Thales Australia supporting the rocket scientists of the future
Thales Australia is committed to growing its workforce within the Guided Weapons and Explosive Ordnance Enterprise, and is reaching out to university students who are interested in pursuing a career in science, technology, engineering and maths. Greg Neal, Program Director Guided Weapons, and Warren Canning, Industrial Advisor, recently visited students at a number of universities to showcase the career opportunities at Thales and discuss the types of skills Thales is looking for to build our guided weapons capability for the future.
The university students displayed how they are learning first-hand how to design and develop components of high-powered rockets as well as manufacturing techniques, project management skills and complex problem solving. Several universities also field teams to compete in the annual Spaceport America Cup, in which over 1,700 students from all across the world gather to collaborate and compete in a design-build-fly style competition.
The visit was in response to requests from the universities for Thales to show the students what a career within engineering can look like and the many roles and specialisations available within Thales. As part of his presentation, Greg gave an overview of Thales, including the many industries and countries where Thales operates; and an explanation of Thales products and services, including high explosives, rockets, powders and ammunition. Greg emphasised Thales’s current and future contributions to accelerate sovereign industrial capability in the areas of guided weapons, high speed weapons and space, as well as our local research and development activities around booster motors, including those intended for space launch.
“Along with our existing expertise, we are looking to bring in the next generation of scientists and engineers to support growth in our sovereign guided weapons capability over the next few years. We aim to hire smart, passionate people to train and mentor whilst we work with the education ecosystem to co-develop related engineering courses” Greg Neal, Program Director, Guided Weapons, Thales Australia. In addition to these roadshows, Thales is also working on a number of projects with universities Australia wide, including; University of Sydney, University of NSW, University of Southern Queensland, University of NSW Canberra (ADFA) and the University of Adelaide.
The visits were well received by the students, who were impressed with the broad range of Thales’s products and services, and keenly participated in the question and answer session to learn more about graduate programs and internships, as well as engineering roles becoming available in 2023 and beyond. Warren was able to provide an overview of hypersonic technologies from his extensive involvement in Defence Science and Technology Group's hypersonic research programs, which led to many interesting discussions around hypersonic weapons and solid rocket propellant manufacturing.
Thales’s involvement in aero activities such as surveillance and air defence was inspiring due to important contributions to protection at the national level. It was exciting to hear of the area for growth in Australia’s space sector, which will create many homegrown opportunities in the near future."
Margarita, University of New South Wales student
As someone with a particular interest in propulsions technologies, it was especially valuable for me to understand what manufacturing capabilities Thales Group offers locally and the types of research opportunities that are available."
Erik, University of New South Wales student
Thales will continue to participate in events such as these to inspire the next generation workforce, who will deliver complex sovereign capabilities and shape the Australian Guided Weapons and Explosive Ordnance Enterprise through rocket propulsion, aero systems and related engineering streams.
Learn more about Thales Australia’s Sovereign Guided Weapons and Explosive Ordnance Enterprise.
Learn more about Culture and Careers at Thales.