Job Title: Operation Support Engineer
Location: Plymouth, Devon
Compensation: £32,500 - £40,700 Depending on Experience + Benefits
Role Type: Full time / Permanent
Role ID: SF75083
Help Keep the Royal Navy Mission-Ready. Build a Career Supporting the Maintenance and Refit of World-Class Warships.
At Babcock we’re working to create a safe and secure world, together, and if you join us, you can play your part as a Operation Support Engineer at our Plymouth, Devon site.
The role
As an Operation Support Engineer, you’ll have a role that’s out of the ordinary. you'll play a vital role in supporting the safe and efficient maintenance, repair and refit of Royal Navy warships. Working at the heart of our Warship Support business, you'll help coordinate critical engineering and operational activities that directly contribute to national defence and security.
This is an exciting opportunity for someone who enjoys variety, problem-solving and working in a fast-paced operational environment. You'll collaborate with engineers, subcontractors and project teams to ensure work is planned, documented and delivered safely and effectively. In return, you'll gain valuable experience within a complex marine engineering environment while developing your career with one of the UK's leading defence organisations.
Day-to-day, you’ll be required to
- Create management tasks, work packages and control documentation to support maintenance activities.
- Write risk assessments, method statements and other safety-related documentation.
- Liaise with contractors, customers and stakeholders to coordinate project activities.
- Support the oversight and coordination of specialist subcontractors working on-site.
- Manage scaffold requests and ensuring work requirements are processed efficiently and within project timescales
This role is full-time, 35 hours per week and is based on-site at Devonport Dockyard. Set working times are 07:30 to 15:00, with overtime opportunities available
Essential experience of the Operation Support Engineer
- Experience using Microsoft Office applications, particularly for documentation and coordination activities.
- Knowledge of health and safety principles within an operational or engineering environment.
- Ability to work effectively with multiple stakeholders and contractors.
- Previous experience within a marine, shipbuilding, ship repair or defence environment would be advantageous.
- Experience gained within scaffolding, painting, slinging or other itinerant trades would be beneficial
- Candidates must be capable of carrying out the physical requirements of the role. Regular duties will be performed onboard ships and include maintenance and upkeep activities, some of which may involve working in confined spaces and physically demanding environments.
Qualifications for the Operation Support Engineer
We value difference and don’t have a fixed idea when it comes to background or education, provided you can show the required level of experience and/or willingness to learn then we would like to hear from you.
Security Clearance
The successful candidate must be able to achieve and maintain Standard (BPSS) / Security Check (SC) security clearance for this role.
Many of the positions within our company are subject to national security clearance and Trade Control restrictions. This means that your eligibility for certain roles may be affected by your place of birth, nationality, current or former citizenship, and any residency you hold or have held. Further details are available at United Kingdom Security Vetting: clearance levels - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
What we offer
- Generous holiday allowance
- Matched contribution pension scheme, with life assurance
- Access to a Digital GP, annual health check, and nutritional consultations through Aviva DigiCare+
- Employee shopping savings portal
- Payment of Professional Fees
- Reservists in the armed forces receive 10-days special paid leave
- Holiday Trading is a benefit that allows UK Babcock employees to buy additional leave or to sell up to one working week of annual leave from their annual entitlement. This Window opens February through to March annually.
- ‘Be Kind Day’ enables employees to take one working day's paid leave a year (or equivalent hours) to undertake volunteering work with their chosen organisation or registered charity
Babcock
We’re Babcock — a global FTSE 100 organisation with over 29,000 people working together to make a difference.
Here, you’ll be part of something bigger. From initial design to final decommissioning, your work will contribute to products and services that are essential to national security and public infrastructure. Together, we’re building a future that lasts — not just through the impact we make, but through meaningful careers that respect your work-life balance.
We call that lifetime engineering.
Join us and see how far we can go, together.
We are a disability confident committed employer. If you have a disability or need any reasonable adjustments during the application and selection stages, please email careers@babcockinternational.com with the subject header ‘Reasonable adjustments requirement’. We’re committed to building an inclusive culture where everyone’s free to thrive. We are happy to talk about flexible working – please ask about alternative patterns of work at interview.
Closing date: 16/09/2026
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