Careers at Utterwick Group

Building careers in industrial services since 1993.

Updated April 2026

Why Utterwick

Utterwick Group plc is a mid-market industrial services group with approximately 1,400 employees working across three operating divisions. Our people include environmental scientists, instrumentation engineers, structural steelworkers, data analysts, CNC machinists, remediation specialists and cloud platform developers. The breadth of disciplines under one group is unusual and deliberate.

We are not a startup and not a corporate monolith. We are a Nottingham-based, LSE-listed group where individuals have visible impact on the work they do and the clients they serve. Talent development and professional growth are not slogans here — they are a practical consequence of operating in specialist technical markets where the quality of our people determines the quality of our output.

Founded in 1993 by Derek Pallister and Carolyn Shreve, the Group has always prioritised technical capability over headcount growth. We recruit people who want to do serious work in environments that value engineering rigour, practical problem-solving and professional autonomy.

Life at the Group

Utterwick has a long-tenure workforce. Many employees have been with the Group for ten years or more, and several senior leaders — including Graham Nettleship, Managing Director of Utterwick Engineering Solutions, who has been with the company since 1999 — have built their entire careers within the organisation.

Derek Pallister, who founded the company and served as Chief Executive until his retirement in 2017, set a cultural tone that persists today. His founding ethos was simple: "hire good people, give them proper work, and get out of their way." That principle still shapes how we operate. We trust our engineers, scientists and project managers to exercise professional judgement. We provide the tools, training and support they need, and we hold them accountable for outcomes.

The culture is professional but not corporate. Collaboration across divisions is common — an instrumentation engineer might work alongside an environmental scientist on a groundwater monitoring deployment, or an engineering project manager might coordinate with the data team on a facility upgrade. The Group's structure encourages this cross-divisional working without forcing it.

Career paths by division

Utterwick Data & Instrumentation

The instrumentation division, with approximately 280 employees, is the Group's technology-forward operation. Sophie Callender, Managing Director, joined from Renishaw in 2016 and has been building out the division's research and development capability since her appointment.

Roles span sensor engineering, embedded systems development, data science, cloud platform development and technical sales. The division designs and manufactures the Sondrel wireless sensor platform and the Vantage IQ analytics system, serving water utilities, chemical processing and food manufacturing clients. This is an engineering team that writes software and a software team that understands hardware — a combination that attracts people who want to work across boundaries.

Utterwick Environmental

The environmental division is the largest in the Group, with approximately 470 employees under the leadership of Claire Doveridge, Managing Director, who joined from Arcadis in 2010. The division traces its origins to the founding of the company in 1993 and remains central to the Group's identity.

Career paths include field-based site investigation, contaminated land remediation, remediation project management, regulatory compliance and environmental permitting. In 2021, the division launched a carbon and sustainability advisory service, creating new roles for professionals with expertise in decarbonisation strategy, carbon accounting and net zero transition planning. The environmental division offers careers that combine technical fieldwork with strategic advisory — and a pipeline of projects that stretches years ahead.

Utterwick Engineering Solutions

The engineering division employs approximately 650 people, making it the Group's largest division by headcount. Graham Nettleship, Managing Director, started as a project engineer himself at Hartfield & Sons — the Beeston-based firm acquired by Utterwick in 1996 — and has been with the company since 1999.

Roles are both workshop-based and site-based: CNC machinists, welders, fabricators, project engineers and mechanical and electrical installers. The Beeston facility operates three Mazak CNC machining centres and a Ficep beam drill line. The division holds ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 certification. For those who want a career in traditional engineering with modern equipment and proper training, this is where to start. The engineering division runs a dedicated apprenticeship programme — see below.

Graduate and early careers

Utterwick Group runs an annual graduate programme across all three divisions, typically recruiting eight to twelve graduates each year. The programme is an 18-month structured rotation, giving graduates exposure to different teams, projects and clients within their chosen division.

We support graduates working towards chartered status with the relevant professional institution — the Institution of Civil Engineers, the Institution of Chemical Engineers or the Institution of Engineering and Technology, depending on discipline. Study leave, mentoring and examination fees are provided as standard.

In the engineering division, we operate a dedicated apprenticeship programme in partnership with Nottingham College. Apprentices train alongside experienced machinists, welders and fabricators at the Beeston facility while completing their qualifications. Several of our current supervisors and team leaders came through this route.

What we offer

• Competitive salary — benchmarked annually against our sector and region
• Pension — defined contribution scheme with employer match up to 6%
• Annual leave — 25 days plus bank holidays
• Private medical insurance — available after one year of service
• Life assurance — provided from day one
• Cycle to work scheme
• Professional development budget — for training, conferences and professional memberships