Industrial Placement - R+D - Body & Trim

Salary: £24,327

Duration: 12 month contract                                                                                                  

Start Date: 17th August 2026
Location: Based in Crewe, Cheshire, CW1 3PL.

Working Arrangement: Hybrid Working

Entry Requirements: See ‘What we’re looking for’ section

Our Industrial Placement Programme:

As part of Bentley’s annual Early Careers intake, you’ll join a community of around 250 trainees including Industrial Placements, Graduates, and Apprentices.

During your placement, you’ll be based at our Bentley Campus "Dream Factory". Click here to visit our virtual tour. 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 creating 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,
• 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
• Working alongside and being mentored by Industry Leading Talent Acquisition professionals as well as other young talents.

Your main responsibilities include:

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

About the Department:

Our Material Development Team develops the new, luxury and sustainable materials to be used in the Bentley interior of future programs. You will integrate a team of materials engineers focused on improving, refining and validating the use of new technologies together with other departments such as manufacturing, quality and design.

We are also instrumental in the delivery of our sustainability strategy and you will be exposed and tasked to support on certain legislation implementation topics, innovations and performance tracking of our 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 concept 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 £24,327
• Support from our Early Careers team and 121 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. 

#BelongingAtBentley
Motivated to be the most diverse, inclusive luxury car company, we are committed to fostering an inclusive environment where all individuals are respected, valued, and empowered. 

We firmly believe in equal opportunities for all, helping all colleagues thrive as their authentic selves and reach their highest potential. We believe that everyone, regardless of their background or beliefs, belongs at Bentley. Everyone is entitled to respect and dignity and we positively celebrate the differences between people.

Working at Bentley

To learn more about what life is like working at Bentley, and our assessment process view our Candidate Pack here.

Closing date: 14th November 2025.

We aim to progress to online assessments in December and offer by the end of the month.

Click here to view our FAQs.