Engineering the Future: SLPE Graduates Reflect on Their First Six Months

Over his first six months at SLPE, Luca has contributed to a wide range of offshore wind projects, gaining exposure across the full height of offshore structures, from seabed to topside.

His work has included foundation-level design tasks focusing on jacket structures and their interaction with the seabed, carrying out structural design calculations rooted in core engineering principles, and contributing to the design of lifting equipment capable of safely handling loads exceeding 6,000,000 kg.

This breadth of experience has allowed Luca to significantly develop his technical capabilities across multiple CAD packages while strengthening his understanding of structural design fundamentals.

A key area of growth has been problem-solving. Breaking down complex engineering challenges into manageable components has enabled him to deliver practical, buildable design solutions, a skill that sits at the heart of good engineering.

Beyond technical development, Luca has valued the collaborative environment at SLPE. Working across teams has brought varied perspectives to each project, making the work consistently engaging and rewarding. His contributions have been recognised through a staff shout-out award, and he has also taken the initiative by developing automated engineering scripts to improve team efficiency.

Looking ahead, Luca is excited to continue designing structures that support the global transition to cleaner energy while continuing to grow alongside the people who make SLPE a welcoming and inspiring place to work.

Reflecting on his experience so far, Luca said: “Seeing and being part of projects that progress from the drawing board to the real world and have a meaningful impact has always been a dream of mine. It feels good to finally be making this difference.” Luca Realmuto, Graduate Engineer

Tim’s first six months have focused on offshore jacket design, particularly supporting A05 OSS jacket pre-service analyses, including loadout and transport assessments.

Through this work, he has developed a deeper understanding of how offshore jackets are designed, optimised, manufactured and installed.

Tim has embraced the opportunity to learn new software tools, including producing a detailed barge model in Sesam GeniE using the experience he has gained over recent months.

A major achievement during this period was successfully delivering four design reports simultaneously, on time and within budget. This demonstrated both strong technical capability and project management skills.

He has particularly appreciated the friendly and supportive working environment at SLPE, which has made stepping into complex offshore projects both accessible and rewarding.

Looking ahead to the next stage of his development at SLPE, Tim said: “I look forward to experiencing other areas of work, such as FEA or the WTG team, to round out my technical abilities and gain further insights into the design process of offshore structures.” Tim Zhu, Graduate Engineer.

For Louis, the past six months have centred on monopile temporary stability, a critical aspect of offshore wind installation.

His work has involved scripting and running analyses to test Fatigue Limit State (FLS) and Ultimate Limit State (ULS) at several PPDs, helping determine the shortest acceptable installation depth at which operations can safely pause in the event of severe weather. This work directly supports safe and efficient offshore installation planning.

Through applying extreme wind and sea states to monopile designs, Louis has developed a strong understanding of the load cases required in offshore structural design. Visualising how monopiles respond in harsh offshore conditions has helped bring the theory from university into real-world context.

One particularly proud moment was seeing the installed monopiles on the Inchcape Offshore Wind Farm project. Although he joined the project later in its lifecycle, he recognises the scale of the achievement and is proud to have contributed.

Looking ahead, Louis is excited to work on an artificial bird nesting structure, a smaller-scale offshore design project that will allow him to further develop his engineering skills while contributing to innovative environmental solutions.

Reflecting on his experience working on offshore wind projects so far, Louis said: “I’ve enjoyed being able to immediately work on large offshore wind farm projects with my team, a sector I have a lot of interest in and researched during university.” Louis McLeod, Graduate Engineer

Reflecting on the graduates’ progress so far, Ashleen Ward, People Practice Manager, said:

“Our graduates have done a fantastic job in the engineering functions they have been placed in within their first six months of employment. With the support and training our managers have provided, they have delivered quality work on projects and quickly become valuable members of the team.

As an organisation, we are comited to supporting graduates’ learning and development by helping them gain knowledge and experience across multiple areas of SLPE. We want to deliver the best graduate experience in the sector.”

As the graduates move into the next phase of their development, SLPE will continue supporting them by giving them exposure to multiple technical disciplines across the business.

With the success of the programme so far, SLPE is already planning ahead, with new graduate positions expected to open in 2027.

Across foundations, jackets, monopiles, transport analyses, scripting, and software development, SLPE’s Graduate Engineers have made meaningful contributions in just six months.

Their experiences highlight what makes SLPE special:

• Early responsibility on real-world, high-impact projects
• Strong technical mentorship and collaboration
• Opportunities to innovate and improve engineering processes
• A supportive and encouraging team culture

We are incredibly proud of what Luca, Tim, and Louis have achieved so far. We are even more excited to see where their careers at SLPE will take them next.