2026 Business Growth Graduate
1 day ago
Crawley
Location: Crawley, United Kingdom In fast changing markets, customers worldwide rely on Thales. Thales is a business where brilliant people from all over the world come together to share ideas and inspire each other. In aerospace, transportation, defence, security and space, our architects design innovative solutions that make our tomorrow's possible. Together we offer fantastic opportunities for committed employees to learn and develop their career with us. At Thales UK, we research, develop, and supply technology and services that impact the lives of millions of people each day to make life better, and keep us safer. We innovate across the major industries of Aerospace, Defence, Security and Space. Your health and well-being matters to us and that’s why we offer you the flexibility to do what’s important to you; whether that’s part time hours, job sharing, home working, or the ability to flex your start and finish times. Where possible, we support a working pattern that suits your lifestyle and helps you reach your ambitions. 2026 Business Growth Graduate Start Date: 07 September 2026 Salary: £32,000 per annum Employee type: Permanent Locations: Rotational programme across our key sites (Belfast, Crawley, Cheadle, Glasgow, London, Reading and Templecombe) Working Schedule: 37 hours per week (8 hours Monday - Thursday, 5 hours on a Friday) Are you passionate about business? Do you have an inquisitive mind? Do you have the drive and determination to succeed? Do you want to be part of a Graduate Programme that will develop, challenge and grow you? If so, then look no further… What the role has to offer: • Working with the Business Growth Function leaders, developing and supporting the growth of new business to generate potential sales with our customers in both domestic and export markets. This will include working on and supporting competitive bids and developing skills in how to determine the value for the customer in the Thales offer, • Analysing and understanding Thales’ strengths and weaknesses against the competition in any of our markets, • Innovating and generating new ideas to address our customer/stakeholder/employee needs, • Developing high quality bid packs to achieve negotiating mandates from Thales senior management, • Producing high quality customer proposals, • Co-ordinating, analysing, forecasting and reporting information to support a number of activities including bid and peer reviews for both domestic and export opportunities, • Supporting the CEO and senior management teams with strategic political advice, • Working with the editorial team to develop and distribute content through a variety of on and off line channels, • Developing strategies to engage, involve and motivate employees to give their best, • Participating and contributing in major customer events and shows such as Paris Air Show and Defence & Security Exhibition International. This could be in a variety of ways, from meeting and greeting UK and International delegations of customers, briefing the media, creating content, managing our profile across social media before, during and after the event, or helping to host senior political figures. Strategy and Marketing The Strategy and Marketing function delivers strategic direction to Thales UK’s pursuit for growth. As a team we are the intelligence centre for the “Go to Market” organisation, operating across all Thales UK markets. The Strategy and Marketing team offers a great variety of work and projects across all businesses with senior exposure. You’ll be creating and delivering analysis that has a real impact within the business through the management and delivery of long term projects and assignments. You’ll also have the opportunity, and early responsibility, to deliver work to senior stakeholders within the business. Sales, Customer Account Management & Capture The Sales Function is responsible for winning new business across all Thales UK markets and across the entire breadth of Thales portfolio - in the past 3 years the team has won over £3.5billion of new business. The Sales, Customer Account Management & Capture teams offer exciting, challenging and high profile roles that include a mix of customer facing sales and business development activity for both domestic and export sales as well as some back office sales support activity. The role will potentially involve both UK & overseas trips, so an appetite for travel is desirable. Communications The Communications function creatively engages and influences customers, stakeholders, communities, markets and employees, enabling the business to achieve its strategic objectives and business priorities. Within our team, you will have the opportunity to get involved with a variety of internal and external projects and campaigns. You could be working closely with our communications partners supporting delivery of impactful communications using a wide range of tactics, or working collaboratively with our business stakeholders to co-develop and co-deliver communication & engagement activities that influence employee behaviours and create great employee experiences. Public Affairs The public affairs team is responsible for managing and shaping our interactions with the government, government agencies, public and other external stakeholders, with the primary goal of creating a positive reputation for the organisation, and ensure it aligns with and complies with relevant policies, regulations and societal expectations. You’ll have the opportunity to learn how Thales maintains its relationships with politicians and officials, delivering high profile visits and events to support business aims. Business Growth Operations The Business Growth Operations team is the driving force behind Thales’ growth in the UK. We mobilise our go-to-market teams, and drive the efficiency, effectiveness and efficacy in all that we do, to enable the highest standards of performance across our functions and achieve the most successful