Graduate Engineer – Security Research and Testing

Two-year Graduate Security Research and Testing programme at UK Telecoms Lab, investigating vulnerabilities, conducting penetration testing and researching telecoms security to improve the resilience of UK communications infrastructure.

About the Role

Launch your career in Security Research 

Research roles at UKTL utilise our cutting-edge lab environment to test communications systems to their limits in new and novel ways. Are you fascinated by how technology works and how it can be made more secure? Do you enjoy solving complex problems, investigating vulnerabilities, and understanding how systems behave under attack?

The UK Telecoms Lab (UKTL) Graduate Programme offers a unique opportunity to build a career at the forefront of communications security. Working alongside leading researchers and security specialists, you'll help strengthen the equipment used in UK's infrastructure through testing, research and innovation.

UKTL also offers Graduate Engineer roles in IT Platforms & Cyber. Before submitting your application, we encourage you to review both opportunities and choose the one that best aligns with your interests, skills and career aspirations. Please submit one application only.

What you'll be doing

As a graduate in security research and testing, you'll join one of our specialist security research focused teams:

• Penetration and Cyber Security Testing

• Vulnerability Research

• Cyber Security and Privacy Research

You'll work on real-world challenges affecting national communications infrastructure, helping to identify critical security issues, and improve the resilience of communications products. You'll receive structured development, mentoring and technical training throughout the two-year programme, giving you the opportunity to develop specialist expertise in security research and telecoms.

Your work could include

• Security testing of communications technologies

• Discovering and analysing new vulnerabilities

• Developing bespoke research tooling

• Conducting novel telecoms research on niche equipment

• Investigating how communications systems behave under real-world attack scenarios

Hybrid working

Successful applicants will be expected to attend our Birmingham office a minimum of two days per week to facilitate collaboration in our lab. 

About You

Desired degree backgrounds

We welcome applications from any degree background but typically our graduates come from Cyber Security, Computer Science, Software Engineering, Electronic or Electrical Engineering, Mathematics, Physics, and other STEM disciplines.

We'd be especially interested if you have: 

• A deep technical understanding of how a computer works.

• An understanding of computer networks down to the bits and bytes.

• Participated in Cyber Capture the Flag (CTF) competitions.

• Completed cyber security research projects.

• Have discovered vulnerabilities or weaknesses in systems.

• Experience with Linux, scripting or programming.

We don't assess candidates on spelling, grammar, or their ability to write polished responses. Instead, we're interested in your genuine experiences, motivation, and passion for the role. We expect you to be ready to share more about the exciting things you've put in your application.