Industrial Placement - Body Systems

About the Placement

As part of Bentley’s annual Early Careers intake, you’ll join a community of around 93 trainees including Industrial Placements, Graduates, and Apprentices. During your placement, you’ll be based at our Bentley Campus "Dream Factory". Alongside hands-on work experience, you’ll also benefit from:

• CSR and outreach activities
• Opportunities to participate in charity events, community projects, and social committees
• Masterclasses, development workshops, and social events
• Inclusivity networks and peer support groups
• Placements and rotations across different areas of the business that interest you

About the Role

As an Industrial Placement Student at Bentley, you will play a key part in Bentley’s journey to extraordinary vehicles for our customers. Based out of our state-of-the-art headquarters in Crewe, you will:

• Gain invaluable experience in managing high-impact technical projects.
• Develop a deep understanding of automotive materials requirements and the journey from idea to car.
• Have the opportunity to pitch your own ideas and bring them to fruition.
• Get a first-hand view of the roles of various functions interfacing with R&D in a high-end manufacturing environment.
• Work alongside and be mentored by Industry Leading Talent Acquisition professionals as well as other young talents.

Main Responsibilities

• Work proactively and in partnership with the Hiring Manager and Materials Development team to deliver a minimum of 2 new materials feature solutions.
• Work from design briefs to feasible and automotive-ready material applications, project managing at the scale of your pre-development objectives, and planning activities for yourself and other supporting team members.
• Organise the delivery of samples and testing within a challenging time frame.
• Propose and evaluate solutions to technical challenges that meet all technical, compliance, sustainability, commercial, and aesthetic requirements.
• Support other team members by implementing process improvements either using digital tools or procedure optimisation.

About the Department

The Material Development Team develops new, luxury, and sustainable materials for use in Bentley interiors for future programs. You will integrate a team of materials engineers focused on improving, refining, and validating the use of new technologies with other departments such as manufacturing, quality, and design. The team is also instrumental in delivering Bentley's sustainability strategy, and you will be exposed to and tasked with supporting legislation implementation topics, innovations, and performance tracking of product sustainability.

What we are looking for

The successful candidates will be on track to achieve a 2:1 in the following degrees: Materials Engineering, Materials Science, Environmental Sciences. Mechanical, Chemical or Automotive engineering may also be considered.

Skills required for the role:

• Efficient data-finding skills and an eye for finding innovative solutions and out-of-the-box thinking.
• Understanding of Materials selection and experimental set-ups such as design of experiment.
• Failure analysis and problem-solving skills.
• Good communication, both orally and with digital support, is essential, especially to explain complex concepts in a simple manner.
• Hands-on experience with any material activity such as wood working, foam cutting, casting will demonstrate an understanding of some manufacturing techniques.
• Experience in running small group projects is an advantage.

What we offer

As an Industrial Placement you will have access to the following benefits:

• A starting salary of £25,500
• Support from our Early Careers team and 1-2-1 manager mentorship
• 35 days’ holiday inclusive of bank holidays
• 10% pension contribution with life assurance benefits
• Learning and development opportunities

Right to Work

To be eligible for an Early Careers programme you must have a legal right to work in the UK for the duration of the placement or graduate scheme. We welcome students who have Settled Status, a Tier 4 Visa, or a Graduate Visa. We are unable to offer sponsorship for our Early Careers positions.

Application Process

• Submit your application, including your CV and Cover letter.
• Applications will be screened by our HR team and the Hiring Manager.
• Shortlisted candidates will be contacted by our recruitment team and invited to attend an online Assessment between 9th – 27th November.
• Candidates successful at the assessment stage will receive an offer shortly afterwards.
• All applicants will be kept informed throughout the recruitment process.

Closing Date

23rd October 2026