outcomes for our customers. Our roles offer opportunities to grow skills and knowledge across a broad range of activities from providing data analysis and insights on sales performance data, driving adoption of new tools and processes, to supporting annual strategic planning, managing functional budgets and enabling decision-making on critical opportunities through the provision of data-driven insight. Graduate Programme The Thales UK Business Growth graduate development programme offers an excellent opportunity for you to explore and experience the diverse areas of our community, responsible for growing the UK business across the whole portfolio of Thales, serving both defence and civil markets, in the UK and overseas. Whether you are allocated to Strategy & Marketing, Sales, Customer Account Management & Capture, Communications, Public affairs or business Growth Operations for your first placement in our 2 year rotational programme, you will grow your skills, experience and competencies across a diverse range of markets and sites, not to mention a broad spectrum of business challenges. You’ll have the opportunity to work alongside senior stakeholders, key customers and a range of suppliers, and you’ll join a community that has a big ambition to grow…. for that, we need the best talent in the market. Interested? Requirements: You will have gained or be on track to achieve a bachelor’s degree in any subject. You will enjoy interacting with people, fostering valuable relationships and developing networks in a high energy environment. You have the drive and motivation to push yourself and your peers to generate and support new business ideas and solutions and see these through to completion. You will be comfortable in making decisions, taking informed risks and have the ability to think of innovative ways to do things differently. You will be very customer-focused, ensuring accuracy and high quality in all that you do. You will also enjoy travelling, potentially both in the UK and internationally. Our Business Growth community operates from a number of sites around the UK including Belfast, Crawley, Cheadle, Glasgow, London, Reading and Templecombe, and your rotations and role could take you to any of these, so flexibility is a must. Please note that Graduate Development Programme (GDP) activities take place during the working week but may require the investment of some personal time for travel and follow-up activities. You may have the opportunity to travel to Thales and non-Thales sites throughout the UK when participating in GDP activities. Benefits • 201 hours annual leave (plus a company day and bank holidays), • Company Pension, • Health Care Cash Plan, • Life Insurance, • Discount Portal, • Performance-related pay uplifts Closing date: Our applications will close at 11.59pm on Monday 5 January 2026, this is the only time we will be accepting applications this year. Please note, we will be in contact by the end of February 2026 with details of next steps. PLEASE NOTE THAT ROLES MAY CLOSE EARLIER THAN THE ADVERTISED DEADLINE IF WE RECEIVE A HIGH NUMER OF APPLICATIONS. WE ENCOURAGE YOU TO APPLY AS SOON AS POSSIBLE TO AVOID MISSING OUT ON THIS OPPORTUNITY. Recruitment Process: For further information about our Future Talent recruitment process, including hints and tips, or to connect with a member of the Future Talent Team, a Graduate, or an Apprentice, please visit ___. Due to the work that we do at Thales, all of our roles are subject to security restrictions. All successful candidates must possess the permanent right to work in the UK and will be required to go through Government security clearance at BPSS Level and to obtain full Security Clearance (SC) in line with the United Kingdom Security Vetting (UKSV) requirements below, prior to starting with us. This role requires Security Clearance (SC). It would be advantageous if currently held, however, if not currently held, it is a requirement that the successful applicant undergo, achieve, and maintain SC Clearance prior to commencing employment. Please visit the UKSV website for further guidance. To be eligible for full SC, you generally need to have resided in the UK for the last 5 years. As part of the vetting process you will be asked to provide evidence of your identity, eligibility to work in the UK, time spent abroad over the last 5 years, as well as employment and / or educational history. For further details of the evidence required to apply for security clearance please follow this link - ___. Thales is an equal opportunities employer and diversity and inclusion are integral to the success of Thales. In line with Thales' Baseline Security requirements, candidates will be asked to provide evidence of identity, eligibility to work in the UK and employment and/or education history for up to three years. Some vacancies may require full Security Clearance which can require further evidence to be provided. For further details of the evidence required to apply for Baseline and Security Clearance please refer to the Defence Business Services National Security Vetting (DBS NSV) Agency. At Thales we provide CAREERS and not only jobs. With Thales employing 80,000 employees in 68 countries our mobility policy enables thousands of employees each year to develop their careers at home and abroad, in their existing areas of expertise or by branching out into new fields. Together we believe that embracing flexibility is a smarter way of working. Thales UK is committed to providing an inclusive and barrier-free recruitment process. We will provide reasonable adjustments and support to ensure neuro-diverse applicants or those with a disability or long-term condition can be their best during the recruitment process. To request an adjustment, if you need this job advert in an alternative format or if you have any questions about the recruitment process, please contact ___ for mid to senior roles, or the ___ for graduate and apprentice roles. Great journeys start here, apply now!
