

Systematic fault diagnosis

A large share of the job is working out why real hardware behaves differently from the design, and guessing randomly wastes expensive rig time.

Reading and writing technical documentation precisely

Requirements, test specifications and interface documents are contractual in many sectors - an ambiguous sentence can cost a redesign months later.

Comfort with electrical CAD and schematic capture tools, plus simulation (SPICE, MATLAB/Simulink)

Designs are delivered as drawings and models, and you will spend a lot of time in these tools from your first weeks.

Enough coding and data handling to be useful

Test data analysis, scripting rig control and reading embedded C to understand what the software expects from your hardware all come up regularly.

Working across disciplines without ego

Most electrical problems get solved jointly with mechanical, software and manufacturing engineers, and the system-level view only works if you understand their constraints too.

Safety and standards awareness

Electrical work is heavily regulated and a design that is elegant but non-compliant is simply not a design.

Putting these on a CV? We counted which skills 12,914 live graduate adverts ask for, and what to do with the answer — part of our application advice.

Where it leads

Graduate or junior engineer (roughly the first one to three years): working under supervision, doing defined design, test and documentation tasks, usually on a training scheme or formal development plan.
Engineer: owning a subsystem or a workstream, signing off your own designs within limits, supervising testing and mentoring newer graduates. Timing varies a lot - small firms can push you here quickly, large ones work to set grade structures.
Chartered Engineer (CEng) or Incorporated Engineer (IEng) through the IET or a similar institution. This is a professional registration based on a portfolio of work and an interview, not an exam, and is usually realistic a few years after graduating. Some employers run accredited schemes that structure the evidence for you; it is expected in consultancy and infrastructure, more optional in some product companies.
A fork in the road: senior/principal engineer and technical specialist (deep expertise in power electronics, EMC, high voltage, safety-critical systems) on one side; engineering manager, project manager or systems lead on the other. Both are respected and pay similarly at the senior end in most sectors.
Later options include chief engineer or technical authority roles, independent consultancy, moving into requirements/systems engineering across whole products, or moving sideways into technical sales, bids and client-facing work.

What people get wrong

“You'll be designing clever circuits from scratch most of the time.”

A lot of the job is integration, documentation, component selection and test - proving that an assembly of mostly off-the-shelf parts meets requirements. Genuinely novel circuit design is a specialist niche within electrical engineering, not the norm.

“It's an office job in front of CAD software.”

The balance varies hugely by employer, but most roles involve real time in labs, test houses, factories or on site, sometimes with site visits, shutdown work or travel. Some building-services and utilities roles are substantially site-based.

“'Systems engineer' means IT or computer systems.”

In engineering, 'systems' means the whole integrated product and how its parts interface. The title is unrelated to IT systems administration, though confusingly the same phrase is used for that in the tech sector.

“Chartership is a formality you get automatically with time served.”

It requires you to build and present evidence of your own technical judgement, responsibility and decision-making. Graduates who only ever execute tasks handed to them can find themselves years in with a thin portfolio.

“Once you've graduated, the learning is mostly done.”

Sector-specific standards, safety cases and processes are a large part of competence and are learned on the job - moving from, say, automotive to rail means absorbing a substantially different regulatory world.

Where this varies

The title covers very different jobs depending on sector. In aerospace and defence the emphasis is on requirements, safety-critical design, airworthiness evidence and heavy documentation, with long programme timescales and security clearance. In automotive it is fast-paced, cost-driven and increasingly focused on high-voltage electric vehicle systems, batteries and vehicle networks. In building services and infrastructure consultancy the work is power distribution, lighting, earthing and compliance with wiring regulations, with regular site visits and client contact. In energy and utilities it leans towards high-voltage power systems, substations, protection and grid connection. Company size matters as much as sector: in a small firm you may own a whole product's electrical design within a year or two, while in a large organisation you might work on one subsystem of one aircraft for several years with far more structured training and clearer progression. Geographically, electrical engineering work is well spread across the UK - aerospace and defence clusters in the South West, South East and North West, automotive in the Midlands, energy across Scotland and the North East - so it is not a London-centric career.

See all 7 live Electrical Systems Engineer jobsFrom employers' own careers sites, updated daily Tailor your CV for this roleFree with an account, 3 a month

General guidance about the role across the UK market, not about any specific employer. Entry routes and requirements vary — always check the individual job advert.